Animation has evolved significantly from early experiments in the late 19th century to modern computer generated films and games. Some key developments include Eadweard Muybridge creating early devices to display motion in sequences of images in the 1880s, the first hand-drawn animated film in 1888, color and sound being introduced in the 1920s, Disney releasing the first full-length animated feature Snow White in 1937, Pixar debuting the first fully 3D computer animated film Toy Story in 1995, and modern games achieving photorealistic animation through motion capture and 3D modeling. Animation continues to advance with new technologies.

1. The Evolution of Animation
During this essay, we are going to cover the most noticeable and innovative changes during the
whole history of animation. Animation has changed a lot over the past century, from the first
fully hand drawn animated filmin 1888 to the hyper realismand high-contrast cel animation of
the modern day. There are many milestones to be spoken about in animation and we will cover
the main and most interesting ones.
In 1893 an English-American photographer called Eadweard Muybridge was researching motion
in pictures. He pioneered the animation scene by creating revolutionary devices such as the
zoopraxiscope and the phenakistoscope disc. Although originally created to prove that horses
can fly, this was one of the first ways of presenting animation. In 1887 Eadweard release a
portfolio named “Animal Locomotion” that contained 781 plates created with over individual
20,000 photos. Although not being hand drawn or in a cartoon like style these were still the first
known animations, as Eadweard was moving still images, which hadn’t been done up to this
point in time. This was all just 1 year before the first hand drawn moving image animation. This
was a film called “Un Bon Bock” (A Good Beer) and was around 15 minutes in length. This film
was created with 700 individually hand drawn frames by a French scientist called Charles-Emile
Reynaud. To create each frame, he hand painted and drew the images onto strips of
transparent gelatine.
It wasn’t until the early 20th century when animation would see its next major step up in the
quality of animations produced. This happened when larger studios such as Paramount Pictures
started to assemble teams of animators to create higher quality short films for television and
educational purposes. Some of the most well-known early animated shorts come from
Paramount’s “Felix the Cat” line of animations. These were among the first fully cartoon
animations to appear on television for entertainment purposes. These cartoons were first
created in 1919 which was still in the black and white era, although there is one animated short
that goes back to 1912 and was known for using Kinemacolor which is a two-color process. This
film was called “In Gollywog Land” and created by a company called Natural Colour
Kinematograph Company based in the UK. Although many do not see this film as the first
colorized animation as the filmwas essentially a live action film with puppet sections, the film is
now lost so nobody is able to confirm nor deny this. The film more well known for being the
first color animation is a short animation called “The Debut of Thomas Cat” created in 1920
created by US animator John Randolph Bray. This was the first animation to use a process called
the Brewster Natural Color Process. In this process green, blue and some yellow light is passed
through a filter onto the panchromatic emulsion on the front of the film, whilst the red, orange
and some yellow light is put onto the panchromatic emulsion on the back of the film. This
allows for quite a lot of color for an early filmand this was game changing in the animation
industry. The first animation to make use of the two-strip technicolor process was a film called
“Fiddlesticks” created by ex-Disney animator Ub Iwerks and released in 1930. This is the
process of where the filmis exposed to two consecutive frames on one strip of black and white
negative-filmunder a green and red filter. This was the first animated short to use this coloring
method and synchronized sound.

2. In 1937 the bar on the animation industry got raised by the animators at Disney who created
the first full length film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” with an 83 minute run time. This
film took 3-4 years to complete and was also the first filmto release a full film soundtrack along
with the release of the film. Although the movie didn’t make it onto VHS until 1994 the film was
technically brilliant and was a great way of showing Disney’s innovative animation methods. In
1995 Disney Pixar released a project they have been working on for 4 years. Toy Story was the
first fully computer generated 3D animated filmand cost 26 million dollars to create. The
animation for this filmwas revolutionary and the look of the filmwas a first of its kind. Ash
Brannon was the directing animator and story artist and started creating complex character
models. For example, the computer generated model for Woody had “723 motion controls,
including 212 for his face and 58 for his mouth”. This was the film that revolutionized and set
the bar for more modern day animated films. To achieve the look of the film they used a new
technique at the time. Each shot of the filmpassed through different teams of animators. It
starts with the animators making the scene with the models of the characters and the
background. They then go through the process of adding shading, lighting and visual effects
before fully rendering it using 300 computers. The team used “RenderMan” to create shading
programs for different textures. To get some textures such as Andy’s curtains, they digitally
scanned real curtain material and used it to put against the curtains in the animation for the
most realistic look as possible. The art department was reliable for creating all of the color
schemes for the backgrounds and characters. They used live videos of actors doing the
movements to directly copy for the movement of the animation and also used Lasseter rejected
automatic lip-syncing to sync the actor’s speech to the character’s mouth. The animators spent
a week on 8 seconds of the film.
The evolution of animation in film is a lot different to how animation has changed in video
games. Because games took a lot longer to develop than most animations in the 20th century,
video games went for a more simplistic approach. The first video game to receive universal
acclaimwas pong on the Atari. Pong was a black and white, pixel art game released in 1972.
The years 1978-1982 was “The Golden Age of Arcade Video Games”. Games such as Space
Invaders and Pac Man started to revolutionize the aesthetics of video games by using more
color than ever seen before and having more pixels on screen, which made the games look
higher quality. As newer generation consoles were released such as the Xbox and PlayStation,
the graphics and way video games were made were improved upon for an overall better
experience. Metal Gear Solid was a game released in 1998 for the PlayStation and is well known
for its revolutionary graphics of the time. For the animation of the video game the developers
of the game set up a camera and hooked it up to a PC to construct a “real life guide to creating
perspective and proportion”.
Animation within games have a lot more complex features than in an animation for filmor
television, especially in the modern day. This is because there must be an animation cycle or
action created for every possible outcome, interaction or movement in the game. Also,
animated games also have usually a lot more screen time than animated movies do meaning
the game will take a lot longer to develop, resulting in some video games such as Duke Nukem
Forever taking 15 years to create. Motion capture is used in both film and game animation as

3. it’s an easy way to capture the most realistic motion of a natural creature or being. Most
modern games are animated in 3D. This makes the animating process for games quite similar to
creating 3D animated films such as films created by Disney Pixar. For example, in a game such
as Grand Theft Auto 5, the player is able to rotate the camera 360 degrees around the
character, meaning the model must be created in 3D or that effect wouldn’t work. This is the
same with the buildings and environments in many of these open world games. Although most
games nowadays are created fully in 3D, some major titles such as Terraria and Cup Head went
for the task of creating a 2D animated game. The creators at StudioMDHR wanted to capture
the feel of the 1930s animation we covered earlier in this essay, so the animators decided to
create frame by frame animations for the whole game. This resulted in the games release date
being pushed back two years and the developers having to take out mortgages on their houses
to complete the game but the results turned out phenomenal and groundbreaking.
Overall animation has come a long way over the past millennium. Animation has evolved from
black and white 2D hand drawn cartoons, to 3D, 4K computer generated movies. To this day
animation is still advancing to create new experiences for people everywhere. We would never
be where we are today if Eadweard Muybridge hadn't created the phenakistoscope or if
companys such as 20th Century Fox hadn't explored and pushed the boundrys of animation.
We are currently in the best age for animation and im sure we will continue to progress and
optimise new and current methods.