A Pixilation Animation

Pixilation is a type of stop motion animation, using people as models. The pioneer of this type of animation was Norman McClaren with his film "Neighbours," shown in an earlier blog post. Pixilation is done by taking individual pictures of a person in slightly different positions so that when they are sewn together, they look like the person is moving.

This is an animation created by my group using iStopMotion at 12 frames per second. Once the film was finished, we uploaded it to youtube and then here. We, by using pixilation, made it look as though Ben, when jumping, was flying or floating and then sliding and Jack was sliding across the table.

TV Based Animation From the 50s - 70s and Cell Based Animation

Animation became even more popular from the 1950s with the introduction of television, and animations began being shown weekly. Some of the most popular cartoons and animations from the time were Looney Tunes, Top Cat, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo and the Flinstones.

Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes began in 1930, and saw great success in its day, and still does today. In the 50s, its popularity strengthened with weekly television animations. It was mainly aimed at children, but was, and is, still loved by many adults. One of the most popular episodes of Looney Tunes is "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" from 1953 (shown below).

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? began in 1969 with "What a Night for a Knight" and ran for two seasons and ended in 1970. It was the first incarnation of Hanna-Barbera's successful and much-loved Scooby-Doo series, still running today. Below is the opening titles of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? from season one.

The above are both cell based animations. Cell based animation is a common, traditional method of animation, where something is drawn on a sheet of plastic and then photographed, and then another drawn on another sheet of plastic, slightly different to the first one, and then photographed again, and so on. Cell based animation is a long process, hence digital animation is used nowadays.

Another popular animation from this time period is the Clangers, a model based animation. This was created by Oliver Postgate by using stop motion techniques. The Clangers was broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1972. Below is the Clangers episode "The Intruder" from series one.

Animation from the 1930s to the 1950s

In the 30s to 50s, animation was in its "golden age," when it began its rise and people were experimenting with all kinds of things.

One of the most famous and well respected animators of the time was Norman McLaren. He was a Scottish-born Canadian animator who was known best for his work with the National Film Board of Canada. He was a pioneer in several areas of animation such as pixilation, drawn on film animation, abstract film and visual music. Below is a pixilation animation of his that won an Oscar in 1952.

Hanna-Barbera was another great animation studio that saw its first success in the 1940s with Tom and Jerry. Hanna-Barbera founders William Hanna and Joseph Barbera first met whilst working for MGM's animation studio in the late 1930s where they developed the idea for Tom and Jerry. They wrote, produced and directed 114 Tom and Jerry shorts between 1940 and 1957, when MGM shut down its animation studio. They then saw great success throughout the mid to late 20th century with cell based animation and became a household name producing cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? and Top Cat. Below is the Tom and Jerry cartoon "Tennis Chumps" from 1949.

Walt Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, philanthropist, entrepreneur, entertainer, and was an international icon, famous for his cartoons such as the much-loved Mickey Mouse, which was based on a mouse he had adopted as a pet whilst working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio in Kansas City. He developed the character after losing the rights to Oswald the Rabbit. Below is Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," a cell based animation which is considered to be the first cartoon to feature Mickey Mouse.

An early prominent competitor of Walt Disney were the Fleischer Brothers. Fleischer Studios is most notable for cartoons such as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown and Popeye the Sailor - cell based animations. The brothers also pioneered sound synchronization in cartoons, but this was overlooked as other cartoons, such as Steamboat Willie, were more popular. Below is Betty Boop's debut in an animation called "Dizzy Dishes."