2D Animation

The Zoetrope was created and invented in 1834 in England by William Horner. William Horner called it the daedalum which means the wheel of the devil though it didnt become popular till the 1960s. When it was made again by makers in both England and America, the American developer William F. Lincoln named his toy the Zoetrope which means Wheel of life. The Zoetrope worked on the same level as the Phenakistiscope, but the pictures were drawn on a strip which could be set around the bottom third of the metal drum, and the slits were cut in the upper section of the drum. To make the drum spin it was mounted onto a spindle and viewers looking through the slits would see the cartoon strip form a moving image, the quicker the wheel is spun, the smoother the image is.

The Phenakistiscope Greek for deceptive view was invented in 1830 simultaneously by Joseph Plateau in Belgium and Simon Stampfer in Austria. The Phenakistiscope has a disc carrying a series of images set in a ring around the circumference, with small slits between the images. When a rod placed through the centre of the disc, and it was spun in front of a mirror, a person looking through the slits from the back of the disc would see a moving image reflected in the mirror, these images could be abstract or performers such as jugglers or acrobats.

The cel is an important innovation to traditional animation as it allows some parts of each frame to be repeated from frame to frame, which would save labour. A quick and simple example would be a scene with two characters on screen, one of them is talking and the other standing quietly, since one character is not moving it can be displayed in this scene using only one drawing, on one cel while multiple drawings on multiple cels are used to animate the speaking character. In very early cartoons made before the use of the cel, such as Gertie the dinosaur (1914), the entire frame, including the background and all characters and items were drawn on a single sheet of paper, then photographed. So then everything had to be redrawn for each frame containing movements, this led to a jittery appearance. A frame was made by removing all the blank parts of the papers where the objects were drawn before being placed on top of the backgrounds and finally photographed. The cel animation process was invented by Earl Hurd & John Bray in 1915.

1906, Humorous phases of funny faces by James Stuart Blackton. Blacktons first experiment was The Enchanted drawing (1900), followed by Humorous phases (1906) and Lightning sketches (1907). He used a blackboard and chalk to draw a series of drawings of various characters, making slight modifications and using a film camera to shoot each phase frame-by-frame, therefore his experiments are closer to stop motion technique than drawn animation.

Otto Messmer was employed by the Pat Sullivan Studio, in 1919 created Felix the catthe first true animated cartoon and comic strip character, revolutionary in its own right. Felix had a distinctive personality, typical mannerisms and an incredible charm that made him incredibly popular, earning him a unique place in modern culture. According to some people Otto Messmer drew Felix cartoon strips and directed many Felix animated shorts, but studio head Pat Sullivan continued to take the sole credit for Felix, earning millions in royalties, while the unassuming Messmer continued to receive his usual salary at the studios.

Walt Disney, although some accuse his studios of killing animation as an art form early after its beginnings, he is undoubtedly the most influential cartoon producer who had great vision and the ability to push the quality of drawn animation to almost impossible heights, bringing to life cartoon characters that have iconic status in modern culture. In 1928 Steamboat Willie was released, which became the Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronised sound. The cartoon was written and directed by Walt Disney and his collaborator Ub Iwerks.

In 1826, a man called Dr John Ayrton Paris began selling the first animated toys in London. He called his toy a Thaumatrope, which is Greek for Wonder turner. It simply consisted of a disc with two pieces of string attached to it. When the disc was spun between the strings, the images on the back and front blended together to form a single picture.

John Hubley was an American animation director, art director, producer and writer of traditional animation films. In 1935, Hubley gained a job as a background and layout artist at Disney, where he worked on such classic films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi. In1949 he was the creator of the Mr. Magoo cartoon character, based on an Uncle. Hubley was originally the director of Wartership Down, until his death which caused producer Martin Rosen to take over. Some of his works, including the opening sequence, remain in the final version.