History of Animation

Some of the earliest types of animation was produced in around 30,000 B.C. as people use to draw small animations around pots of animals running or hunting scenes. As time went on people started drawing more types of animation for example, Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man drawing shows multiple angles, implying movement.

The first type of animation equipment was called The Magic Latern in 1603, which was an image projector using pictures on sheets of glass. Since some of the sheets contained moving parts, it is considered as the first example of projected animation.

Then in 1824 the Thaumatrope was made. This piece of animation equipment houses a rotating mechanism with a different picture on each side. By 1877 animation had advanced a lot as a machine called the Movieola/ Praxinoscope, which uses multiple wheels to rotate images. It is considered to have shown the first prototypes of the animated cartoon.

The silent era marks the beginning of theatrical showings of cartoons, especially in the US. Bray studios in New York was the most successful of this era. Bray helped launch the careers of the cartoonists who created Mighty Mouse, Betty Boop and Woody Woodpecker. The year 1906 marks the first entirely animated film using stop-motion photography to create action.

In 1930 Warner Brothers cartoons were founded and many animations like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were created. Then in 1937 Snow White and the seven dwarfs was released, which was the first animation featured to use hand drawn animation.

Now we get to the modern era as in 1976 CGI was created. CGI stands for computer generated imagery, which replaced 2D drawings with 3D modelling, almost like a virtual version of stop motion. The very

first CGI movie was called ‘The Adventures of Andre and Wally B’.