This timeline will describe some of the biggest figures in the animation industry such as Thomas Edison, Charles-Emile Reynaud and Eadweard Muybridge, as well as explaining some of the most influential devices in the animation industry such as the zoetrope and praxinoscope and some of the most important businesses in the animation industry such as Disney, Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera.
William George Horner was born. He was a British mathematician who invented the zoetrope. He was born in 1786 and died on the 22nd of September 1837
Joseph Plateau was born. He was a Belgian physicist who invented the phenakistoscope. He was born on the 14th October 1786 and died on the 15th September 1883
Eadweard Muybridge was born. He was a British Photographer who was credited with inventing the zoopraxiscope. He was born on the 9th April 1830 and died on the 8th May 1904
William George Horner invented the zoetrope in 1834 under the name Daedaleum. As shown in the image, the zoetrope was a cylindrically shaped object with slits in the side of it. By looking through these slits you can see small images which are placed inside the cylinder of the zoetrope. Whilst the zoetrope is spinning round, if you look through these slits, you can see an illusion of movement with the sequence of images inside the cylinder. It uses persistence of vision, where the retina in the eye retains an image after it moves which creates the illusion of movement when the zoetrope is turned.
Joseph Plateau invented the phenakistoscope. It used a spinning disc with visually similar images next to each other which created the illusion of movement when turned. It was fairly similar to the Zoetrope however you viewed it from above instead of through slits in a cylinder. This design made it much easier to see the illusion and made it less likely that you would break the illusion, as with the zoetrope you can easily break the illusion by looking at the wrong angle.
Charles-Emile Reynaud was born. He was a French scientist and inventor who was credited with inventing the Praxinoscope. He was born on the 8th December 1844 and died on the 9th January 1918
Thomas Edison was born. He was an American inventor who was credited with inventing the kinetoscope as well as many other important inventions such as the lightbulb and phonograph. He was born on the 11th February 1847 and died on the 18th October 1931
Auguste Marie Lumiere was born. He was a French inventor and alongside his brother (Louis Jean Lumiere) they were credited with inventing the cinematograph and being the first filmmakers in history. Auguste was born on the 19th October 1862 and died on the 10th April 1954
Louis Jean Lumiere was born. He was a French inventor and alongside his brother (Auguste Marie Lumiere) they were credited with inventing the cinematograph and being the first filmmakers in history.He was born on the 5th of October 1864 and died on the 6th of June 1948
The flipbook was invented in September 1868 by John Barnes Linnet who gave it the name kineograph. A flipbook is a booklet which contains images that create an illusion of movement when flicked through. Flipbooks use persistence of vision to create the illusion of movement within these images as a primitive form of 2D animation.
Charles-Emile Reynaud invented the praxinoscope. The praxinoscope was modelled around the zoetrope which was invented by William George Horner. Instead of using slits in the side of the cylinder the praxinoscope used mirrors located around a smaller cylinder located inside the praxinoscope. By looking at these mirrors you can see the reflection of the images that are against the outer cylinder which makes it less likely to break the illusion of motion and make the images generally easier to see. This GIF shows the illusion it creates
Eadweard Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope. The zoopraxiscope was a device that showed motion pictures using a flexible film strip. It showed the images which were placed on the glass disc, which ranged from photographs and painted on images. It was considered to be the first form of movie projector. This GIF shows the animation it makes.
Harry Warner was born. He was an American film executive who formed Warner Bros. Inc. together with his brothers Albert, Sam and Jack. He first started working as a shoe maker when he was 19, but in 1905 him and his brother Sam took an interest in film making and animation after seeing the Kinetoscope, made by Thomas Edison. Therefore the Kinetoscope was a key inspiration for the Warner brothers to found Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. He was born on the 12th of December 1881 and died on the 25th July 1958
Albert Warner was born. He was an American film executive who formed Warner Bros. Inc. together with his brothers Harry, Sam and Jack. He was born on the 24th of July 1884 and died on the 26th of November 1967
•Sam Warner was born. He was an American film executive who formed Warner Bros. Inc. together with his brothers Harry, Albert and Jack. From a young age he was interested in many other influential forms of animation such as the kinetoscope made by Thomas Edison. He was born on the 10th of August 1887 and died on the 5th of October 1927 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Thomas Edison invented the kinetoscope. It was a device used for showing videos for one person at a time by looking through a small hole at the top of the device. It showed videos by conveying a film strip beneath the small hole. This film strip had small images on it which when illuminated by a light source and conveyed along quickly the viewer could see a small animation from the images on the film strip. Edison took inspiration for it from Eadweard Muybridge’s zoopraxiscope. It inspired the current forms of cinema projection. When it was revealed to the public in 1894 it was a relatively large success, resulting in a lot of Kinetoscope sales in Europe especially.
Jack Warner was born. He was an American Film Executive who formed Warner Bros. Inc. together with his brothers Harry, Albert and Sam. He was born on the 2nd of August 1892 and died on the 9th of September 1978
The cinematograph was invented by the lumiere brothers. It acted like a film projector and the lumiere brothers invented it to rival Edison’s kinetoscope. It was much lighter than the kinetoscope and projected an image onto a large screen which could be viewed by an audience, whereas Edison’s Kinetoscope could only be viewed by 1 person at a time. It was operated by turning a crank which spun a film wheel and illuminated the images on the reel. The image shows what it looks like and how it is operated.
The photographic stills/stop motion animation technique was used for the first time by Albert E Smith in “The Humpty Dumpty Circus”. This technique uses individual photos as the frames for the animation so when the animation is played these photos change in a certain order to create an illusion of movement with persistence of vision. Albert created The Humpty Dumpty Circus using toys that belonged to his daughter and an average camera.
Len Lye was born. He was a film maker from New Zealand who used a wide range of mediums such as sculpting, drawing, painting and textiles. He made the technique of drawn on animation/direct animation popular through his film, A Colour Box.
Walt Disney was born. He was an American animator and television producer who founded The Walt Disney Corporation, a world famous animation company. He was born on the 5th of December 1901 and died on the 15th of December 1966.
William Hanna was born. He was an American animator and together with Joseph Barbera , they founded Hanna-Barbera Productions. He was born on the 14th of July 1910 and died on the 22nd March 2001.
Joseph Barbera was born. He was an American animator and together with William Hanna, they founded Hanna-Barbera Productions. His career in cartoons began in the early 1930s where he submitted cartoons to various magazines. He was born on the 24th of March 1911 and Died on the 18th of December 2006.
Norman McLaren was born. He was a Scottish born Canadian Animator who became a world renowned animated film maker at the Canadian National Film Board. He was born on the 11th of April 1914 and died on the 27th of January 1987
Rotoscoping was invented by Max Fliescher. Rotoscoping is a technique which combines live action footage with drawn animation, in which artists trace over previously filmed footage, using a device called a rotoscope. Max Fliescher used this in Betty Boop and animation of Gulliver in Gulliver’s travels. In 1917 he invented the rotoscope which projects the filmed footage onto a glass plane under animation cels for tracing over. Rotoscoping is still used today. For example it was used to make some of the artwork for the video game Grand Theft Auto V and the movie A Scanner Darkly.
Ray Harryhausen was born. He was an American visual effects artist who created dynamation, a form of photographic still/stop motion animation that is merged with live action footage. He worked with a wide range of animation companies such as Warner Bros., Disney and Hammer Film Productions. Films he made include Mighty Joe Young in 1949 with Willis O' Brien and Clash of the Titans in 1989. He was born on the 29th of June 1920 and Died on the 7th of May 2013.
The Warner brothers (Albert, Sam, Jack and Harry) formed Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. Warner Bros. is world famous for creating childrens animated cartoons and films such as Looney Tunes and Bonny and Clyde. Warner Bros use Cel animation to create their cartoons where the frames are hand drawn on sheets of transparent plastic.
Walt Disney founded The Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Company is famous for making incredibly popular children’s cartoons and films such as Steamboat Willie which was made using cel animation and featured Mickey Mouse in 1928 and Frozen which was made using 3D computer animation in 2013
Len lye created the first example of drawn on film animation/direct animation. It was called “A Colour Box”. This technique involved physically drawing/painting/scratching/etc on the film reel of the film so when the film reel was played people saw the physical drawings of the animation. The video shows A Colour Box
Terry Gilliam was born. He is a American born British animator who worked with Monty Python as their main animator. He is known for using iconic cut-out animation techniques. He was born on the 22nd of November 1940 and is still alive at the time of creating this timeline
Norman McLaren, who was currently working for The Canadian National Film Board, released arguably his most popular film “Neighbours”. Neighbours used an animation technique called Pixilation which involved actors in live action sequences posing for individual frames, which are played together to create the animation. This is often used for combining both live action and animated television for scenes with both real people and animated characters. The video shows the short film "Neighbours"
Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc. was founded by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and George Sydney. They produced many world famous childrens cartoons such as Scooby Doo, The Flintstones and The Smurfs. They used a Limited Animation technique where certain parts of each frame are often reused to save having to redraw them, which saves time and money. The frames for each animation were originally hand drawn, until 2D computer animation became popular, where they changed to that.
The earliest example of CGI animation (Computer generated imagery) was in 1968 where N.Konstantinov and a group of Russian mathematicians made an animation of a cat moving across a computer screen.
Jamie Hewlett was born. He is a british comic style artist who created the art for the animated band Gorillaz and an animation sequence for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He uses a range of animation techniques in his work such as Cel Animation, 2D Computer Animation and Dynamation. He was born on the 3rd of April 1968 and is still alive at the time of making this timeline.
The animated film “Yellow Submarine” was released. It was a film based around the music of the beatles. It was made using the Cel animation technique where frames were hand drawn on plastic sheets.
The group “Monty Python” was formed by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Eric Idle. They went on to create some very popular comedy films such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Terry Gilliam used Cut-out animation in their shows opening credits. For instance a giant cut-out of Cupids foot from a reproduction of the renaissance painting Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time by Bronzino crushes the show’s title in the opening sequence of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
The Donkey Kong arcade game was released. This was the first game to use animated cutscenes to tell the story of the game. It used basic 2D computer animation with pixels. The cutscene shows Mario/Jumpman's girlfriend getting abducted by Donkey Kong, which set the scene for the game.
Adobe released Adobe After Effects, which is a piece of software used to make visual effects and animations. It allows users to animate and alter media in a 2D or 3D environment. It is used by visual effects artists and film creators. An example of this is that After Effects was used to make an animated adaptation of Graham Chapman’s Monty Python: A Liar’s Autobiography
The first version of Toon Boom Studio was released by Toon Boom Animation Inc. Toon Boom Studio is a piece of software which is used for making digital animations and storyboards for a wide range of platforms such as television, mobile, gaming, web applications and films. The software may be a bit complex for beginners but supports a wide range of output formats. It is also capable of exporting animations to popular gaming software such as Unity and Cocos2D-x. It was also used for famous animated films such as The Simpsons Movie and The Jungle Book
The first episode of South Park was aired on television. The show originally used the cutout animation technique for the first episode of series 1, then moved on to computer animation for the rest of the show. It was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Microsoft Powerpoint 2000 was released as part of the Microsoft Office software package for the year 2000. Despite being primarily used for creating presentations it also has a feature called Custom Animation which can make a range of items such as games and interactive quizzes. Users can also animate things for their presentation slides such as texts and images flying across the screen and dissolving.
William Hanna passed away due to throat cancer, which left Joseph Barbera in charge of Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc.
The animated band “Gorillaz” released their first album called "Gorillaz". The Gorillaz are an animated band drawn by Jamie Hewlett who creates the music videos and animated shorts featuring the Gorillaz using Cel Animation, Dynamation and 2D computer animation.
The first Lord of the Rings film was released. This is one of the earliest films of the 21st century to use CGI animation in a very successful way. It used CGI animation animation to createto create characters such as Gollum and the Balrog.
The software Anime Studio was released by Smith Micro Software. Anime Studio is used to create 2D animations using vector graphics. The name suggests it is mainly used to make animations using the Japanese anime art style, however it is also used for other 2D animations and some basic forms of 3D animation. Anime Studio uses layers like other animation software and also has a range of useful features such as changing the camera angle and using a skeletal bone figure callede Smart Bones to make character movement look realistic
A Scanner Darkly was released. It is an Animated Sci-Fi film which used the interpolating rotoscope animation technique where live action footage is recorded then the frames are traced over to create an animated yet realistic look.
•Joseph Barbera passed away, therefore the rights for the shows made originally by Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc. were passed on to Warner Bros. Animation. Cartoon Network also received the rights to some of the shows such as Dexter’s Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls.
After buying Flash from Macromedia, Adobe released the software Adobe Flash CS3, which is the first version of Flash released under Adobe's name. Flash is used to make 2D animations on a computer. Flash uses both vector and bitmap based graphics. Vector graphics involves the use of shapes/objects and polygons whereas bitmap graphics involves the use of pixels.
Persepolis was released. It is an animated film based on an autobiography written by Marjane Satrapi. The film used a black and white cel animation technique.
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