History of Animation & Visual Effects

Module II - Class 3
Pioneers of Animation - Part 1

Pioneers - a person who is among the first to develop or be the first to use or apply.
James Stuart Blackton
The Father of American Animation
James Stuart Blackton was an Anglo-American film producer who earned
the title of "Father of American Animation" for creating the first animated
silent film by shooting a sequence of drawings on standard picture film.

Mr. Blackton worked for a newspaper as a reporter and illustrator. In 1896,

Thomas Edison unveiled the Vitascope, one of the earliest film projectors,
and Blackton was sent to interview Edison and provide drawings of how
his films were created. Edison, being a businessman, saw an opportunity
for good publicity. He took Blackton to a special room named "Black
Maria," where he conducted his shooting and made a movie of Blackton
making a portrait of Edison on the spot. After the interview, Blackton was
fascinated by what he saw. Blackton felt that he could try any idea that
sprang to his head, and in a series of films, Blackton developed the
concept of animation.
The Enchanted Drawing - 1900
James S. Blackton directed the animated short "The
Enchanted Drawing" in 1900. The Enchanted Drawing is
a silent animated film best known for containing the first
animated sequences recorded on standard picture film.

Stop-motion effects were used to make this clever film.

Blackton draws a hat on the cartoon face and then a bottle
and a glass. When he’s finished, the camera is stopped,
and he holds his pose. The previous drawing with the
bottle and the glass is replaced with the one without the
bottle and glass on the easel, and a real glass and bottle
are placed in Blackton’s hands. The camera is then turned
on again, and Blackton pours himself a drink. Similarly,
the smile in the drawing is also achieved in the same way,
where one drawing is substituted with another.
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces - 1906
In 1906, Blackton directed Humorous Phases of Funny Faces,
which uses stop-motion as well as cutout techniques to produce a
series of effects. After Blackton's hand draws two faces on a
chalkboard, they appear to come to life and engage in antics. Most
of the film uses live action effects instead of animation, but
nevertheless, this film had a huge effect on stimulating the creation
of animated films in America.
Emile Cohl
The Father of the Animated Cartoon
Émile Cohl, a French cartoonist and animator, is known as "The Father of the
Animated Cartoon." His earliest cartoon, Fantasmagorie (1908), applied all of
the basic principles behind animated cartoons by making a series of
progressive drawings photographed on standard picture film.

Fantasmagorie is considered to be the first fully animated film ever made. To

create the animation, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate
and traced the next drawing, reflecting the variations necessary to show
movement. Once he had completed this process, he had roughly 700 drawings.
As chalkboard caricaturists were a common attraction during this time, Cohl
created the illusion that the characters were drawn on chalkboard by filming
black lines on paper and printing them in negative.
Fantasmagorie - 1908
Winsor McCay
Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator of the silent
film era. He is best known for the newspaper comic strip "Little Nemo"
and the animated short film "Gertie the Dinosaur" (1914).

Inspired by the flip books his son brought home, Winsor McCay saw the
possibility of making moving pictures of his cartoons. McCay's first film
starred his Little Nemo characters and debuted in movie theatres in 1911.
He followed it in 1912 with "How a Mosquito Operates," in which a
giant, animated mosquito sucks the blood of a sleeping man. McCay gave
the mosquito a personality and balanced humour with the horror of the
nightmare situation.
Contributions of Winsor McCay
Winsor McCay pioneered keyframe animation, the use of registration
marks, and the animation cycle, which became an industry standard.

I. Keyframe Animation
Winsor McCay first introduced keyframe animation. His Gertie the
Dinosaur from 1914 is the world’s first keyframe animation cartoon.

In hand-drawn animation, a keyframe is a drawing that signifies the start

and end points for actions. Once the keyframes are drawn, frames called
inbetweeners are added in between the keyframes to help generate a smooth
animation because keyframe drawings alone will make the animation
appear choppy. In computer animation, keyframes are used in different
types of animation programmes, including After Effects, Animate, Maya,
and Blender.
Contributions of Winsor McCay
II. Registration Marks

Animators had come up with different methods to keep their drawings lined
up, but none of them worked very well. While making "Gertie the
Dinosaur," Winsor McCay used small inked crosses in the corners of his
drawings to position the papers correctly. He used it to align the drawing
paper for animation well before the introduction of the peg bar system, Small inked crosses in the corners of his drawings
which has now become the industry standard.

Winsor McCay’s registration mark is still being used in the printing of

colour magazines and newspapers. In colour printing, registration is the
method of correlating overlapping colours into one single image. When
printing an image that has more than one color, it is necessary to print each
colour separately and ensure each colour overlaps the others precisely. If
this is not done, the finished image will look fuzzy, blurry, or "out of
register." To help line up the colours correctly, a system of registration is
necessary.
Contributions of Winsor McCay
III. Animation Cycles

Creating animation loops, or animation cycles, is a labor-saving

technique for animating repetitive motions, such as a character
walking or a horse galloping. In the case of walking, the character is
animated, taking a step with his right foot, then a step with his left
foot. The loop is created so that when the sequence repeats, the
motion is seamless.

However, since an animation loop essentially uses the same bit of

animation over and over again, it is easily detected and can in fact
become distracting to an audience. In general, productions with
moderate or high budgets rarely use them.
Gertie the Dinosaur - 1914
"Gertie the Dinosaur" is a 1914 American animated short film
by Winsor McCay. It was the first cartoon to feature a character
with an appealing personality. The appearance of a true character
distinguished it from earlier animated films like "The Enchanted
Drawing" by James Stuart Blackton. "Gertie the Dinosaur" was
the first film to use animation techniques such as keyframes,
registration marks, tracing paper, and animation loops.
Questions
Part A
1. Write a short note on, "The Enchanted Drawing".
2. Write a short note on, "Fantasmagorie".
3. Write a short note on, "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces".
4. Who is James S. Blackton?
5. Name any two works of James S. Blackton.
6. Write a short note on, "Gertie the Dinosaur".
7. Who introduced keyframe animation? Which was the first keyframe animation?
8. What is animation cycles? When is it used?
9. What is keyframe animation?
10. What are registration marks? What were they used for in early animations?
Part B
11. Write a short essay on James Stuart Blackton’s visit with Thomas Edison.
12. Explain the method used by Émile Cohl to create the animation short, "Fantasmagorie".
13. Who is Emile Cohl?
14. Write a short essay on James Stuart Blackton and his works.
15. Who is referred to as the "Father of American animation" and why?
16. Who is referred to as the "Father of animated cartoon" and why?
17. What are the contributions of Winsor McCay?
Part C
18. Write an essay on the initial attempts to make animation after the advent of standard picture film.