2D Animation is the creation of moving pictures in a two

dimensional environment. It is also animated drawings brought to life with personalities and sound with movement and high definition colour. This is achieved by sequencing images one after another to stimulate. There are lots of different types of animations. For example; flick books, cell shading, rotoscoping, live action, photographic stills, computer animation and many more. 2D Animation has a long history. Whilst nowadays most big budget animations are done in 3D, 2D animation is still used.

JOSEPH PLATEAU – PHENAKISTOSCOPE

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (14 October 1801 – 15 September 1883) was a Belgian physicist. He was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this he used counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits in the other. He called this device of 1832 the phenakistoscope. Born in Brussels, he studied at the University of Liège (Liège), where he graduated as a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences in 1829. In 1827 he became a teacher of mathematics at the "Athenaeum" school in Brussels. In 1835, he was appointed Professor of experimental physics in

Ghent University.

History of 2D Animation

The Planekistocope was created by Joseph Plateau in the early 1800’s and is one of the earliest forms of animation. It used a spinning disk that used a group of images that were located around the disk in a circle and when the disk was spun round it used persistence of vision to create an illusion of motion.

Plateau describes the construction and the action of a disc with 16 slits and 16 intermediate sectors. When 16 identical drawings are put in the

setors, one sees a stationary image, when looking through the slits at the revolving disc in a mirror. This is in fact the experiment of Faraday. The brilliant contribution of Plateau comes when instead of putting 16 identical images in the sectors he draws 16 images, which change little by little. Because of the visual persistence the images seen in swift succession will fade into each other and a suggestion of movement is created. It is for this reason that Joseph Plateau is cited as the precursor of the movie, more accurately he is the precursor of the animated film.

WILLIAM GEORGE HORNER - ZOETROPE

William George Horner (1786 – 22 September 1837) was a British mathematician; he was a schoolmaster, headmaster and school keeper, proficient in classics as well as mathematics, who wrote extensively on functional equations, number theory and approximation theory, but also on optics. His contribution to approximation theory is honored in the designation Horner's method, in particular respect of a paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1819. The modern invention of the zoetrope, under the name Daedaleum in 1834, has been attributed to him. The Zoetrope is an early form of pre-cinema animation which was created by William Horner in the mid 1800’s. The zoetrope creates the illusion of movement by using a sequence of pictures that are spun

round inside a cylinder. The person using it can look inside the slits in the side where the illusion of movement can be seen. The zoetrope is the third major optical toy, after the thaumatrope and phenakistoscope that uses the persistence of motion principle to create an illusion of motion. It consists of a simple drum with an open top, supported on a central

axis. A sequence of hand-drawn pictures on stripes of paper are placed around the inner bottom of the drum. Slots are cut at equal distance around the outer surface of the drum, just above where the picture strips were to be positioned. To create an illusion of motion, the drum is spun; the faster the rate of spin, the smoother the progression. A viewer can look through the wall of the zoetrope from any point around it, and see a rapid progression images. Because of its design, more than one person could use the zoetrope at the same time.

EMILE REYNAUD - PRAXINOSCOPE

Charles-Émile Reynaud (8 December 1844 – 9 January 1918) was a French inventor, responsible for the first projected animated cartoons. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in

1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888, and on 28 October 1892 he projected the first animated film in public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This is also notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. The Praxinoscope was an animated device which was created by Émile Reynaud in the late 1800’s. A Praxinoscope created the illusion of movement by using a strip of images that were inside a spinning cylinder. Unlike other animations that do this, Émile replaced slits in the side with inner mirrors. It could also be fitted with a lamp which meant it could project the images. The Praxinoscope was an animated device, the successor of the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it uses a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The Praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the zoetrope offered.

EDWARD MUYBRIDGE - ZOOPRAXISCOPEEdward Muybridge (originally named Edward James Muggerbridge, 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904) was an English photographer important for pioneering work within photographic studies and motion. He was also in work with the early picture-projector motion. Edward Muybridge was a pioneer with his studies of motion by using multiple cameras to capture images of animals moving which he then used to create stop motion animations. He also created the zoopraxiscope which was a device used for projecting stop motion images. The zoopraxiscope is an early device

for showing motion pictures. Created by photographer Edward Muybridge in 1879, it may be considered the first movie ever projector to be made. The zoopraxiscope projected images from rotating glass discs in rapid succession to give a smoother impression of motion. The stop motion images were initially painted onto the glass as silhouettes. A

second group of discs made in 1982-94, used outline drawings painted onto the discs photographically then coloured by hand. Some of the animated images are extremely complex featuring multiple combinations of sequences of animal and human movement.

EDISON - KINETOSCOPE

Thomas Edison (11 February 1847 – October 18 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. Edison developed many items that are greatly influenced in life all around the world. For example; the phonograph (an early device invented to record sound), a motion picture camera and a long lasting electric bulb. A Kinetoscope is an early invention of a motion picture projector exhibitionary device. It was designed and invented by Thomas Edison in 1888. A Kinetoscope creates an illusion of movement by using strips of film which is then

pulled over a light. The film then travels very quickly to create the illusion of movement as someone looks through the peephole in the top of the machine.

The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole window at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector to begin with but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic

projectors before the invention of video.

LUMIERE BROTHERS - CINEMATOGRAPH

The Lumiḗre Brothers are thought to be the first filmmakers in history itself. They were the ones who created the

Cinematograph which meant that several people could watch the film at once, like cinemas today. They also shot the first ever motion picture film to be viewed in 1894. A cinematograph is a motion picture film camera which can also be used as a film projector and a printer.

WALT DISNEY – CELL ANIMATION

Walt Disney was an American animator and businessman who is regarded and remembered as one of, if not the biggest influence to entertainment during the 20th

Century. The Walt Disney Company has created films before and after the WW2 and has created some of the world’s most iconic cartoons and characters ever seen to date. Walt Disney also pioneered Cell Animation.

Cell Animation is where you use transparent sheets and lay them over the top of each other making pictures using various images on each. Cell Animation is done by hand drawing each frame that created the animation. A storyboard

is made, all the animators and directors come together to discuss the entire film. The storyboards are presented as the story. Once the story is laid out, the dialogue is recorded. This is done before animation, so the animators know what the characters will say. After the dialogue is recorded, the animators can make rough sketches of just the characters. Usually these drawings are quite messy, there is still no colour, or background. Some animated films have used over 50,000 individual drawings. At most animation studios, the best animators only sketched a few animation drawings, leaving gaps in between. Later on, a person called an "inbetweener" would finish the scenes, by drawing in between the areas that the animator had left. Once the entire film has been drawn on paper, the animation drawings go to the inking department. There, the inkers copy the animation drawings on to a clear celluloid acetate, sometimes called a Cel. After the outline of the characters has been made, the unfinished Cel's go to the Painting Department. The painters flip the Cel over, and paint the colours on the back. They paint on the back so the characters appear crisp, and have an outline. Before the Animation Cels get photographed a background must be added. Because a Cel is clear, and it only has the painted character on it, if a background is made, it will show through. Usually backgrounds are painted with Tempera or Water Colour paint. Although, in some Disney productions, the background was painted on glass, and combined with other glass painted backgrounds to create the illusion of extreme movement. (This technique is use in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.) Now all the combined elements (the Cel and the background) can be photographed. Although, the final product is not filmed with a normal projector, or camera. A special device, with a lens mounted facing down on to a table top captures each frame of the animated feature. Usually, the background is placed into a special mount, then covered with the Cel, then covered with a large piece of glass, then photographed. After all the drawings have been filmed, the dialogue is added. Sometimes the film is edited at this step. The animated film is released, and the general public may view it.

HANNA BARBERA-LIMITED ANIMATION

Hanna Barbera was an American television studio that dominated American television animation

for nearly four decades in the mid to late 20th

century. It was formed in 1957 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The studio went into create hundreds of different animation including; The

Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs and Tom and Jerry. In 2001 it folded into Warmer Bros Animation. Hanna Barbera pioneered Limited Animation. This is a technique where you reuse slides over and over instead of redrawing them. Limited Animation is a process of making animated cartoons that does not redrew entire frames but variably reuses common parts between frames. One of its major characteristics in stylized designs in all forms and shapes, which in the early days was referred to as modern design.

WARNET BROS-FILM MAKING

Warner Bros is an American producer of film, television and music it was founded by brothers, Albert Warner, Harry Warner, Sam Warner and Jack Warner in 1923, hey have created films before and after the Second World War. They have created many films over the years and have pioneered some aspects of film making. Warner Bros were one of the first companies to use computers when making animations.

AARDMAN ANIMATIONS-COMPUTER ANIMATION

Aardman Studios is a British animations studio that was founded in 1972. The studios are famous for using stop- motion clay animation techniques. They have created many animations but their most famous on is Wallace and Gromit. They have also started to produce computer animation. Nowadays most 2D animations are

created with computers. Using computers allows animations to produce animation much quicker as they don’t have to redraw each frame every time. Computers can automatically animate by “tweeing” or “morphing” objects between frames. This greatly reduces the workload for the animator. There are two

main types of graphics used in 2D computer animations. Bitmap graphics are made of a set amount of pixels in a grid. This means that if the image is resized it may distort and lose quality. Vector graphics are made up of mathematical equations. This means that they are always at their highest quality no matter how their aspects may change. This means that if the image is resized then it will not distort and lose quality.

NORMAN MCLAREN – DRAWN ON FILM

Norman McLaren (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish born Canadian animator and film director. He is best known for his work with the National Film Board of Canada. He pioneered a number of animation and filmmaking techniques in his time. For example he pioneered drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound.

Drawn-on-film animation, formally known as direct animation or animation without any type of camera, is an animation technique where animation is produced by creating and drawing on the

images directly onto film stock unlike any other animation where you photograph each animation frame by frame with a special

animation camera.

MONTY PYTHON – PHOTOGRAPHIC STILLSMonty Python was a British surreal comedy group that formed in 1969. During Python sketches and films, there were several cartoons and animations. These were created by python member Terry Gilliam. These animations often involved backgrounds and antique photos, mostly from the Victorian era. Photographic stills (photoanimation) is a technique as old as the motion picture industry. In this area of industry still photos, artwork and other objects are taken and filmed with the use of animation stands.

MAX FLEISCHER - ROTOSCOPINGMax Fleischer (19 July 1883 – 11 September 1972) was a Polish Jewish American animator, inventor, film director and producer. Max was the pioneer in the development of animated cartoons and was the head of Fleischer Studios. He designed and pioneered characters such as Betty Boop, Koko

the Clown, Popeye and Superman and was also responsible for a number of technological inventions such as the Rotoscope. Rotoscoping is an animation technique where animators trace over footage that is taken frame by frame for uses in live action and animated films. Originally recorded live action film images were projected onto frosted glass panels and redrawn by animators. This projection equipment is the Rotoscope. However, this device was eventually replaced by computers. For the visual effects side of the industry the term rotoscoping is referred to as the technique of manually creating a matte for any element on a live action plate so it may be put over another background instead of the original background on the image.

FLICK BOOKS - 1868

Flick books are one of the simplest and first forms of creating animations. It involves creating a sequences of images whether that is drawing them or taking photographs and printing them over many pages in a book. This will give us the illusion of movement when you flick through each page in a rapid speed.

CEL SHADING - 2000Before the creation of computer animation software, animations were created by hand. This technique was called Cel Shading. A cel is a sheet of transparent cellulose acetate used as a medium for painting animation frames. It is transparent so that it can be laid over other cels and/or a painted background, then photographed. This is used as the preferred method of animating until the invention of computers came in the 1980’s. The first short film to be done with cel shading was by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks called Steamboat Willie This was the debut of

Mickey Mouse.

LIVE ACTION - 1988This technique combines cel shading with live action film. Although this technique is now often replaced by CGI it has a history of making successful film such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam. As it is, the term is usually superfluous, but it makes an important distinction in situations in which one might normally expect a stereotypical animation, such as Pixar films, video games or when the work is adapted from a normal animated cartoon, such as Scooby Doo, the Flintstones or 101 Dalmatians films. The use of puppets in films such as The Dark Crystal or the

Muppets is also considered live action, providing that the stop motion is not used to animate them. The term is also used within the animation world to refer to the non-animated characters: in a live action/animated film such as Space Jam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Looney Tunes: Back in Action or Mary Poppins in which humans and cartoons co-exist, “live action” characters are the “real” actors, such as Bob Hoskins and Julie Andrews, as supposed to the animated “actors” such as Roger Rabbit himself. Live action animations can also be adapted from comic books such as Men in Black, Dick Tracy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man or Captain America, DC Comics’ Superman and Batman and manga such as Death Note or Detective Conan.

STOP MOTION - 1898Stop Motion (also commonly known as stop frame) is an animation technique that is used to make a physically manipulated object or person appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small spaces between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called “clay animation” or “clay-mation”. Not all stop motion requires figures or models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effects. Stop motion using objects is sometimes referred to as “object animation”.

THE PROCESS 1. A storyboard is created. 2. An animatic is created.3. Backgrounds and characters are drawn.4. Actors record their lines.

5. The director then puts all this animation onto a Dope Sheet – this helps to work out the timing of movement.

Drawing the Animation:

This is the most time consuming part of creating the animation. A huge team of people work on drawing the outlines, inking and then painting in the colours. These are then photographed according to the instructions on the dope sheet.