Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Animation History Notes

**** It's not entirely complete... so make sure you also read and study Zub's handout...

Animation History

  • 1944 Clampett:”Buckaroo”, uses extreme exaggeration

  • Famous Studio (formerly Fleischer) did the original Casper

  • Tex Avery: Droopy Cartoon


- post war, Disney financially shaky, need to make films that make money

- puts together film ‘packages’

- starts to use contemporary music

- target audience turned into teenagers

- “Make mine music”


- Clampett: Book Reveu “The Great Piggy Bank Robbery”

- Tex Avery “King Size Canary”

- Disney – Melody Time (a set)


  • Robert Mckimson: Warner Bros famous character contribution – Foghorn Leghorn

  • Chuck Jones: “Rabbit Punch”, well established character

  • Tex Avery: “Bad Luck Blackie”, top 50 best short animation

  • 1949, Chuck Jones did the first Road Runner cartoon, made almost as much as Bugs Bunny, well thought out sequences, little dialogue international audiences


- After WWII, post war bliss in America, but fear of atomic bomb

- Disney started having educational touch to their cartoons

- “Rabbit of Seville”, Bugs Bunny cartoon, opera

- Chuck Jones did “The Scarlet Pumpernickle”, cameos by characters


  • Post war, television was popular, started having cartoons on TV

  • Crusader rabbit: first television animation

  • TV cartoons: shows must be created cheaply (pre-produced is expensive)


UPA Fine Artists, uses shapes, very smooth

“Gerald Mc Boing Boing” no lush backgrounds or detailed animation, simple/minimal amount, not realistic


1952 “Feed the Kitty”, by Chuck Jones, WB, Oscar nominated

1952-1954 WB, 3 cartoons (trilogy) featuring Elmer + Bugs + Daffy

Disney “Toot whistle plunk & boom”, use of UPA style (in wide screen)


1957 TV cartoon, Col. Bleep, who takes interest on earth because of atomic bomb


  • WB starts to get simpler on layout and composition, but focus on line quality

  • “What’s Opera Doc?”: music, staging

  • “Free Radical”: Abstract animation


1959 Rocky & Bullwinkle, first full colour TV Cartoon

1960 Mr. McGoo, only character UPA brought to TV


Hanna Barbera left MGM to form own animated company (realized TV will be big), developed techniques for cheap animation that doesn’t look bad


Chuck Jones takes over Tom and Jerry part 2, phasing out of WB, goes to MGM


PIXAR (1984)

- was financed by Disney

- used programmers to mathematically calculate motion (engineering, programming and artist contribution)

* John Lasseter: Andre and Wally B (1989)

- more like physics simulation rather than character simulation

* Story, design, models, animation by John Lasseter: Juxo Jr. (1955)


  • Red’s Dream (1987)

  • Tin Toy (1988)

  • Knick Knack (1989)

  • Gerrs Game (1997)

  • For the birds (2001)

  • One Man Band (2005)


Chris Landreth * Bingo the Clown (1997)

Bill Plympton * Your Face (1989), How to Kiss (1989)

Disney * Runaway Brain (1995) – attempt to reopen shorts department

Don Hertzfelt * Rejected (2000)

*50 Percent Gray (2001)

Louis Clichy * L’amour (2004), done in flash

Gobelins * Burning Safar (2006)

Supinfaoom * Sigg Jong (2007)


3 Act Play

1/ intro – all elements that make the story introduced (who, where, when), ends when the character makes the decision that can’t go back

2/ conflict – any type of conflict, keeps raising the bars

3/ resolution – can leave questions open but needs resolution


Character Arc somewhere for them to go, character development, something to payoff

2 comments:

austin sung said...

KEEP THIS UP AND GIVE EM BLOOD MICHELLE AND VINEGAR

Konrad said...

Thanks Michelle, you're awesome!!!