Did you know that humans made their first animation way back in ancient times?
YES! Using what they had during those times, they set the foundation for the cool animations we see today.
Animation has changed a lot over time. It's now better, faster to make, and more fun to watch.
This post will give you a quick look of History of animation has grown up - from ancient times, the role of Disney and to the fancy stuff we see in the 21st century.
1. Who is the Father of Animation?
Émile Cohl gets credit as the animation pioneer or the father of modern animation. He made "Fantasmagorie" in 1908 also known as one of the first hand-drawn cartoons ever. This quick flick showed basic stick people changing in funny ways proving Cohl knew how to bring drawings to life.
2. Beginning of Animation
Animation dates back to ancient times, with examples like Egyptian wall paintings and Greek pots showing motion. However, it wasn’t until the 1800s, with inventions like the zoetrope and phenakistoscope, that people could actually see moving images by quickly viewing a series of pictures.
i. First Footprint of Animation
Long before modern cartoons or computer graphics, ancient people created their own forms of moving images.
Cave Drawings: Early cave artists depicted animals in sequences, showing movement in a primitive form of animation.
Ancient Egyptian Murals: Egyptians used step-by-step paintings to tell stories, like wrestling moves, through pictures.
Greek Pottery: Greeks painted figures in different poses around pots, and spinning the pot created the illusion of movement.
b) Pre-animation Techniques
Let's talk about some ancient gadgets and methods that ancient folks used to create some basic animation and laid the foundation of modern animations with simple tools and tricks.
i) Zoetrope: It's a circular cylinder-like gadget with with tiny slits cut into its outer shell. Inside, you'd find drawings showing different stages of a character's movement. When you give it a spin and peek through those slits, it's like magic - the pictures seem to come alive!
ii) Phenakistoscope: It is similar to a Zeotrope, this gadget has a spinning disk with different pictures on it. When you looked through the slots as they spun in front of a mirror, you'd see the images come to life.
iii) Flipbooks: A common method that is used even in the modern world. These are tiny books with a picture on every page. Each picture is a little different from the last one, in order. And, If you flip the pages fast, the pictures seem to move!
