Difference between revisions of "Cel Animation"
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Celluloid or cel animation is a film-based media form, where transparent individually-created films frames are projected with light sequentially onto a reflective screen, creating an illusion of motion. Although contemporary cinematic animation has been transformed through use of the computer, historically cel animation has been created by hand. Due to this manual quality, traditional cel animation pre-dated the photographic automation that became 20th century cinema. | Celluloid or cel animation is a film-based media form, where transparent individually-created films frames are projected with light sequentially onto a reflective screen, creating an illusion of motion. Although contemporary cinematic animation has been transformed through use of the computer, historically cel animation has been created by hand. Due to this manual quality, traditional cel animation pre-dated the photographic automation that became 20th century cinema. | ||
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| + | This visual phantasmagoria derives from the phenomenon of 'persistence of vision,' or the visual perception of minute sequential differences. As fundamentally discontinuous not just in sequence but in visual representation, cel animation is inherently modular. Its fundamental construction gives cel animation a rarely-acknowledged aesthetic range. Historically, its hand-drawn nature and demand for labor has made animated cartoons visually oversimplified, yet the computational capacity of the computer has made the form exceedingly complex. | ||
==Precursors== | ==Precursors== | ||
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| + | Many technical genealogies have been written about the precursors to what became established in the 1910s as 16mm motion picture cinema. Crary | ||
Revision as of 11:41, 29 March 2010
Celluloid or cel animation is a film-based media form, where transparent individually-created films frames are projected with light sequentially onto a reflective screen, creating an illusion of motion. Although contemporary cinematic animation has been transformed through use of the computer, historically cel animation has been created by hand. Due to this manual quality, traditional cel animation pre-dated the photographic automation that became 20th century cinema.
This visual phantasmagoria derives from the phenomenon of 'persistence of vision,' or the visual perception of minute sequential differences. As fundamentally discontinuous not just in sequence but in visual representation, cel animation is inherently modular. Its fundamental construction gives cel animation a rarely-acknowledged aesthetic range. Historically, its hand-drawn nature and demand for labor has made animated cartoons visually oversimplified, yet the computational capacity of the computer has made the form exceedingly complex.
Precursors
Many technical genealogies have been written about the precursors to what became established in the 1910s as 16mm motion picture cinema. Crary
Cinematic Presence
The word animation derives from the latin verb 'animare,' which means 'to give life to' (Wells, 10).
Historically, cel animation pre-dated traditional cinema
deriving from the latin verb
Outline:
Presence Gumbrecht Example: McCay’s Gertie the dinosaur
Illusion of motion Persistence of vision
Intertwine theory with history: Animation as a system Modularity From simple to complex
Early animation
Late animation
History and theory: Manovich Gitelman Crary
Precursors Representation: Magic lantern Seen as mystical Example: picture Photography Mimesis not immediately grasped Especially since exposure time long Example: war photo picture
Time: Phenakistiscope Example animated gif //http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Phenakistoscope_3g07690a.gif// Kinetoscope (film) Example: Edison film boxing match http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTXye62mAY&feature=channel
Differentiation from film Mixture of live-action and animation Example: Disney’s Alices’ Wonderland Wonders of animation
Representation of space Crary
Abstraction of vision into mechanism Subjective truth and perceptual effects
Example: Disney’s Fantasia
Representation of time
Doane and Freud
Crary
Example: Road Runner
Stopping of time
Persistence of vision
Televisionization of animation
Economic and cultural changes
Example: Scooby Doo
Disney’s mid-period “English” films
Future:
Special Effects as supplement Dichotomy Example: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Special Effects as enhancer of verisimilitude: Manovich
Example: Jurassic Park
Digital video, with live-action as a supplement Manovich
Example: Avatar
