The world animation day marks the first public screening of an animated film by ASIFA.
In 1892, French Emile Reynaud drew approximately 500 independently drawn films and made into a rotary roller and projected by a mirror and light with the help of a Pacino mirror which was exhibited at the Musee Grevin. Emile Reynaud is known as the first person in animation. But one thing needs to be noticed is that his animation films haven’t achieve the category for modern animation. The definition of the modern animation require that all the project must be shooting by frame by frame.
1906-1937 beginning
In 1906, the first cartoon The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces was shot by an American named Blackton, which marked the official beginning of the history of American animation. This film was used frame-by-frame shooting, paper-cut animation and a combination of real people. It was the first animation work to be recorded on logo film, with the characteristics of modern animation.
Other pioneers of this period included Windsor McKay, Pat Sullivan, and the Fleischer Brothers. McKay is the founder of American commercial animated films, his representative works such as “Dinosaurs”, “The Sinking of the Lusitania >” and so on.
In 1914，Earl Hurd discovered celluloid film. Celluloid, also known as Ming Tablet, is a transparent sheet made from acetate fiber. That methods replaced the previous animation paper. Instead of redrawing the background of each grid, the painter painted the characters on celluloid alone and shot them with the background pad on the bottom, which ended the previous drawing animation’s heavy process and for the mass production of animation films to provide the possibility.
In 1919, the animation industry came into prosperity period after the first world war, Sullivan created the world’s first animated character, “Felix the Cat”.
Felix the cat’s animation film contains a lot of performance features of visual interest such as it designed several new expressions and posture, and it’s movement type could not be copied that made that cat become the one of the most popular cartoon stars for ten consecutive years, Felix the cat was also the first to become commodities cartoon characters, and even became a U.S. naval aviation VF31 squadron mascot.
In 1926, Walt Disney founded the Disney Company.
In 1928，The Disney Company created one of the greatest stars in animation history, Mickey Mouse. the first time to introduce Mickey Mouse to the audience is in the Crazy Plane. At the same year, the world’s first sound animation, steamer Willie which is the first all dialogue animation. It is also the first all dialogue animation. That’s smooth animation and rich imagination make the role of Mickey Mouse popular all over the world and becoming a famous animation star and produces a great deal of commercial profit.
1937-1949 development
In 1937, Disney released its first full-color animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the film, the characters have distinctive personalities and the use of the lens is very unique which made it win the first animated film Oscar. At the same time, Warner’s short animated films such as Bugs Bunny and Flying Duck were also popular during the war.
1950—1966 prosperity
In 1951, Alice in Wonderland is adapted from the original work of the same name by British writer Lewis Carroll. Disney brings the author’s fantastic imagination to the big screen. The audience will be surprised by the mug that can pour tea, the caterpillar that can spit cigarette rings and speak, the red heart queen who is about to chop people’s heads, the crazy March rabbit, and the Cheshire cat that comes and goes without a trace.
In 1985 ,for the first time ever, Disney has used computers to create a standalone scene named The Black Cauldron, It was the first time in Disney’s animation history that CG technology was used.
From then, computer technology is more and more widely used in the animation industry, and the resulting 3D technology, Virtual Reality technology and so on is popular all over the world which will provide more possibilities for the future animation industry.