Week 1: Timeline & Understanding of the history of film, animation and VFX.

My understanding of the history of film:

I didn’t realize that the development of film has only taken more than a hundred years. It’s amazing how fast and well such an emerging industry can grow. Film began taking shape in 1895, then Edison perfected the Kinetoscope in 1891, then Hollywood took over as the leader of world cinema. The film industry thrived on its way well ahead. I started to explore further with great interest of what caused the film industry such rapid development.

Like all the new things, the earliest films were a sensation. People were afraid of the coming train in the film, and they were uncomfortable and confused by the cameras set in the street. Instead of waving and talking in front of the camera, as nowadays. This is like the law of diffusion of innovation. If film wants to be accepted by mass market, it needs 16% of early adopters. Because if no one is willing to give it a try there won’t be any people attracted by it. So, what does the film industry do to make black and white films less boring?

People began to perform music when playing silent films. It seems film became another vehicle for musical. This smooth transition certainly makes it easier for the audience to accept. The first films were more about recording and broadcasting what was going on. Neither the audience nor the filmmakers knew what form the film could be produce. So, I believe that’s why serpentine dance becoming a staple of early film.

Fortunately, there are always plenty of people with novel ideas, such as George Méliès. I believe that the multiple exposure technique he used in his films definitely gave all filmmakers a new inspiration. Also, the glass film studio he built was amazing. The glass walls and ceiling perfectly overcome the problem of exposure due to the reason electric light wasn’t power enough.

At the same time there was a group of people who had their own ideas about making films. I was impressed by La Gallina Misteriosa, a 1902 Spanish comedy about what came first, the chicken or the egg. It doesn’t have to be a realistic recording and spreading of existing art (such as serpentine dance). It can be a comedy, or something else, that conveys an unconventional view and attitude about the world. I was also surprised that filmmakers would hire people to manually color black and white films frame by frame in pursuit of visual effect, and sure enough, people always find a way to overcome the difficulty.

So, what motivated people doing so much for films? George Albert Smith and George Méliè gave their answer, to produce entertaining and amusing film. I believe this kind of interest and determination gives them such enthusiasm and motivation. This was the reason why they or the people at that time can accelerate the development of the film.

Furthermore, Smith began to use close-ups to accentuate the character’s personality and fade out the scene to show the transition from dream to reality, techniques like these are still used in film and television nowadays. I find Smith increasingly adept at using these techniques in his film. The extreme close up he used reminds me of the Match cut. For example, in the war scene, the extreme close-up of a spear can match cut to a flying arrow, and then zoom out to show the grand scene of the war.

I found that the performance techniques of silent films at this stage were exaggerated, and actors often used exaggerated actions similar to those in musicals to express themselves. For example, Blood & Bosh. This may because at the early stage, actors did not know the appropriate way to attract audiences’ attention. It could also because early films themselves grew out of musicals. But it might also fit with people’s perception of what was novelty. And it’s also the first time I find the the original silent film began to use the black background of white subtitles as expression technique

Also in 1900s, more audiences weren’t content to just passively absorb the information of the film, they begin to pursue actors to express the personality of the character. At the same time, silent films began to pursue sound effects in addition to music such as the sound of a hammer or a clarinet. I think this is also the gradual progress of people’s aesthetic appreciation of movies.

Timeline for the history of film:

• 1895, Moving pictures projected onto a big screen.
• 1877, Eadweard Muybridge set up a camera system to take a series of pictures of horses in motion for his bet. It’s the basis of film.
• 1891, Thomas Edison had perfected the Kinetoscope.
• 1892, Emile Reynaud projected the first animated film on his Kinetoscope.
• 1890s, Serpentine dance becoming early film because there was no cinema.
• 1895, Robert W. Paul and Bert Akers had invented the first British 35 millimeter camera
• December 28th 1895, Lumiere brothers demonstrated their invention of motion pictures in Paris. It includes scenes of people coming out and a train coming. Just simple shots.
• February 21th 1896, Robert W. Paul demonstrated his projector the theatre graph. Also Lumiere system was displayed in London.
• June 1896, The Derby, one of the earliest examples of newsreel by Robert W. Paul’s Kinetoscopes.
• George Méliès – One of the first filmmakers to use special effects.
• 1893, Thomas Edison constructed the world’s first film production studio, the Black Maria.
• 1896 or 1897, Alice Guy-Blaché began making films for Gaumont
• 1897, George Méliès built the world’s first film studio in Montreuil made entirely of glass walls and ceilings. (According to the YouTube video ‘BBC Paul Mertons Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema.’)
• 1900, George Smith showed close up for the first time in film.
• 1901, James Williamson The Big Swallow using extreme close-up. He developed multi shot films and cutaways.
• 1902, La gallina misteriosa (Pathé Frères, 1902) A chicken-and-egg comedy about what came first.
• 1903, George Smith used close-ups to highlight the personalities of the characters and fades out to show the transition from dream to reality.
• 1905, People are wooden and curious when they reaction to the camera for the first time recorded by Alice Guy-Blaché.
• 1900s, André Deed, the first comic star in cinema. He had strong personality.
• 1902, A trip to the moon is one of the most famous films at the time. The first ever worldwide success in fiction film.
• 1911, Max Linder, the most popular comedian in the world. His comic creation of the coat was remembered by other comedians.
• 1917, the First World War caused Max Linder depression because he narrowly escaped death.
• 1918, Hollywood took over as the leader of world cinema the end of the First World War. The language of cinema was already fully formed.
• 1923, Pathé was able to take over Star Films and the Montreuil studio. George Méliès burned 500 negatives of all his films.
• 1925, Max Linder committed suicide.

My understanding of the history of animation:

I found that all animation is based on the theory of “persistence of vision”. In fact, films are the same. However, unlike the early films, animation does not rely on camera, so it needs “persistence of vision” from the very beginning.

Thaumatrope was the toy used that theory. Basically, it’s a disc with two sides pictures on it. When someone twirl the rope at two ends, the picture will merge into one. To my surprise, this toy, which appeared in 1825, was played when I was a child. It really appeals to kids. I remember I always twirled the rope to see the picture. This is probably closer to the enlightenment of animation, both ages ago and now.

Then Zoopraxiscope was made, and more people began to know what animation is. It might be the first time Frame Per Second was understood and observed in animation. So, why FPS is really matter? I believe it is because our brains understand things in terms of frames. It’s the same way as waving hands. If I wave my hand really fast, it feels like it blurs. But actually, the hand didn’t get blurry but brain is trying to interlace the frame of what is happening. And it turns out the brain work on the same thing a film camera does. A lot of frames combined together and played rapidly will make people feel motion. And that’s how animation works.

Time goes to 1937, Snow White was on the big screen. The multi depth camera used in it is really interesting to me. It divided pictures into different layers in order to show the depth. Sound like how photoshop does but it not. I noticed people have been thinking about how to give animations a sense of space since that time.

What’s more, Disney also created elaborate sound effects and music for Snow White. I think this is probably the beginning of sound production. The rustle of leaves, the tap of shoes on the floor, the noise of the street, all these sound effects together built a wonderful animation world.

Another point worth noting is that the name of the character might fit the personality. It’s like the name of the Seven Dwarfs. It also allows the audience to relate their names to the characters’ characteristics from the beginning, creating more or less a sense of immersion.

What Cresta does is also interesting to me. They used animations in the ads to make them attractive. I think that’s the reason they had become widely remembered since those ads.

Animation is not just a fantasy. People often take things from reality and modify them accordingly. For example, in the beginning, tyrannosaurus rex had a straight back in animation. Later, the correct standing posture of tyrannosaurus rex was discovered according to the study of fossils, which helped the animation to correctly depict the proper pose.

Of course, only people in the animation industry cannot effectively promote development. I believe that after the huge success of Toy Story in 1995, more capital discovered the potential market value of animation. And began to invest in produce and development, such healthy competition makes the market better.

Then it’s the time for CGI to show its power. We have Titanic, Avatar, The Avengers and so many other excellent films. But there is no doubt that 2D animation without CGI still has a large share of the market. Anime can be a representative of 2D animation. I’m a big fan of it. And I also believe that anime will not be replaced by CGI. In fact, anime makers are already experimenting with adding 3D elements to 2D, such as passing planes or cars. I believe this technology will get even better in the near future.

Timeline for the history of animation:

• 1609, The Magic Lantern, moving images was projected onto a screen, but it’s assisted by human hands.
• 1825, Thaumatrope, the first actual animation, this is a disc toy with pictures on both sides. When the rope is twirled, the pictures will merge into one because of the theory of “persistence of vision”.
• 1879, Zoopraxiscope, the first contraption to show a clip of animation, this is a cylinder, and as successive images are placed and rotated, images can be seen moving through the slits.
• 1900-1910, Animation began to exist on the big screen, started with simple faces.
• 1914, Gertie the Dinosaur, the first characteristic animation by Winsor McCay.
• 1928, Steamboat Willie, showed Mickey Mouse to the world. Music and violence appeared in it.
• 1929, Because of the great Depression, People keep going to the theater to watch cartoons as entertainment. Because of this demand, more cartoons were made.
• 1937, Snow White, the first feature film to be created by Disney. Using lots of new techniques.
• 1969, Animator began trying to create real looking monsters such as skeleton soldiers and dinosaurs.
• 1970, Cresta discovered children’s love of animation and created an animated commercial to promote its drink. The main character is a polar bear wearing sunglasses.
• 1986, Pixar Animation Studios was founded. CGI (Computer-generated imagery) began to play an important role in producing animation.
• 1995, Toy Story, the first entirely computer-animated feature film was released by Pixar. The film caused a sensation all over the world.
• 2009, Avatar was on the screen. Fantastic CGI made the movie a great success.
• 2014, CGI became a dominant species of animation.

My understanding of the history of VFX:

Compared with films and animations, the history of visual effects have only been less than 100 years. But VFX is growing as fast as both of them. From low-frame king Kong in 1933 to lifelike dinosaurs in Jurassic Park in 1993, it only took about half a century.

Since then, the visual effects have continued to appear in the film and get great acclaim. As a fan of Final Fantasy, I have to say that while Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within received mixed reviews, but the visual effects in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV was really miraculous.

I found that all the visual effects used in films and animation today basically include facial capture and motion capture. There is no doubt that these two techniques can save huge amount of time. Basic movement and speed no longer have to be manually adjusted frame by frame. But at the same time special-effects artists began to look for more detail.

Timeline for the history of VFX:

• 1933, KING KONG, the visual effect is as engaging as human actors.
• 1958, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, the motion of the monster is controlled frame by frame.
• 1963, Jason And The Argonauts, the skeleton battle animation took 4 months.
• 1985, Young Sherlock Holmes, computer generated character from photo.
• 1989, The Abyss, used an earlier version of Photoshop to complete the 75s liquid water animation. Took 6 months.
• 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, water effect was improved.
• 1993, Jurassic Park, the animator nearly bring the dinosaur in real life by using armature devices.
• 1995, Casper, the first computer animated title character was created.
• 1995, Toy story, the first entirely computer-animated feature film.
• 1996, Dragonheart, the special effects took 15 months to produce.
• 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, over 2000 visual effects, including sixty digital characters were create in that film.
• 2001, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the first Hyper Real, fully computer generated feature film based on original designs.
• 2002, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Weta Digital was awarded the Oscar for best visual effects for three consecutive years for this film.
• 2002, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, improved new character
• 2003, The Matrix Reloaded, used a process called Universal Capture recording the real actor’s performance. And played back from different angles and under different lighting conditions.
• 2005, King Kong, the remake version, having the largest number of visual effect shots in a single film.
• 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Davy Jones was generated by computer so real that people thought they were watching a real person.
• 2007, Beowulf, advanced motion capture technique to transform life action into digital animation.
• 2008, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The actor’s face was captured to create an aging face.
• 2009, Avatar, using face capture and motion capture.

`Reference:

1. Silent Film Locations, 2015. BBC Paul Mertons Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema. [online video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87km5sFrIQQ [Accessed 8 Oct 2021].
2. Jack webb, 2014. History Of Animation Documentary. [online video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfzy05M-nzY [Accessed 8 Oct 2021].
3. World Documentary Channel, 2016. A History of CGI Characters – DOCUMENTARY. [online video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqSAYE5Mrw [Accessed 8 Oct 2021].