ANIMATION | work

Amination

Animation work, timelines, essay about 'stop motion animatiom' and my animation personal work.

Key event in the animation timline

In 1995, people thought that John Lasseter was mad for pitching his idea for ‘Toy Story’. He had a job at Disney but was soon fired because of his idea… This is what gave him the thought to start his own company that we know today as ‘Pixar’. Not only did Toy Story have huge success but also it made other filmmakers and animators look into how they can use CGI in their own unique way; John Lasseter single handily nearly made 2D animation vanish.

To an entire generation of filmgoers, it just might represent the most significant leap in storytelling that they will ever see; for all of the Avatar’s blowing us away, it’s Toy Story’s invention, the perfection of its craft, and its massive, open heart which has garnered it universal appeal and the beginnings of a franchise with an unthinkably consistent quality. While its sequels helped take the animated medium to new emotional heights, the first film penetrates deep into viewers hearts not only because it was the first feature film built entirely by CGI, but because it introduced us to this wonderful collective of charming characters, and to those who grew up with them, each viewing is something like meeting old friends again.

Historical Importance-Stop Motion Animation

William Harbutt: Invention of Plasticine

William Harbutt was born on the 13th February 1844 in North Shields, England. He studied at the National Art Training School and eventually became an associate of the Royal College of Art. He was headmaster of the Bath School of Art and Design from 1874 to 1877, and then opened his own art school at The Paragon Art Studio, 15 Bladud Buildings. He was married to Elizabeth (Bessie), a well-known miniature portrait artist who exhibited works at the Royal Academy of Art and the Chicago World's Fair.

He later died in 1921 from pneumonia while on a trip to New York. After his death they made a memorial garden for him called ‘ The Paradise in Plasticine Garden ’ which was made in 2009 to celebrate the great life of William Harbutt.

During the summer of 1897, William Harbutt, at the age of 53 invented plasticine, which is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids, and was made for his students to create things to help them during there art lessons. This invention did not impact the animation world straight away but during the mid 1900’s this is where clay-stop motion was first used. An example of this is the TV series Gumby, which was created by Davey and Goliath and was first made in the 1950’s.

Some of the most well know Claymation’s are made by Aardman, such as, Chicken Run; Flushed Away; Arthur Christmas; The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientist and of course Wallace and Gromit. Wallace and Gromit was first made in 1990 and since then has made 4 30-minute films, 1 feature film, 1 6-part TV series, 10 2-minute shot films and 1 BBC promo special. This animation has made millions and millions over the past 25 years and is known as one of the most popular Claymation ever.

Some better known claymations are made by Hot Anmation, they have made many children shows through plasticine. For example the CBeebies show Bob the Builder, which has over 100 episodes across 18 series and has been running since 1998. They have recently just stopped this show but are re-launching it in 2015 but this time using CGI but are still going to give it the Claymation effect. Another well-known children show made from plasticine is ‘The Koala Brothers’ which was also shown on Cbeebies; this made around 80 episodes across 3 seasons but has been cut and is no londer making any episodes.

Plasticine has just impacted Tv and film, it has impacted video games as well. Probably the most spectacular use of model animation for a computer game was for the Virgin Interactive Entertainment Mythos game Magic and Mayhem (1998), for which stop-motion animator and special-effects expert Alan Friswell constructed over 25 monsters and mythological characters utilising both modelling clay and latex rubber, over wire and ball-and-socket skeletons. Another game that used the techniques of Claymation is a game called The Neverhood (1996) where all of the chracters and the surroundings were made of plasticine and was created by Mark Lorenzan. It was first brought out of Microsoft PC but later in 1998 was released for the PlayStation 1.

If William Harbutt didn’t invent plasticine during the summer of 1897, we would not have the same advancements in animation that we do in 2015, since that invention so many more have come after it. Harbutt was an instigated for many people to actually think out side the box in terms of animation and you don’t need to just draw on paper to make animation but you could use 3D objects to give the illusion of movement.

If it wasn’t for Harbutt we may have never tried to make Computer generated image (CGI) as people would have been to scared to attempt something new in the animation world, but because of Harbutt, it gave people that encouragement to not just keep animation to 2D drawings but to expand on that, through the use of computers.

Overall William Harbutt made a tremeodus amount of impact of the world of animation with the invention of plasticine as it has given other people the freedom to experiment nex things will animation and not just sticking to 2D drawings to show the illusion of movement but actually we can us 3D objects as well. This mam had made an historical impact on animation.