Unit 33-Year 1 to 2 transition

TECHNIQUES; PERSISTENCE OF VISION, STOP FRAME ANIMATION, FRAME

RATES.
 Persistence of vision
Persistence of vision, also known as an optical illusion is where several images come
together to a single image and tricks the human mind into seeing the image in a pacific
way. Our eyes create the way the picture and how the world is seen, the human eye is
one of five different things to create how we see the picture being seen. Whenever light
strikes the retina, the brain retains the impression of that light for about a tenth of a
second. after the source of that light is removed from the eye. This is due to a chemical
reaction in the brain. Narrowly defined, the theory of persistence of vision is the belief
that human perception of motion (brain centered) is the result of persistence of vision
(eye centered). That version of the theory was disproved in 1912 by Wertheimer but
persists in citations in many classic and modern film-theory texts. A more plausible theory
to explain motion perception (at least on a descriptive level) are two distinct perceptual
illusions: phi phenomenon and beta movement.

A visual form of memory known as iconic memory has been described as the cause of
this phenomenon.[6] Although psychologists and physiologists have rejected the
relevance of this theory to film viewership, film academics and theorists generally have
not. Some scientists nowadays consider the entire theory of iconic memory a myth
Stop Frame Animation
Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an
object so that it appears to move on its own. The object is moved in small
increments between individually photographed frames, creating the
illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous
sequence. Stop motion animation has a long history in film. It was often
used to show objects moving as if by magic. The first instance of the stop
motion technique can be credited to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton
for Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898), in which a toy circus of
acrobats and animals comes to life.
Stop motion is often confused with the time lapse technique, where still
photographs of a live surrounding are taken at regular intervals and
combined into a continuous film. Time lapse is a technique whereby the
frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that used
to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be
moving faster and thus lapsing.
Frame Rates
Frame rate, also known as frame frequency, is the frequency (rate) at
which an imaging device displays consecutive images called frames. The
term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and
motion capture systems. Frame rate is usually expressed in frames per
second (FPS). This perception of modulated light as steady is known as the
flicker fusion threshold. However, when the modulated light is non-uniform
and contains an image, the flicker fusion threshold can be much higher.
When sound film was introduced in 1926, variations in film speed were no
longer tolerated as the human ear is more sensitive to changes in audio
frequency. Many theaters had shown silent films at 22 to 26 FPS which is
why 24 FPS was chosen for sound. From 1927 to 1930, as various studios
updated equipment, the rate of 24 FPS became standard for 35 mm
sound film.
Early silent films had stated frame rates anywhere from 16 to 24 frames per
second (FPS), but since the cameras were hand-cranked, the rate often
changed during the scene to fit the mood. Projectionists could also
change the frame rate in the theater by adjusting a rheostat controlling
the voltage powering the film-carrying mechanism in the projector.
Development-Pioneers of
animation
Joseph Plateau (Phenakitoscope):
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (14 October 1801 till 15 September 1883)
was a Belgian physicist. He was one of 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. In 1832, Plateau invented an early stroboscopic
device, the "phenakistoscope", the first device to give the illusion of a moving
image.
Plateau also studied the phenomena of capillary action and surface tension.
The mathematical problem of existence of a minimal surface with a given
boundary is named after him. He conducted extensive studies of soap films
and formulated Plateau's laws which describe the structures formed by such
films in foams.
Fascinated by the persistence of luminous impressions on the retina, he
performed an experiment in which he gazed directly into the sun for 25
seconds. He lost his eyesight later in his life, and attributed the loss to this
experiment. However, this may not be the case, and he may have instead
suffered from chronic uveitis.
William Horner (zoetrope)
Zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the
illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs
showing progressive phases of that motion. The zoetrope consists of a
cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the
cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the
cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across.
Horner's name first appears in the list of solvers of the mathematical
problems in The Ladies' Diary: or, Woman's Almanack for 1811, continuing
in the successive annual issues until that for 1817.
His record in The Gentleman's Diary: or, Mathematical Repository for this
period is similar, including one of two published modes of proof in the
volume for 1815 of a problem posed the previous year by Thomas Scurr,
now dubbed the Butterfly theorem. Leaving the headmastership of
Kingswood School would have given him more time for this work, while the
appearance of his name in these publications, which were favoured by a
network of mathematics teachers, would have helped publicize his own
school.
Emile Reynaud (praxinoscope)
The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the
zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-mile Reynaud. Like
the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of
a spinning cylinder. 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. Emile reynuad
created this, This allowed him to show hand-drawn animated cartoons to
larger audiences, but it was soon eclipsed in popularity by the
photographic film projector of the Lumire brothers.
Reynaud's late years were tragic after 1910 when, his creations outmoded
by the Cinematograph, dejected and penniless, he threw the greater part
of his irreplaceable work and unique equipment into the Seine. The public
had forgotten his "Thtre Optique" shows, which had been a celebrated
attraction at the Muse Grevin between 1892 and 1900. He died in a
hospice on the banks of the Seine where he had been cared for since 29
March 1917.
Eadward Muybridge
Eadward was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in
photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture
projection. He adopted the name Eadward Muybridge, believing it to be
the original Anglo-Saxon form of his name, At age 20, he emigrated to
America, first to New York, as a bookseller, and then to San Francisco. He
returned to England in 1861, and took up professional photography,
learning the wet-plate collodion process, and secured at least two British
patents for his inventions.
In the 1880s, Muybridge entered a very productive period at the University
of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, producing over 100,000 images of animals
and humans in motion, capturing what the human eye could not
distinguish as separate movements. He spent much of his later years giving
public lectures and demonstrations of his photography and early motion
picture sequences, travelling back to England and Europe to publicise his
work.
Edison (kinetoscope)
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The
Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a
time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. The
Kinetoscope was not a movie projector but introduced the basic
approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection. A
prototype for the Kinetoscope was shown to a convention of the National
Federation of Women's Clubs on May 20, 1891. The first public
demonstration of the Kinetoscope was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts
and Sciences on May 9, 1893.

Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his

deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood
and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. Around the middle of his
career, Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the
ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar
caught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan,
along with his apparatus and chemicals.
Lumire Brothers
Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean (The Lumire Brothers) they were
the first filmmakers in history. They patented the cinematograph. When they
were younger they set up a small photographic portrait studio where
Auguste and Louis were born. The Lumires brothers saw film as a novelty
and had withdrawn from the film business in 1905. They went on to develop
the first practical photographic colour process, the Lumire Auto chrome.
Their father Charles-Antoine set up a small factory producing photographic
plates, but even with Louis and a young sister working from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.
it teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, and by 1882 it looked as if they would
fail, but when Auguste returned from military service the boys designed the
machines necessary to automate their father's plate production and devised
a very successful new photo plate, 'etiquettes bleue', and by 1884 the
factory employed a dozen workers.
was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create
moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up
to their film camera, most notably film perforations (originally implemented
by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera
and projector.
George Pal
George Pal was a Hungarian animator and film producer, principally
associated with the science-fiction genre. He was nominated for Academy
Awards. George graduated with an architectural degree when Hungary
was in no need of architects but there were jobs for animation illustrators at
Hunnia films. Since animated films at the time were generally for
advertisement, Pal wanted to start by animating cigarettes. The Czech
tobacco world was not interested in animated advertisements, but the
French were, so the Pals moved to Paris. The first company approached
bought the idea, the ad was a huge success, and Pal was famous.

in 1933, he worked in Prague; in 1934, he made a film advertisement in his

hotel room in Paris, and was invited by Philips to make two more ad shorts.
He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in Eindhoven, in a former butchery,
then at villa-studio Suny Home. He left Germany as the Nazis came to power.
In May 1980, he died in Beverly Hills, California, of a heart attack at the age
of 72, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. The
Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never
completed.
Development-Developers of
animation
Willis OBrien: Wills OBrien was a developer in animation as he improved
animation, His role was a Stop motion model animator Wills was an
American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation
pioneer he is mainly remembered for King Kong'. He spent his spare time
sculpting and illustrating and his natural talent led to him being employed
first as draftsman in an architect's office and then as a sports cartoonist for
the San Francisco Daily News.
He was born in Oakland, California. He first left home at the age of eleven
to work on cattle ranches, and again at the age of thirteen when he took
on a variety of jobs including farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper,
cowboy, and bartender. During this time he also competed in rodeos and
developed an interest in dinosaurs while working as a guide to
palaeontologists in Crater Lake region.
The film however did help to secure his position on Harry O. Hoyt's The Lost
World. For his early, short films O'Brien created his own characters out of
clay, although for much of his feature career he would employ Richard
and Marcel Delgado to create much more detailed stop-motion models
(based on O'Brien's designs) with rubber skin built up over complex,
articulated metal armatures.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer
who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation. His
most memorable works include the animation on Mighty Joe Young. Similar to
Willis OBrein, his job was also a Stop motion model animator. During his life, his
innovative style of special effects in films inspired numerous filmmakers including
George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Lasseter, Peter Jackson, John Landis, Joe
Dante, Henry Selick and Tim Burton. He died in 2013 but is remembered very well
as a great stop motion designer.
After having seen King Kong (1933) for the first of many times on its initial release,
Harryhausen spent his early years experimenting in the production of animated
shorts, inspired by the burgeoning science fiction literary genre of the period. The
scenes utilising stop-motion animation (or model animation), those featuring
creatures on the island or Kong, were the work of pioneer model animator Willis
O'Brien.
Harryhausen was always heavily involved in the pre-production conceptualizing of
each film's story, script development, art-direction, design, storyboards, and
general tone of the his films, as much as any auteur director would have on any
other film, which any "director" of Harryhausen's films had to understand and
agree to work under. Only the complexities of Director's Guild rules in Hollywood
prevented Harryhausen from being credited as the director of his films, resulting in
the more modest credits he had in most of his films.
Jan Svankmajer
Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several
media. He is a self labelled surrealist known for his animations and
features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam,
the Brothers Quay, and many others. An early influence on his later artistic
development was a puppet theatre he was given for Christmas as a
child. Svankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his
distinctive use of stop motion technique, and his ability to make surreal,
nightmarish, and yet somehow funny pictures. He continues to make films
in Prague.
vankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his
distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal,
nightmarish, and yet somehow funny pictures. He continues to make films
in Prague.
Many of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from
a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly
disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities
banned him from making films, and many of his later films were
suppressed. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s.
Contemporary work
The Quay Brothers: Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers
better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-
motion animators. Most of their animation films feature puppets made of doll parts
and other organic and inorganic materials, often partially disassembled, in a dark,
moody atmosphere. Perhaps their best known work is Street of Crocodiles, based
on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz.
Most of their animation films feature puppets made of doll parts and other organic
and inorganic materials, often partially disassembled, in a dark, moody
atmosphere. Perhaps their best known work is Street of Crocodiles, based on the
short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz.
The Quay Brothers' works (1979present) show a wide range of often esoteric
influences, starting with the Polish animators Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica
and continuing with the writers Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser and Michel
de Ghelderode, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Czech Richard Teschner and
Czech composers Leo Janek, Zdenk Lika and Polish Leszek Jankowski, the last
of whom has created many original scores for their work. Czech animator Jan
vankmajer, for whom they named one of their films (The Cabinet of Jan
vankmajer), is also frequently cited as a major influence, but they actually
discovered his work relatively late, in 1983, by which time their characteristic style
and preoccupations had been fully formed.
Tim Burton
Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, artist, writer and
animator. He is known for his dark, gothic and quirky fantasy films such as
Beetlejuice. Burton has worked repeatedly with Johnny Depp, who has
become a close friend of Burton since their first film together. He has also
worked with musician Danny Elfman, who has composed scores for all but
three of the films Burton has directed.
Burton has worked repeatedly with Johnny Depp, who has become a
close friend of Burton since their first film together. He has also worked with
musician Danny Elfman, who has composed scores for all but three of the
films Burton has directed.
Burton was born in 1958, in the city of Burbank, California, the son of Jean
Burton (ne Erickson), the owner of a cat-themed gift shop, and Bill Burton,
a former minor league baseball player who would later work for the
Burbank Park and Recreation Department.
His future work would be heavily influenced by the works of such childhood
heroes as Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl. After graduating from Burbank High
School with Jeff Riekenberg, Burton attended the California Institute of the
Arts in Valencia, California, to study character animation. As a student at
CalArts, Burton made the shorts Stalk of the Celery Monster and King and
Octopus.
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations is a British animation studio based in Bristol. Aardman
is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques,
particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit. All
of their stop motion films are among the highest-grossing stop-motion films,
with their debut, Chicken Run, being their top-grossing film. Wallace and
Gromit is rank as the 24th highest grossing animated franchise of all time.
Aardman Animations was founded in 1972 (44 years ago) it is still currently
a animation business and has recently brought out new material. The
picture below shows examples of the characters used by Aardman.
Aardman was founded in 1972 as a low-budget project by Peter Lord and
David Sproxton, who wanted to realise their dream of producing an
animated motion picture. The partnership provided animated sequences
for the BBC series for deaf children Vision On.
After creating a segment called "Greeblies" (1975) using clay animation,
became what was the inspiration for creating Morph, a simple clay
character. Around the same time Lord and Sproxton made their first foray
into adult animation with the shorts Down and Out and Confessions of a
Foyer Girl, entries in the BBC's Animated Conversations series using real-life
conversations as soundtracks. Aardman also created the title sequence
for The Great Egg Race and supplied animation for the multiple award
winning music video of Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer". They
produced the music video for the song "My Baby Just Cares For Me" by
Nina Simone in 1987.
Genres and forms
TV: TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving
images in monochrome black and white, or in colour, and in two or
three dimensions and sound. Television became available in crude
experimental forms in the late 1920s, but these did not sell to the public.
After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white TV
broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and
television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and
institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for
influencing public opinion.
Television became available in crude experimental forms in the late
1920s, but these did not sell to the public. After World War II, an
improved form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular
in the United States and Britain, and television sets became
commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions.
Channel Idents
television idents begins in the early 1950s, when the BBC first displayed a
logo between programmes to identify its service. As new technology has
become available, these devices have evolved from simple still black and
white images to the sophisticated full colour short films seen today. With
the arrival of digital services in the United Kingdom, and with them many
more new channels, branding is perceived by broadcasters to be much
more important, meaning that idents need to stand out from the
competition.
BBC also use TV Idents, The first ident for Children's BBC once again made
use of the BBC Micro B computer. The design featured the word 'Children's'
on top of a large sprawled 'BBC' made up of the three colours red, green
and blue. In ident, each letter of the BBC animated in to the four note
electronic soundtrack, with the Children's scrolling across afterwards. It
originally had a blue background, but this was changed to black after a
few months. The letters were also all turned yellow in autumn 1986, and
were set against a white background whenever programmes were
broadcast on BBC2.
Cinema
Cinema shows a film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or
photo play, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen,
creates the illusion of moving images. The word cinema, short for
cinematography, is often used to refer to the industry of films and
filmmaking or to the art of filmmaking itself. The contemporary definition of
cinema is the art of simulating experiences to communicate ideas, stories,
perceptions, feelings, beauty or atmosphere by the means of recorded or
programmed moving images along with other sensory stimulations.
A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films
for children, blockbusters for general audiences and documentaries for
patrons who are interested in non-fiction topics. The smallest movie
theaters have a single viewing room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most
movie theaters have multiple screens. The largest theater complexes,
which are called multiplexesa design developed in the U.S. in the
1960shave up to 25 screens.
Advertising
Advertising is an audio or visual form of marketing communication that
employs an openly sponsored, no personal message to promote or sell
a product, service or idea. There are plenty of formats of advertising
including old media such as newspapers, magazines, Television, Radio,
outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as search results,
blogs, websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the
message in a medium is referred to as an advertisement or AD.
Commercial ads often seek to generate increased consumption of
their products or services through "branding," which associates a
product name or image with certain qualities in the minds of
consumers. On the other hand, ads that intend to elicit an immediate
sale are known as direct response advertising. Non-commercial
advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a
consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups,
religious organizations and governmental agencies. Non-profit
organizations may use free modes of persuasion, such as a public
service announcement. Advertising may also be used to reassure
employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful.
Music Videos
A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced
for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily
made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale
of music recordings.
There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing
campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Since
the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists
now promote new music videos by releasing trailers of short promos on
the site for their upcoming song and music video.
Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media
platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans
and audiences.
Computer games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction
with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device
such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The electronic systems used
to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are
personal computers and video game consoles.
The electronic systems used to play video games are known as
platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game
consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to
small handheld computing devices.
Specialized video games such as arcade games, in which the video
game components are housed in a large, coin-operated chassis, while
common in the 1980s in video arcades, have gradually declined in use
due to the widespread availability of affordable home video game
consoles (e.g., PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) and video games on
desktop and laptop computers and smartphones
Mobile phones
A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive
calls over a radio frequency carrier while the user is moving within a
telephone service area. The first handheld mobile phone was
demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in
1973, using a handset weighing c. 4.4 lbs (2 kg).
Most modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network
architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are often also called
cellular telephones or cell phones.
In addition to telephony, 2000s-era mobile phones support a variety of
other services, such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access,
short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business
applications, gaming, and digital photography. Mobile phones which
offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as
smartphones.
Websites
A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia
content, typically identified with a common domain name, and
published on at least one web server.
A web site may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP)
network, such as the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by
referencing a uniform resource locator (URL) that identifies the site.
Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites.
Documents, typically composed in plain text interspersed with
formatting instructions of Hypertext Mark-up Language HTML.