Josh Jermy - Film Blogs: 2013

History of Animation

Persistence of Vision

‘Persistence of Vision’ refers to the phenomenon where the retina retains an image for a brief split second after the image is actually seen and lends itself to animation by adopting the illusion of motion when people view images in a closely-timed sequence to one another. We don’t notice the spaces between the images because the persistence fills in the momentary gap to make the motion seem seamless.

Although the term ‘persistence of vision’ is the standard expression it is seen as inadequate as it does not fully describe this very complex physiological reality.

‘Persistence of vision’ is known to keep the world from going black when we blink our eyes.

According to how bright an image is will depend on how long your retina will retain an image (between 0.04 and 0.15 or a second). It also depends on the retinal field, colour and view. This happens when the light is removed from sight.

‘Persistence of Vision’ is a chemical reaction and as a result the eye can’t distinguish clearly the changes in light that occur faster than this retention period. These changes go unnoticed or just appear as continuous picture.

Types/Techniques/Devices of Animation

Cave Paintings are paintings that are found on cave walls or ceilings, and normally refer to those of prehistoric origin. The earliest cave paintings were found in Europe and date back to 40,000 years ago in the Aurignacian period. The exact purpose behind cave paintings is unknown but there are theories including trying to communicate with others, religious views, telling stories and ceremonial purposes.

Almost 340 caves have been discovered in France and Spain that contain prehistoric art. The oldest known cave art is from the Cave of El Castillo in northern Spain. The art dates back to around 40,800 years ago and makes it the oldest known cave art in Europe by 5-10,000 years.

Cave paintings have also been found around the world including in Africa, Australia, Bulgaria, England, India, North America and South America, while in Finland paintings are rock faces were discovered.

The most common cave paintings are animals such as bison, horses, aurochs and deer. There are also tracings of human hands and abstract patterns and these are called finger flutings. Colours used in caves paintings include red and yellow, while in some cases the animals are just engraved into the caves with no colour schemes.

The Phenakistoscope is a revolving disc on which figures are drawn in different, yet relative positions and are seen successively, which creates the actual motion for example, animal leaping. In consequence of this it creates successive visual impressions of the retina. It may also be arranged so it can be projected onto a screen.

It was invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau who was a Belgian physicist and his sons.

The name Phenakistoscope means ‘spindle viewer’.

The Phenakistoscope is also known as the Phatascope and Phantasmascope.

The name basically translates from the Greek for ‘action viewer’.

The Zoetrope is toy that consists of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through the slits when the cylinder is rotating, gives an impression of continual motion. The name comes from the Greek ‘zōē’ which means life and ‘-tropos’ which means turning.

The Zoetrope was invented by William Horner in 1834 and originally called it Daedalum (‘the wheel of the Devil’). It was based on the Phenakistoscope and was also an improvement of it.

For just over 30 years the device/toy was forgotten until it became popular and was brought back by M. Bradley (in England) and by William F. Lincoln (in America) in 1867. This was when it was renamed ‘zoetrope’ and ‘wheel of life’.

A Zoetrope was featured in The Woman in Black.

The Praxinoscope is the successor to the Zoetrope and is an instrument that shows a body as if in motion by the placement of successive pictures and mirrors in a horizontally rotating box. The eye, fixed upon the central placement of the mirrors, then sees the object apparently performing its natural movements.

The Praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope.

The Praxinoscope was invented in 1877 by the Frenchman Charles Reynaud and was the first device to overcome the picture distortion caused by viewing through slits.

The Thaumatrope is a toy that was made/discovered in the 19^th century, and consists of a disc with a different picture on each of the two sides. By doing this the two images combine into one image when the disc is rotated rapidly. Just like the Zoetrope and the Praxinoscope the name comes from Greek.

Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand held light source or by moving the camera. Light painting photography can be traced back to 1914 when Frank Gilberth and his wife Lillian Moller Gilberth used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track motion of clerical and manufacturing images. Man Ray created the series ‘Space Writing’ in 1935 and was the first known photographer to use the technique, while Barbara Morgan in 1940 began making light paintings.

A variety of light sources can be used for light paintings, these can range from flashlights to the Hosemaster (which use a fiber optic light pen). Other sources of light that can be used include candles, matches, fireworks, light flints and glowsticks. Poi is also popular to use for light paintings.

Stop-motion also known as stop frame is an animation technique to make a physically that manipulates objects to appear to move on its own. Between each shot there are small movements and once played back in a continuously it manipulates the illusion of movement.

Stop-motion goes back to 1897 thanks to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton who created The Humpty Dumpty Circus. After this George Melies used stop-motion to produce moving title-card letters for one of his short films but didn’t use it again. Other successful stop-motion films in the 1900’s including The Haunted Hotel in 1907 by J. Stuart Blackton and El Hotel Electrico by Segundo de Chomo in the same year.

After this famous animator Willis O’Brien used stop-motion on live-action films such as The Lost World and King Kong. These films were groundbreaking especially King Kong that showed that stop-motion was possible in films.

His successor and protégé Ray Harryhausen went onto use stop-motion in many films such as Jason and the Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, It Came from Beneath the Sea and The Three Worlds of Gulliver.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Industrial Light and Magic used a lot of stop-motion animation in their films. This included stop-motion work on the original Star Wars trilogy. The use of stop motion included the chess sequence (New Hope), AT-AT walkers (Empire Strikes Back) and the AT-ST walkers (Return of the Jedi).

Other uses of stop-motion in famous films include Terminator (the final sequence of the film), Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (many of the ghosts) and the Robocop series (Phil Tippett’s go motion was used in that series).

Clay animation also known as Claymation is one of the forms of stop-motion. Each animated piece, either background or character, is ‘deformable’. They are made of malleable materials such as plasticine clay.

Just like other types of animation including cel and traditional animation it is produced by recording every shot/frame and play the recorded frames in rapid succession to the viewer to create the illusion of motion.

Clay animated films go back to 1908, when Edison Manufacturing released a trick film called ‘The Sculptors Welsh Rarebit Dream’. Eight years later Claymation was produced more on a wide range of subjects.

Over the years it grew in popularity and in 1972 the animation company Aardman was founded and increased the popularity of Claymation. Aardman have released five feature films as of 2013.

Computer games have also used Claymation including The Neverhood, Clay Fighter, Platypus and Primal Rage. Television commercials are known for using Claymation as well as in children’s shows such as Bob the Builder and The Koala Brothers.

Claymation has also been used with computer animation which included the film Flushed Away, which was released in 2006 by Aaradman and Dreamworks and was a financially unsuccessful.

Pixilation is a form/technique of animation similar to stop-motion. It is used when live-action actors are used frame by frame as a subject in animation projects. This is done when the actor/actors pose while one or more frames are taken and change their pose between shots slightly. The actor essentially becomes a live-action stop-motion puppet.

Examples of this technique are used in films such as El Hotel Electrico and Jobard ne peut pas vois les femmes travailler (translates in English to Jobard cannot see the women working).

The term is widely credited to Grant Munro. He made the experimental film named ‘Pixilation’ and is available in his DVD collection ‘Cut Up- The Films of Grant Munro’.

Here's a link to a pixilation video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNHIjBa5nwA

Flipbooks go back to when the first was made by John Barnes Linnett and was called ‘kinograph’. A flipbook is essentially just a book with springy pages that have an animated series of images printed near the unbound bridge. A viewer bends these pages back and then rapidly releases each of them one at a time so that each image viewed springs out of view to momentarily reveal the next image just before it does the same. These are commonly drawn and are one of the animation techniques that can be taught at a young age.

Flipbooks are seen as one of the inspirations behind early animation filmmakers that the previously discussed devices wouldn’t reach a wide audience. For a long time there was a limit on how long flipbook animations could be until the mutoscope helped overcome this issue. The mutoscope consisted of a long circularly bound flipbook in a box with a crank handle to flip through the pages.

Here's a link to a flipbook animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UocF4ycBnYE

Traditional animation also known as hand-drawn animation, classical animation or cel animation is an animation technique where each frame is hand drawn. This form of animation was the most popular technique used in cinema until the advent of computer animation.

Animators begin the animation process by drawing sequences of animation on sheets of transparent paper perforated to fit the peg bars in their desks, often using pencils (coloured), one picture/frame at a time. A peg bar is an animation tool that is used in traditional animation to keep drawings in place. The pins in the peg bar match the holes that are in the paper. It will be attached to an animation desk or a light table (depending on which is being used). The key animator draws enough frames to get across the major points of the action.

The Cel was an important innovation to traditional animation as it allows parts of each frame to be repeated from frame to frame. This is often used to reuse backgrounds and saves time and money. For more complex sequences some objects will be kept still so they can be drawn in the background.

Because of the innovation of Cel this meant that each frame didn’t have to be completely redrawn like in early animation which saved a lot of time and made animating easier as backgrounds or objects drawn could be reused instead of having to redraw them for each frame.

Traditional animation was one of the most popular techniques during the ‘Golden Age of animation’ and was most used by Walt Disney Pictures. This resulted in many famous films from Walt Disney which includes the highest grossing hand-drawn animation feature-film ‘Lion King’ which also won two Academy Awards and has since gone on to gross over $987 million worldwide.

List of selected hand-drawn animation feature films

1. The Lion King (Release Date: June 15^th 1994, Budget: $45, Running Time: 88 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $987,483,777)

2. Alice in Wonderland (Release Date: July 26^th 1951, Budget: $3 Million, Running Time: 75 Minutes)

3. Cinderella (Release Date: February 15^th 1950, Budget: $2.9 Million, Running Time: 74 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $85 Million)

4. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Release Date: December 21^st 1937 (Premiere), Budget: $1,488,423, Running Time: 83 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $416 Million)

5. Fantasia (Release Date: November 13^th 1940, Budget: $2.28 Million, Running Time: 125 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $83,320,000)

6. The Jungle Book (Release Date: October 18^th 1967, Budget: $4 Million, Running Time: 78 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $205,843,612)

7. Beauty and the Beast (Release Date: November 22^nd 1991, Budget: $25 Million, Running Time: 84 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $424,967,620)

8. The Little Mermaid (Released Date: November 14^th 1989, Budget: $40 Million, Running Time: 82 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $211,343,479)

9. Lady and the Tramp (Release Date: June 22^nd 1955, Budget: $4 Million, Running Time: 75 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $93,602,326)

10. Aladdin (Release Date: November 25^th 1992, Budget: $28 Million, Running Time: 90 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $504,050,219)

Computer animation also known as CGI animation is the process where animated images are generated by using computer graphics. The more general term of ‘Computer Generated Imagery’ covers by static and dynamic images, while computer animation only covers moving images.

Modern computer animation uses 3D graphics, although 2D graphics are also used for low bandwidth and faster rending times that look stylistic. Sometimes the target of the animation is the computer itself but also be another type of medium such as film.

Computer animation is also essentially known as the digital predecessor of stop-motion. Computer generated images are also much easier to control than the more physical based processes and techniques, including constructing minatures for effect shots or hiring extras crowd scenes. This is because it allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using other technology.

The first computer animation feature film was Toy Story. The film was released in 1995 by Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures and won an Academy Special Achievement Award. Other computer animation films that have been successful include Toy Story 3, Shrek 3, Up, How to Train your Dragon, The Croods and Finding Nemo. Films that have used motion capture through computer animation have also been successful including Academy Award winning films Avatar and Life of Pi.

Notable computer animation companies include Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, Blue Sky Studios and Illumination Entertainment.

Famous people within Animation

Walter Elias Disney better known as Walt Disney (December 5^th 1901-December 15^th 1966) was an American business magnate, cartoonist, animator, director, producer, screenwriter, entrepreneur and voice actor who was the co-founder of The Walt Disney Company along with his brother, Roy O. Disney.

In the fall of 1917, Disney started his freshman year and started taking night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. He then became the cartoonist for the school newspaper where he drew patriotic topics and focused on World War I. Disney also dropped out of school at 16 to join the army but was rejected for being under age.

After work for the Red Cross and working in France, in 1919 he moved back to Kansas City to begin an artistic career. He then considered becoming an actor but then decided on a career as a newspaper artist but nobody wanted to hire him. His brother then got him a job as a bank colleague at Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. He then met cartoonist Ubbe Iwerks and when their time at the studio expired, they decided to start their own company together.

In January 1920, Disney and Iwerks formed ‘Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists’ which was short lived. After a rough start, Disney left to earn money in the Kansas City Film Ad Company who was then joined by Iwerks who couldn’t run the company on his own. During this time Disney became interested in animation after making commercials based on cut out animations. He then decided to become an animator.

After reading the book Animation ‘Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development’ by Edwin G. Lutz, Disney considered cel animation to be much more promising than cut out animation. Disney then decided to open his own animation business and recruited a fellow co-worker named Fred Harman as his first employee. Disney and Harman then struck a deal with local theatre owner Frank L. Newman, arguably the most popular ‘showman’ in Kansas City to show their cartoons at the local theatre. Their animations where titled ‘Laugh-O-Grams’.

Disney cartoons became popular in the Kansas City area and through this he was able to acquire his own studio called Laugh-O-Gram Studio. After profits were disappointing, he wasn’t able to cover salaries paid to his employees and became in debt and wound up bankrupt. He then decided to go to California to set up a studio.

The Disney Brothers then set up their own company and this was the birth of The Walt Disney Company and their first animation was ‘Alice Comedies’. The series was reasonably successful and featured Virginia Davis, Dawn O’Day, Margie Gay and Lois Hardwick as Alice. By the end of the series, the focus was more on the animation characters including a cat named Julius.

In 1927, Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was an instant success. The character of Oswald (which was drawn and created by Iwerks) became a popular figure. It then took 78 years for The Walt Disney Company to get the rights back for Oswald from Universal.

After losing the rights to Oswald, Disney created Mickey Mouse, which was re-drawn by Iwerks so that it could be easier to animate. The first Mickey Mouse short was called ‘Plane Crazy’ and was a silent film. After failing to find a distributor he then created ‘Steamboat Willie’. This received distribution from Pat Powers and became an instant success. Mickey Mouse’s popularity would skyrocket during the 1930’s.

After creating ‘Silly Symphonies’, Disney created his first Academy Award for his creation of Mickey Mouse. That helped launch spin-offs for characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. Donal Duck featured in ‘Orphans Benefit’ with Mickey Mouse and became the most popular and second most successful cartoon of all time.

During the 1940’s a few films were created including Saludos Amigos and military Der Fueher’s Face and Victory through Airpower. Military films didn’t generate income and Disney released the feature-film Bambi which underperformed on its release in 1942. Disney then successfully re-released Snow White in 1944.

During this time the ‘Golden age of animation’ begun where Disney released animation feature-films such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows, with both Pinocchio and Fantasia being financial disappointments.

In the late 1940’s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their families and children. It is also thought that he was inspired after visiting Republic of Children, which is located in Argentina. Disneyland then had its grand opening in 1955.

Walt Disney then expanded into other areas and Treasure Island became the studios first all-live-action feature film. This was then followed by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, The Absent Professor and The Parent Trap. Disney also aired their first daily TV show in 1955, called The Mickey Mouse Club which originally aired between 1955-1959.

In late 1965, Disney had plans on developing and opening another theme park called Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Disney World would include Magic Kingdom, which was a larger version of Disneyworld. The heart of Disney World, however, was to be EPCOT (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow).

Outside of the Disney Business, Walt Disney married Lillian Bounds in 1925. The couple had two children, Diane Marie Disney (born December 18^th 1933) and adopted Sharon Mae Disney (Born December 31^st 1936).

Walt Disney was a known chain smoker for his adult life and discovered a tumour in his left lung. Five days later a biopsy showed the tumour had spread to the whole of his left lung. After having surgery to remove the lung on November 11^th 1966 and that his life expectancy was between six months and two years. On December 15^th of that year he died at 9:30 am, ten days after his 65^th birthday. Despite this the magic and his legacy still live on today.

Georges Melies – Georges Melies (8 December 1861- 21 January 1938) was a French filmmaker and illusionist. He is famous for leading many narrative and technical developments in the early days of cinema. He was a prolific inventor in the use of special effects and accidentally discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896. He was also one of the first filmmakers who used multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves and hand-painted colour in his work. He also referred to himself as the first ‘Cinemagician’ as he was able to manipulate and transform reality through cinematography. His best known films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). He was also featured in the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, as well as its film adaptation Hugo, where was portrayed by British actor Sir Ben Kinsley.

After his filmmaking career came to an end after being driven out of business, Melies disappeared from public life. By the 1920’s he was living a candy and toy salesman at the Montaparnasse station in Paris. The business was helped by other filmmakers who collected funs to assist in funding. In 1925 he married his longtime mistress Jeanne d’Alcy and they lived together with Melies young granddaughter Madeline Malthete-Melies. By the late 1920’s, journalists begun to research Melies and his work in film and created new interest in him. After this his prestige started to grow and he was given more recognition in December of 1929 when a gala retrospective of his work was held at the Salle Playel. In his memoirs, Melies said that the event he ‘experienced one of the most brilliant moments of his life’.

By late 1937 Melies became very ill and was admitted to the Leopold Bellan Hospital in Paris. Melies died of cancer on 21^st January 1938. This was just hours after the passing of another French pioneer, Emile Cohl. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

List of his selected films

1. Playing Cards (1896)

2. The Haunted Castle (1896)

3. The Vanishing Lady (1896)

4. Cleopatra (1899)

5. Jeanne d’Arc (1900)

6. A Trip to the Moon (1902)

7. The Man with The Rubber Hand (1902)

8. Gulliver’s Travels (1902)

9. The Impossible Voyage (1904)

10. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1907)

Ray Fredrick Harryhausen (June 29^th 1920-May 7^th 2013) was born in Los Angeles, California, US and was known as an American visual effects creator, write and producer who created a form of stop-motion animation known as ‘Dynamation’.

After seeing the film King Kong (1933) he worked experimentally in producing animation shorts. After this he got to work with pioneer of model animating Willis O’Brien. He became O’Brien’s protégé and learnt a lot from him and went onto the Los Angeles –area Science Fiction League that was formed by Forest J. Ackerman and became life-long friends with him and Ray Bradbury who he met at the Science-Fiction League.

Once Harryhausen started to work on films he worked on films such as Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Mysterious Island (1961) and his last film Clash of the Titans (1981).

Harryhausen won many awards including British Fantasy Wagner Award in 2008. He was also awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. Many movies has also have payed homage to Harryhausen including Tim Burton’s film ‘Mars Attack’s which was released in 1996. Pacific Rim also payed homage to him as the film was made in memory of film and was released in July of 2013.

He was married to Diana Livingstone Bruce in 1963 and remained married to her until his death. They have a daughter, Vanessa. They then announced his death on May 7^th 2013 via Facebook and Twitter. He was in London, England at the time of his death.

Terry Gilliam is a British screenwriter, film director, actor and animator. He is also a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe (the only one not to be born in Britain). Gilliam has directed several films including Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), 12 Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas (1998) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). In 1968 he became a British citizen.

Gilliam started his career as an animator and cartoonist with one of his earliest works being a photographic strip for Help! This featured future Python cast-member John Cleese. When Help! folded he went to Europe and moved to England. He then went onto animate for children’s series Do Not Adjust Your Set.

After this he became part of the Monty Python Flying Circus and was first credited as an animator and later as a full cast member. His cartoons linked the sketches together, and defined the groups visual language in other media (such as LP, book covers and title film sequences). Gilliam’s animations mixed his own art, characterized by soft gradients and odd, bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cut outs from photographs (mostly from the Victorians).

After the Monty Python broke up he went onto directing and screenwriting. He then went onto direct many films in the 80’s and 90’s including Time Bandits (1981) The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and The Fisher King (1991).

Since 2000, his work has included films such as The Brothers Grimm (2005) and The Zero Theorem (2013). His future projects include a film to be shot in Bucharest, Romania, a film called 1984 and writing the screenplay for a film adaptation of Mr. Vertigo.

Film Companies

Pixar Animation Studios is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films and also the company who produced the first CGI-animation feature film, Toy Story in 1995.

Pixar have released fourteen feature films, all of which have been financial successes. Pixar’s animation films have made $8.3 million worldwide as of July 2013 and have an average gross of $597 million. Pixar have two films (Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3) in the 50 highest grossing films of all time and all of their films are in the top 50 highest grossing animations as of December 2013.

Although the company is known as Pixar today, between 1979 and 1986 it was known as the Graphics Company and was owned by Lucasfilm. During this time it began working on films with Industrial Light and Magic and worked on films such as Star Trek: Wrath of Khan. Steve Jobs brought the company from George Lucas, in which he paid him $5 million for technology rights and $5 million cash as capital into the company.

As poor computer sales threatened to put the company out of business, Steve Jobs put more and more income into the company and took more of a leadership role within the company. During this period, Pixar struggled with finances until it struck a partnership with Walt Disney and agreed a deal with them for $26 million to produce three animation films. Despite the successes of the films they continued to lose money.

Pixar then continued to make successful films with Walt Disney and on May 5^th 2006, Walt Disney brought Pixar for $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. With this deal it helped catapult Steve Jobs to the largest shareholder of Disney with 7% and also 50.1% shareholdings in Pixar and gained him a new seat on the board of directors.

Since 2006, Pixar also expanded and opened a new studio in downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The studio was roughly 2,000 square meters and was primarily to produce shorts and TV specials based on characters from Pixar’s feature films. The studio’s first production was Car Toons episode ‘Air Mater’. In 2013, a film based off the episode called Planes was released by Disney and was a worldwide success. In October of 2013, the studio closed.

List of Pixar Films (As of December 2013)

1. Toy Story (Release Date: November 22^nd 1995, Budget: $30 Million, Running Time: 81 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $361,958,736)

2. Bugs Life (Release Date: November 25^th 1998, Budget: $120 Million, Running Time: 96 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $363,398,565)

3. Toy Story 2 (Release Date: November 24^th 1999, Budget: $90 Million, Running Time: 92 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $485,015,179)

4. Monsters Inc. (Release Date: November 2^nd 2001, Budget: $115 Million, Running Time: 92 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $562,816,256)

5. Finding Nemo (Release Date: May 30^th 2003, Budget: $94 Million, Running Time: 100 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $936,743,261)

6. The Incredibles (Release Date: November 5^th 2004, Budget: $92 Million, Running Time: 115 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $631,442,092)

7. Cars (Release Date: June 9^th 2006, Budget: $120 Million, Running Time: 116 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $461,983,149)

8. Ratatouille (June 29^th 2007, Budget: $150 Million, Running Time: 111 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $623,722,618)

9. WALL-E (Release Date: June 27^th 2008, Budget: $180 Million, Running Time: 98 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $521,311,860)

10. Up (Release Date: May 29^th 2009, Budget: $175 Million Running Time: 96 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $731,342,744)

11. Toy Story 3 (Release Date: June 18^th 2010, Budget: $200 Million, Running Time: 103 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $1,063,171,911)

12. Cars 2 (Release Date: June 24^th 2011, Budget: $200 Million, Running Time: 106 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $559,852,396)

13. Brave (Release Date: June 22^nd 2012, Budget: $185 Million, Running Time: 93 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $538,983,207)

14. Monsters University (Release Date: June 21^st 2013, Budget: $200 Million, Running Time: 103 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $743,522,851)

(All figures correct as of December 2013)

Dreamworks Animation is an American animation studio based in Glendale, California that creates feature films, television programs and online virtual worlds. As of December 2013, they have released 27 feature films which include franchises of Shrek, Kung-Fu Panda, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon and Monsters vs. Aliens. As of 2013, Dreamworks feature films have made over $11 Billion worldwide. Its average gross per film is around $430 million which surpasses all animation studios other than Pixar (whose average is $597 million). The studio has received many awards including two Academy Awards, as well as multiple Annie and Emmy Awards.

The studio was formed in 1994 after the merger of Dreamworks and Pacific Data Images. The company became public in 2004 after seven years being in association with Amblimation alumni. Dreamworks Animation currently maintains two campuses: the original Dreamworks animation studio in Glendale, California and the PDI studio in Redwood City, California.

Dreamworks Animation films were originally distributed by the live action Dreamworks studio, then by Paramount Pictures, which started in 2006 until 2013 when 20^th Century Fox acquired the rights to distribute the animation films in a 5-year-deal.

List of Dreamworks Animation Films

1. Antz (Release Date: October 2^nd 1998, Budget: $105 Million, Running Time: 82 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $171,757,863)

2. The Prince of Egypt (Release Date: December 18^th 1998, Budget: $70 Million, Running Time: 98 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $218,613,188)

3. The Road to El Dorado (Release Date: March 31^st 2000, Budget: $95 Million, Running Time: 89 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $76,432,727)

4. Chicken Run (Release Date: 30^th June 2000 (UK), Budget: $45 Million, Running Time: 84 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $224,834,564)

5. Shrek (Release Date: May 18^th 2001, Budget: $60 Million, Running Time: 90 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $484,409,218)

6. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (Release Date: May 24^th 2002, Budget: $80 Million, Running Time: 83 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $122,563,539)

7. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (Release Date: July 2^nd 2003, Budget: 60 Million, Running Time: 85 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $80,767,884)

8. Shrek 2 (Release Date: May 19^th 2004, Budget: $150 Million, Running Time: 92 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $919,838,758)

9. Shark Tale (Release Date: October 1^st 2004, Budget: $75 Million, Running Time: 91 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $367,275,019)

10. Madagascar (Release Date: May 27^th 2005, Budget: $75 Million, Running Time: 86 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $532,680,671)

11. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of a Were-Rabbit (Release Date: 14^th October 2005 (UK), Budget: $30 Million, Running Time: 85 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $192,610,372)

12. Over the Hedge (Release Date: May 19^th 2006, Budget: $80 Million, Running Time: 83 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $336,002,996)

13. Flushed Away (Release Date: 1^st December 2006, Budget: $149 Million, Running Time: 85 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $178,120,210)

14. Shrek the Third (Release Date: May 18^th 2007, Budget: $160 Million, Running Time: 93 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $798,958,162)

15. Bee Movie (Release Date: November 2^nd 2007, Budget: $150 Million, Running Time: 91 Minutes, Box office Gross: $287,594,577)

16. Kung Fu Panda (Release Date: June 2^nd2008, Budget: $130 Million, Running Time: 92 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $631,744,560)

17. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Release Date: November 7^th 2008, Budget: $150 Million, Running Time: 89 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $602,308,178)

18. Monsters vs. Aliens (Release Date: March 27^th 2009, Budget: $175 Million, Running Time: 94 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $381,509,870)

19. How to Train Your Dragon (Release Date: March 26^th 2010, Budget: $165 Million, Running Time: 98 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $494,878,759)

20. Shrek Forever After (Release Date: May 21^st 2010, Budget: $165 Million, Running Time: 93 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $752,600,867)

21. Megamind (Release Date: November 5^th 2010, Budget: $130 Million, Running Time: 98 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $321,885,765)

22. Kung Fu Panda 2 (Release Date: May 26^th 2011, Budget: $150 Million, Running Time: 90 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $665,692,281)

23. Puss in Boots (Release Date: October 28^th 2011, Budget: $130 Million, Running Time: 90 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $554,709,226)

24. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (Release Date: June 8^th 2012, Budget: $145 Million, Running Time: 93 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $746,921,274)

25. Rise of the Guardians (Release Date: November 21^st 2012, Budget: $145 Million, Running Time: 97 Million, Box Office Gross: $303,712,758)

26. The Croods (Release Date: March 22^nd 2013, Budget: $135 Million, Running Time: 98 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $587,204,668)

27. Turbo (Release Date: July 17^th 2013, Budget: $135 Million, Running Time: 96 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $281,886,271)

(All figures right as of December 2013)

Sony Pictures Animation is an American animated film company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company was founded in May 2002 and works closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks (which handles digital production) and Columbia Pictures (which distribute the theatrical releases of the films).

The studios first feature film was Open Season which was released in 2006. The success of the film spawned two direct-to-video sequels (Open Season 2 and Open Season 3). As of December 2013, they have released nine feature films and two direct-to-video releases.

Sony Pictures Animation has many films in development including The Smurfs 3, Hotel Transylvania 2 and Popeye which are all due for release in 2015. The company also has two untitled projects with one due for release in 2016 and the other in 2017. The company also is developing films including RollerCoaster Tycoon, Chickenhare and The Familiars.

List of Sony Pictures Animation feature films:

1. Open Season (Release Date: September 29^th 2006, Budget: $85 Million, Running Time: 86 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $197,309,027)

2. Surf’s Up (Release Date: June 8^th 2007, Budget: $100 Million, Running Time: 85 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $149,044,513)

3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Release Date: September 18^th 2009, Budget: $100 Million, Running Time: 90 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $243,006,126)

4. The Smurfs (Release Date: July 29^th 2011, Budget: $110 Million, Running Time: 103 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $563,749,323)

5. Arthur Christmas (Release Date: November 11^th 2011 (UK), Budget: $100 Million, Running Time: 97 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $147,419,472)

6. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (Release Date: 28^th March 2012 (UK), Budget: $55 Million, Running Time: 88 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $123,054,041)

7. Hotel Transylvania (Release Date: September 28^th 2012, Budget: $85 Million, Running Time: 92 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $358,357,603)

8. The Smurfs 2 (Release Date: July 31^st 2013, Budget: $105 Million, Running Time: 105 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $346,994,164)

9. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Release Date: September 27^th 2013, Budget: $78 Million, Running Time: 95 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $213,390,183)

(All of these figures are correct as of December 2013)

Blue Sky Studios is an animation company that was founded in February 1987 and was an independent company until 1997 when 20^th Century Fox brought the company and has owned it ever since. The company was first hired to work on the 1987 Walt Disney production, Tron.

The studio was founded by Chris Wedge, Carl Ludwig, Dr. Eugene Troubetzkoy, Alison Brown, David Brown and Micahel Ferraro who all worked on Tron. The company then focused on making TV commercials and visual effects for films. One of their most well known pieces was the intro to Nickelodeon block called ‘Nicktoons’.

Once 20^th Century Fox owned the company the studio focused more on making animated feature-films and have since release eight feature films that have all been financial successes. Their first release was Ice Age back in 2002 and that film has since spawned three sequels and many spin-offs and animated shorts.

List of Blue Sky Studios Films (as of December 2013)

1. Ice Age (Released: March 15^th 2002, Budget: $59 Million, Running Time: 81 Minutes, Box Office Gross - $383,257,136)

2. Robots (March 11^th 2005, Budget: $75 Million, Running Time: 90 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $260,718,330)

3. Ice Age: The Meltdown (Release Date: March 31^st 2006, Budget: $80 Million, Running Time: 91 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $655,388,158)

4. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who (Release Date: March 14^th 2008, Budget: $85 Million, Running Time: 86 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $297,138,014)

5. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Release Date: July 1^st 2009, Budget: $90 Million, Running Time: 94 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $886,686,817)

6. Rio (Release Date: April 15^th 2011, Budget: $90 Million, Running Time: 96 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $484,635,760)

7. Ice Age: Continental Drift (Release Date: June 27^th 2012 (Europe), Budget: $95 Million, Running Time: 88 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $877,244,782)

8. Epic (Release Date: May 24^th 2013, Budget: $100 Million, Running Time: 102 Minutes, Box Office Gross: $263,918,682)

(All figures right as of December 2013)

Aaardman Studios is a British studio that is based in Bristol, England. The studio are known for using stop-motion and Claymation techniques, especially with plasticine characters such as Wallace and Gromit.

Peter Lord and David Sproxton founded Aardman in 1972. The project was a low budget project that they created to try and realize their dream of producing an animation motion picture. After this they produced animation shorts on BBC called Vision on which was for deaf people.

After this they created a segment called ‘Greeblies’ which they used Claymation which then inspired the creation of Morph, another clay character. After this they worked on Animated Conversations, an adult animation which used real life conversations as the dialogue.

After creating more shorts, Nick Park created Creature Comforts, an animation short and became the first Aardman production to win an Academy Award. Nick Park then helped create the clay characters for Wallace and Gromit. These films include A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995) with the latter two winning Academy Awards.

Aaradman then went into partnership with Dreamworks to make five films over the next 12 years. The deal was worth $250 Million. The first film they co-financed was ‘Chicken Run’. This was Aardman’s first feature film. They then worked on Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wear Rabbit which won and Academy Award. The next year the third film they produced together was called Flushed Away. This was also Aardman’s first computer animation. It also marked the end of the partnership and the last film they produced together after creative differences.

Since then Aardman have worked with Sony Pictures Entertainment, who co-produce, finance and distribute their films. The first feature film they produced together was Arthur Christmas, which was released in 2011 was critically acclaimed and was a moderate success. The following year they released The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, just like Arthur Christmas was a moderate success and got good reviews from critics.

Aadrman have also created animation shows such as Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention, Shaun the Sheep, Chop Socky Chooks and Canimals.

Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc. was an American studio that was best known for nearly four decades in the mid-to-late 20^th century. The company was formed in 1957 by MGM animation directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (Creators of Tom and Jerry) and live-action director George Sidney in partnership with Screen Gems television division.

Many of their famous franchises include: The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs and many others. Those shows earned the company eight Emmys, a Golden Globe Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The company also received many other awards over the years.

During the 80’s the company’s success and fortunes began to be less profitable because of Saturday morning cartoons being eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication. In 1991, the company was purchased by Turner Broadcasting System, who used most of its catalogue to program its new channel, Cartoon Network. After this both Hanna and Barbera went into semi-retirement but continued to serve as mentors and creative consultants.

In the mid 90’s, Hanna-Barbera began producing original programming for Cartoon Network, which included Cartoon Cartoons shows. In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner and the studio became subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation. In 2001, Barbera died and the company was absorbed into its parent but Warner Bros. Animation continued to work with Hanna’s death in 2006.

Selection of well-known Hanna-Barbera shows:

1.       Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
2.       Yogi Bear
3.       Top Cat
4.       The Jetsons
5.       Wacky Races
6.       Captain Caveman
7.       Hong Kong Phoey
8.       The Smurfs
9.       Dasterdly and Muttley
10.   The Tom and Jerry Show

By Josh Jermy

Josh Jermy - Film Blogs

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Soundtrack Report - Part 1

History of Animation