Start of the Digital Era

Since computer imaging made its debut, the digital presence in production has increased at a fast rate.  Digital imaging has increased the output rate of 2D and 3D animations.

Disney harnessed the power of computers to quickly draw and paint in the new feature films. Later on Disney begins to utilize the power of 3D animation software for beauty and the beast to easily have a camera flow during the ballroom dance scene.

Lucasfilm begins to start building a technology team in 1979 to create computer based images for feature films. This section of Lucasfilm was used to create creatures for "The Abyss", "Terminator 2", and "Jurassic Park".  This group of people later started their own company, Pixar in 1986.

Pixar used their 3D software to help create digital images for many feature films before they were able to create the first full length feature film, "Toy Story". After "Toy Story" had great success in the box office, the door was open for digitally created films.

There is a documentary about the start of pixar going into the beginnings of computer image processes as we know them today called "The Pixar Story." This film is full of interviews from the industry leaders.

At this time I would like to apologize to my readers for forgetting to add authors and publish dates for the references to my previous post. I will be updating the references on the previous post.

References:
1.New York Times "Animation goes Digital"  Published Feb. 10th 2010. Written by Laura M. Holson
2.History of Pixar Author Unknown
3.The Pixar Story  Director: Leslie Iwerks Released: 2007

The 9 Old Men of Animation

Beginnings of animation as we know it today were the collaborative genius of what are known as "The Nine Old Men." These members were the core animators for Disney.  Walt Disney called this group of animators the nine old men after President Roosevelt's name for the nine supreme court justices at the time.  All of the "Nine Old Men" are now deceased but there techniques to animation are still supreme even into this digital era. As of 2008 the last of the nine old men passed away. Although they are all deceased, the techniques created by them are used to this day to create believable motion.

The nine old men are:

• Eric Larson - Known for animal characters such as Peg from "Lady and the Tramp" 
• Frank Thomas - Created characters such as Captain Hook.
• John Lounsbery - Refined the style for loose organic material such as the belly dancing alligator
• Les Clark - Mickey's Original Artist
• Marc Davis - Artist for Bambi, Thumper, and Cruella De Vil
• Milt Kahl - Made many characters for "The Jungle Book" and "The Rescuers"
• Ollie Johnston - Developed the character Mr. Smee, along with Cinderella's step sisters
• Ward Kimball - Known for the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland"
• Wolfgang Reitherman - took over the director spot after Walt Disney's death.

These nine old men created the twelve basic principles of animation:

• Squash and Stretch 
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Slow in and Slow out
• Arcs
• Secondary Action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid Drawing
• Appeal

References:
Disney Resource Unknown Author, Published April 2008.
Image credit "My So-called Animated Life" in March 2012

Lets Get Started

    Welcome to Keyframes in Focus, a blog that explains the evolution of the animation process due to the advances in technology. 

    This blog will be an overview of the animation process and its changes throughout the span of 1980's through the present, along with, minor touches on early animations before the 1980s.  The information will be an informative way to find more info in one place instead of making the viewer attempt to find each change on his or her own. The people who will find this information useful will be anyone looking into how animation has got the way it is today. By realizing the history and the effects in the past they can gain an idea on how it will be in the future and gain a better understanding of the techniques used.

    This blog will be a series of posts that will conclude after the first week of December 2012.  There will be a total of twelve posts covering the topic. The first post will be over traditional animation using paper and pencil. As the posts continue there will be gradual advances in which technologies became available and how the process changed due to them along with how the social media influenced changes. The ending articles will be about how animation is being done now days with motion capture lenses and leaving the readers with an educated guess on how the animations will change in the future. 

   My qualifications to write about history of animation comes from my personal interest in researching the subject. As a student of the art, I attended the Van Arts Masters Class on animation during June of 2011. There I gained more interest in the history of animation, such as where Walt Disney and other members of the "9 old men" got the ideas for the animation principles.  Once that happened I started learning more 2D techniques to use with 3D animation. 

It is my hope that you will all enjoy the posts to come. Feel free to posts comments and ask questions at any time.

-T.O-