1. Unit 33 – Assignment 1
Task 1
Techniques
Persistence of vision→ is a commonly-accepted although somewhat controversial theory
which states that the human eye always retains images for a fraction of a second (around
0.04 second). This means that everything we see is a subtle blend of what is happening now
and what happened a fraction of a second ago.
In film and video, this phenomenon is widely believed to account for our ability to perceive
a sequence of frames as a continuous moving picture. However this idea was debunked in
1912 and there is no scientific evidence to suggest that persistence of vision works in this
way. Rather, it is thought that the illusion of continuous motion is caused by unrelated
phenomena such asbeta movement (the brain assuming movement between two static
images when shown in quick succession).
Stop Frame→ it is achieved my manipulating a physical object and making it appear to move
on its own by shooting one frame, manipulating the object, then shooting another frame,
and so on. An example of stop frame animation is the 1933 film, King Kong and also Wallace
and Gromit.
Other forms of animation such as cell animation and object animation also fall under stop
frame animation. Clay puppets are commonly used when filming stop frame animation,
because their movements can easily be manipulated between frames with minimal risk of
damage to the puppet. It is a relatively newer form of frame-by-frame animation, but it took
hold as a popular form of stop-motion, especially when geared toward children's
programming. This type of frame-by-frame animation is often called Claymation.
Other forms of frame-by-frame animation rely on manipulation of solid objects rather than
malleable ones. A stop-motion film can be shot, for example, of a model car driving up the
street by taking a shot of the car in one frame, moving it up the road a bit, and then taking
another shot. This principle mirrors that of Claymation, but the object itself is not malleable
and therefore cannot imitate human or animal expressions. This is called object animation
and is one of the oldest animation techniques.
Frame Rates→ is the measure of the number of frames displayed sequentially per second of
animation in order to create the illusion of motion. The higher the frame rate, the smoother
the motion, because there are more frames per second to display the transition from point
A to point B.

2. Development
Pioneers
Joseph Plateau (Phenakistoscope) → in 1832, Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons
introduced the phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer"). It was also invented independently in
the same year by Simon von Stampfer of Vienna, Austria, who called his invention a
stroboscope. Plateau's inspiration had come primarily from the work of Michael Faraday
and Peter Mark Roget. Faraday had invented a device he called "Michael Faraday's Wheel,"
that consisted of two discs that spun in opposite directions from each other. From this,
Plateau took another step, adapting Faraday's wheel into a toy he later named the
phenakistoscope. A phenakistoscope's discs spin together in the same direction. When
viewed in a mirror through the first disc's slots, the pictures on the second disc will appear
to move.
Thomas Edison (Kinetscope)→ Edison's interest in motion pictures began before 1888; however,
the visit of Eadweard Muybridge to his laboratory in West Orange in February of that year certainly
stimulated his resolve to invent a camera for motion pictures. Muybridge proposed that they
collaborate and combine the Zoopraxiscope with the Edison phonograph. Although apparently
intrigued, Edison decided not to participate in such a partnership, perhaps realizing that the
Zoopraxiscope was not a very practical or efficient way of recording motion. In 1888 he described his
ideas for a device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear", record and
reproduce objects in motion. He called it a "Kinetoscope," using the Greek words "kineto" meaning
"movement" and "scopos" meaning "to watch.” One of Edison's first motion picture and the first
motion picture ever copyrighted showed his employee Fred Ott pretending to sneeze.
Lumiere Brothers→ Auguste and Louis Lumière came from Lyon in France, where they worked in
their father's photographic factory. In 1894, they saw Edison's kinetoscope in Paris, and decided to
design a camera of their own. By February of the next year they had produced a working model of
their ciné camera, which they called a cinématographe. The machine was in fact not only a camera
but could be used, together with a magic lantern, to project the films which the brothers had taken.
The films produced by the Lumières' camera were usually about 50 seconds long. They were taken in
one shot, with the camera kept fixed on a tripod, looking the same way all the time. The first one
which was ever to shown to an audience was an image of the workers leaving the factory in Lyon.
William Horner (Zoetrope)→ William Horner created a device called the zoetrope, it is a device that
produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. The zoetrope consists of a
cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with
images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the
pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the
user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. The term zoetrope is from,
the Greek words ζωή (zoē), meaning "alive, active", and τροπή (tropē), meaning "turn", with
"zoetrope" taken to mean "active turn" or "wheel of life".

3. Developers
Willis O’Brien→was an Irish American motion picture special effects and stop-motions animation
pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood “was responsible for some of the best-known images in
cinema history,” and is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933)
and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Ray Harryhausen→ is an American visual effects creator, writer and producer. He created a brand of
stop-motion model animation known as “Dynamation.” Among his most notable works are his
animations on Mighty Joe Young (with pioneer Willis O’Brien, which won the Academy Award for
special effects)(1949), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (his first colour film) and Jason and the Argonauts,
featuring a famous sword fight against seven skeleton warriors.
Jan Švankmajer→ is a Czech filmmaker and artist, whose work spans several media. He is a self-
labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other
artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay and many others. He did various feature-length films,
such as Alice in 1988, Faust in 1994 and Conspirators of Pleasure in 1996. He also did some short
films such as The Last Trick in 1964, A Game with Stones in 1965 and Punch and Judy in 1966.
Contemporary Work
The Brothers Quay→ are identical American twin brothers. They are the recipients of the 1998
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play The Chairs. The Quay
Brothers reside and work in England, having moved there in 1969 to study at the Royal College of
Art, London after studying illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art. They were included in the
help of some featured films such as The Piano tuner of Earthquakes in 2005 and Institutes
Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life in 1995. They also helped in short films such as
Street of Crocodiles in 1986, Rain Dance in 1990 and Through the Weeping Glass in 2011.
Tim Burton→ is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for his dark,
quirky themed movies such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sweeney
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 9. Burton is known for using recurring collaborators on his
works; among them are Jonny Depp, musician Danny Elfman; and domestic partner Helena Bohnam
Carter. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other
Stories, published in 1997, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other artwork, entitled
The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009.
Aardman Animations→ also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British
animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-
motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and
Gromit. However, it is successfully entered the computer animation market with the movie Flushed
Away in 2006.

4. Genres and Forms
Animation is used in many different sections of the media, for example:
TV animation,
Cinema,
Advertising,
Music videos,
TV animation→these are programmes that use animation as a type of video format. For example a
lot of children TV shows use a variety of animation methods such as stop-start animation to help
create the various shows. Some examples of this are Wallace and Gromit, Morph in SMart and Shaun
the Sheep for the BBC.
Cinema→ stop-motion animation and also Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) are used in the
making of quite a lot of films, in a variety of genres from action to horror. These types of animation
are used in various scenes of a film because either the scene maybe unrealistic such as a scene in
space, or a scene maybe too dangerous for a stunt man to do. Some films that use CGI are: Tron,
Avatar, Toy Story 1, 2, 3 and WALL-E.
Advertising→ Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and stop-motion animation is also used in TV
advertising. These kinds of animations are used in quite a creative way to help advertise the product
in peculiar ways to interest the public into wanting to buy that product. Some examples of CGI TV
advertisements are: Lynx Dark Temptation Chocolate Man and Panasonic Toughbook TV. Some
examples of stop-motion are: Amazon Kindle Commercial 2 and EBay Stop Motion Commercial.
Music Videos→some music videos also you various types of animation to help make the videos
exciting and suit the tone and tempo of the music. Most music videos either use Computer
Generated Imagery (CGI) and stop-motion animation and an example of this is the music video
Sledgehammer (1986) by Peter Gabriel. In this music video, stop-motion animation is used pretty
much all the way through the entire music video, and most on the stop-motion used suits what is
said the music being played.