Visual and Animated Research with Evaluations
At its best, animation is not just a series of drawings that together appear to create a movement, however it comprises a wide range of technique and imagination, all of which forms a wonderfully form of art (White, 1988).
Going back in time, over 35,000 years ago paintings in motion were doodled on the cave walls showing that the ‘process’ of animation started even from that period of time.
Moving faster, during Ancient Greek period, artists decorated pots with figures in successive stages of action which left the impression of moving when spinning the pot.
Coming to the 1800s, the Thaumatrope or the cardboard disk held between two strings gave the feeling that the bird is in the cage.
At the end of the 1800s a new advance was to come: the Praxinoscope– short sequences of action drawn on a 30 foot strip of transparent substance called “Crystaloid”.
During the 20th century the technology made available, enabled Disney to release the world’s first fully-animated feature length film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. It was at a level of art that brought Disney’s amazing success, moreover gave birth to the “Golden Age” (Williams, 2009).
The 21st century perfected the so called “clay animation” and “stop-motion animation” and added to it the technology it needed to release masterpieces such as: “Coraline”, “The Pirates’ Band of Misfits”, “ParaNorman”.
References
White, T. (1988) The Animator’s Workbook; New York: Watson-Guptill Publications;
Williams, R. (2009) The Animator’s Survival Kit; London: Faber and Faber Limited;
