From 19th century to 21st century-animation has come a long way

From "Gertie the Dinosaur" that was released way back in 1914 to the Toy Story series of recent times animation movies have evolved characteristically. Creation of 'Gertie' required a whole year of thousands of drawings that included various stages of motion, the individual linking of the pictures with the background and finally the photographing of each picture sheet, frame by frame with a movie camera. 'Gertie' was the first cartoon character or star so to say. Films were already 20 years old when the first attempt to make an animated film was made. The reason is said to be economical. During the initial years there were no copy write selling and the films were sold entirely once. Directors found that both animated films and real films were sold at same price while the former involved much more time and hazardous work. But the growing popularity of the animated films gradually made the movie makes produce more and more such films.

After 'Gertie' lots of animation has gone under the bridge and now it has reached the acme, where the little mouse 'Stuart' or the dinosaurs of Jurassic park do not appear animated but as real as any real life character. The 2-d and 3-d animation ushered in a revolution in the animation industry. Thus giving delight to many cine-goers.

Any animation movie follows the following steps before they are finally made into a movie:

1.The first step is the formation of a character. Then motion is added to it so that it can interact with the story and lip sync with the dialogues. Earlier it used to be a complex and cumbersome process and took lot of time but the 3-d graphics mechanism has automated major portions of this step. Now even the movement of the lips has become automated and motion of some of the body parts can be replicated through the 3-d animation mechanism.

2.Second is camera animation. This is done using the simplest of 3-d animation software. It is more or less similar to that of shooting a real film.

3.Third comes the stage of special effects using camera tracking. This is basically the synchronization of the animated scenes with the external real world scenes.

4.Finally comes the role of Digital Media and Renderings. It is the process by which designs and ideas are brought to life using 3D Rendering, Animation and digital media.

More Animation Movies Related Links

Chris Parry Design - Offering design and consultancy services for broadcast, Internet and print. Services include post production, specialisd animation, compositing and audio for film, as well as a range of graphic design and branding services for businesses.

Antje's Graphics -

Welcome to The Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE! - The Animation Guild Local 839 IATSE (formerly Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists) is the labor union for creative artists, writers and technicians in motion-picture and television animation and computer graphics in southern California.