Unit 33

Rhys Stafford
Persistence of Vision

Persistence of vision is the optical illusion when a strip of slightly different

still images in any order are given the effect of animation when they are
viewed at a certain rate. This gives the illusion that the image is still there a
split second after it is gone, making it look like it is moving, which is where
the effect of animation comes from. This principle applies to all animated
moving images, whether it is from a simple device or a full animated film.
Quite like any other illusions of visual perception, they are produced by
characteristics of the visual system.
Stop Motion

Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physical object

appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small movements
between individual frames. This creates the illusion of movement
when the frames are played on a sequence. Dolls with movable joints
or clay figures are usually used in stop motion because they are easy
to reposition. Stop motion animation using Plasticine is called clay
animation or Claymation. Not all stop motion uses figures or models.
Many stop motion films can involve people, household items and
other things for comedic effect. Stop motion using objects is
sometimes known as object animation. Adobe Flash is the most
common piece of software that is used to create stop motion films.
Frame Rates

Frame rate is the term used to describe how many frames there are per
second. The frame rate of something is usually measured and it is commonly
known as FPS.
In a Flash animation, the frame rate is mainly about 12 FPS. This is so that
the file size of a project that has been made is small, but the animation also
plays smoothly.
British Cinema uses NTSC. This is a frame rate of 24 FPS.
However, American Cinema uses a frame rate of 25 FPS, which can also be
known as PAL.
Joseph Plateau

Joseph Plateau was born in 1801 in Brussels and then died in 1883. In his life,
he studied at Ghent University.
Joseph Plateau was a Belgian physicist and he was one of the first people to
show the illusion of a moving image. He used counter rotating discs that had
repeating images drawn in small movements to create this illusion. He then
named this device the phenakistoscope. This was the first animation device
that showed a fluent illusion of motion. This can be compared to the GIF that
is used today on any forms of technology devices with screens. It can be
compared to this as they both have a short length of animation and
continuously play until the viewer stops it.
William Horner

William Horner was a British mathematician and was born in 1786, then later
died in 1837. Horner was also a schoolmaster, headmaster, school keeper and
proficient in classics along with mathematics.
He invented the zoetrope, which produces the illusion of motion by showing a
sequence of images or drawings that show a progression of motion. However,
the original name of this invention was the Daedaleum.
The zoetrope is a cylinder with vertical slits cut in it around the edge. On the
inside of it contains the images around the cylinder in a sequence. The
cylinder is then spun to see the illusion, and the faster that it is spun, the
more smooth the illusion is.
Emile Reynaud

Emile Reynaud was a French inventor who was born in 1844 and then later
died in 1918. He was responsible for the first ever projected animated
cartoons. In 1877, he created the Praxinoscope and the Theatre Optique, then
he projected the first animated cartoon, Pauvre Pierrot, in 1892 in public at
the Musee Grevin in Paris. This is also the first instance of film perforations
being used.
The Praxinoscope was exactly like the zoetrope, except it was created to be
more successful in how it was used. It was the same as it, but it used mirrors
in it. This is so that the illusions was shown stationary in the same place, as
the viewer would look into the mirror and see it rather than look into the
wheel.
Edward Muybridge

Edward Muyrbridge, born 1830 and then died in 1904, was an English
photographer. He was important and known for his work in photographic
studies of motion and in motion picture projection.
He is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion that he did in 1877.
This used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop motion photographs. His
zooproxiscope that he invented was a device for projecting motion pictures,
which predated the perforated film strip that is used in cinematography.
Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, born in 1847 and then died in 1931, invented the kinetiscope
which was an early motion picture device. He was an American inventor and
business man. He invented and developed a lot of devices that influenced life
around the world. These included things like the phonograph, motion picture
camera and the light bulb.
Edison was one of the first inventors to put the principles of mass production
to the process of invention.
The kinetiscope was designed for people to view films one person at a time
through a peephole window at the top of it. It wasnt a movie projector, but
it introduced the approach that would be the standard for all cinematic
projection.
Lumiere brothers

August Lumiere, born 1862 and died 1954, and Louis Jean, born 1864 and died
1948, were the first filmmakers in history. They created the cinematograph,
which contrasted to the kinetiscope and allowed simultaneous viewing by
multiple parties. The cinematograph is a motion picture film camera which is
also a film projector and a printer. The brothers invented this in the 1890s.
This device was first thought of by Leon Bouly, however he didnt have
enough money to finish creating it. He sold the rights for the invention and
the name of it to the Lumiere brothers, who then finished creating the
invention and released their first film in that same year. The projected the
film at LEden, which is the first and oldest cinema in the world.
George Pal

George Pal, born 1908 and died 1980, was a Hungarian animator and film
producer associated with science-fiction. He later became an American
citizen after emigrating from Europe. He was nominated for Academy Awards
for 7 years and got an honorary award in 1944. When he moved to Berlin, he
founded Trickfilm-Studio Gmbh Pal und Wittke. When he was working in
Prague, he created an advert in his hotel room and got invited by Philips to
create two more short adverts for them. It was in 1939 that he emigrated to
America and worked for Paramount Pictures.
Willis OBrien

Willis was an American motion picture special effects and stop motion
pioneer, who was born in 1886 and then died in 1962. He is best remembered
for his work on films such as King Kong and The Lost World.
In OBriens life, he got recognised by Edison, who then hired him to work for
the Edison Company, to animate short films with a prehistoric theme to them.
During this time, he worked on other Edison Company productions, including
things like Sam Loyds The Puzzling Billboard, which was one of the first stop
motion films to have real life actors and stop motion together.
Ray Harryhausen

Ray, born 1920 and died 2013, was an American visual effects creator, writer
and producer. He was known for creating a form of stop motion animation
known as Dynamation. His most memorable piece of work that he created
was his animation on Mighty Joe Young, which was created with his mentor
OBrien. The final film that he created before he retired was Clash of the
Titans, in 1981.
In 1960, Ray moved to the UK and lived in London until he died, making him a
dual US-UK citizen. His style of effects that he used in films had inspired
different filmmakers, including George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Jan Svankmajer

Jan, born 1934, is a Czech filmmaker and artist with work that spans across
several media. He is known for his animations and features, which influenced
other artists such as Terry Gilliam and the Brothers Quay. He studied at the
college of applied arts in Prague and then later in the Department of
Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. In 1958 he began working
for Pragues Semafor Theatre, which is where he founded the Theatre of
Masks.
Today, Jan is one of the most celebrated animators in the world, for some of
his best known works, including Alice, Faust and Little Otik.
The Brothers Quay

Stephen and Timothy Quay are known as the Brothers Quay. They are stop
motion animators. They were also recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Set Design on their piece of work The Chairs.
The brothers moved to England in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art in
London. They have lived there since then and they work there. They created
their first short films in England, which no longer exist because the only copy
of it was damaged. In 1970, the teamed up with another Royal College
student, Keith Griffiths, who became their producer for all of their work that
they created. They formed Koninck Studios in Southwark in 1980.
Tim Burton

Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator.
He is most well known for his dark fantasy films, such as Beetlejuice, Edward
Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is also well known for
other films, such as the superhero films and its sequel, Batman and Batman
Returns, and the sci-fi film, Planet of the Apes. Burton has worked with
Johnny Depp repeatedly as they have become close friends since the first film
that they did together. He has also worked with the musician Danny Elfman,
who has composed scores for every film apart from 3 that Burton has
directed.
Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations was created in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton.
They were only at school when they formed their partnership. They moved to
Bristol in 1976 after they graduated, which is where they created their first
animation. This first product was Morph, which was made for the childrens
programme Take Hart. Aardman was asked to collaborate with, the director,
Stephen Johnson by Peter Gabriel to create a video for the song
Sledgehammer. This music video then went on to win nearly every award
possible that year. In 1993, Aardman produced Nick Parks The Wrong
Trousers, which was Aardmans first 30-minute film. The Wrong Trousers
also won an Oscar and over 30 different awards worldwide.
TV Animations

Animation on television is used for multiple different things. Most of the time
it is used in TV programs when they are animated programs. They are also
used for adverts though. Companies may create animated adverts for a
product or program and it will be used on TV. Animated TV programmes are
the most common form of animation on TV as they are shown all the time
throughout the day. An example of this happening is on childrens TV
channels, most of the programmes are animated in different ways. Adverts
tend to be real life, only a few adverts are animated. Another main thing that
is animated on TV channels is the idents that they have. This is because there
isnt much that can be filmed in real life to advertise a TV channel.
Channel Idents

A channel ident is a short bit of video that plays a few seconds before a
program starts, telling the viewer which channel they're watching. It is a
promotional sequence, which means that it's a critical part of a TV stations
brand identity. Some channels use stop motion animation for this. This is
because it is pretty easy to do as it is just taking pictures, rather than
animating on a computer. The animated TV idents are usually the more
successful ones for a channel, as they can be remembered and recognised
more easily.
Advertising

Different types of animation is used throughout adverts. Although most

adverts are people and real objects being filmed, stop motion, CG animations
and Claymation are used in different adverts. These types of adverts that
animation is used in is usually for an animated TV programme. This is so that
they can advertise the actual programme instead of recording something in
real life that doesnt relate to an animated programme in any way.
Music Videos

A lot of music videos use different forms of animations. There are music
videos that use stop motion to create a unique effect in them. Others use
Claymation, like the music video for Sledgehammer which was created by
Aardman. Other music videos also use CG animations. The easiest way to tell
if a music video is animated is usually in lyric videos. This is because it is
practically impossible to create a lyric video in real life because it has to
keep in time with the actual lyrics of the song that it is for. This means that
most lyric videos are created using an animation programme just with simple
text coming on the screen and going off at the right times.
Computer Games

Computer games use animation more than anything else. This is because any
game is created by animation, no matter what type of animation it is. The
majority of games use computer generated animation, as this is the easiest
and best quality animation that a company can use to create a game. There
isnt really any games that use stop motion or Claymation, as they are harder
to create a game with and dont work as well. Also, the market for games are
usually more interested in realistic games, rather than animated games made
with Plasticine or cartoon games. Even if a game is created from filming real
life things, there will still need to be some animation involved as certain
actions wont be able to be acted out in real life, without the help of
animation.
Mobile Phones

Mobile phones use a lot of animation. They dont really use stop motion, but
they do use other forms. An example of where they use animation is when
they are turned on. Most phones have their logo come on the screen and it is
usually animated to do something. Another example of a way that mobile
phones use animation is through the games that they have on them. All of the
games that can be played on mobile phones are animated as this is the only
way they can be created. Smart phones can also access websites and watch
videos that are animated, so this is another way that animation can be seen
on them.
Websites

A lot of websites use animation in them. The most popular way a website uses
animation is in their web banners or adverts that they may have. This is
because it catches peoples eyes and it gives the website a better and more
professional look to it. However, another popular way that websites use
animation is in games that they might have on them, or programmes if they
are websites for a TV channel.