An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn (or made with computers to look similar to something hand-drawn) film A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry for the cinema Most movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. The movie is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium. Some movie theaters are now equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film, television Television is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is derived from mixed Latin or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot (even if it is a very short one). This is distinct from the terms "animation Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion" and "animated film," as not all follow the definition.

Although cartoons can use many different types of animation Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion, they all fall under the traditional animation Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand. The term "traditional animation" is often used in contrast with the now more commonly used computer category.

History

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion In physics, motion is change of location or position of an object with respect to time. Change in motion is the result of an applied force. Motion is typically described in terms of velocity also seen as speed, acceleration, displacement, and time. An object's velocity cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as described by Newton's into a still drawing can be found in paleolithic Lower Paleolithic (genus Homo) cave paintings Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest known European cave paintings date to Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known. The evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.

The phenakistoscope The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope. It was invented in 1832 simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer, zoetrope A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words ζωή - zoe, "life" and τρόπος - tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" and praxinoscope The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors,, as well as the common flip book A flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than, were early animation devices to produce movement from sequential drawings using technological means, but animation did not develop further until the advent of motion picture film A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry. A step in this direction was the films created by Charles-Émile Reynaud (8 December 1844–9 January 1918) who was a French science teacher. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888, and on 28 October 1892 he projected the first animated film, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This film is also notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, but drawn directly onto the transparent strip. In 1900, more than 500,000 people had attended these screenings.

The first photographed animated film was "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is a silent cartoon by J. Stuart Blackton in the year 1906. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces coming to life. It is generally regarded as the first animated film. It features movements as where a dog jumps through a hoop, a scene which actually uses cutout animation made to look" (1906) by newspaper cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. He is considered the father of American animation, one of the co-founders of the Vitagraph Company arrived. In the film, a cartoonist's line drawings of two faces were 'animated' (or came to life) on a blackboard. The two faces smiled and winked, and the cigar-smoking man blew smoke in the lady's face; also, a circus clown led a small dog to jump through a hoop. The first animated cartoon (in the traditional sense, i.e. on film) was "Fantasmagorie" by the French director Émile Cohl Émile Cohl , born Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet, was a French caricaturist of the largely-forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Parisian". Released in 1908. This was followed by two more films, "Le Cauchemar du fantoche" ["The Puppet's Nightmare", now lost] and "Un Drame chez les fantoches" ["A Puppet Drama", called "The Love Affair in Toyland" for American release and "Mystical Love-Making" for British release], all completed in 1908.

One of the very first successful animated cartoons was "Gertie the Dinosaur Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 short animated film by Winsor McCay. Although not the first animated film, as is sometimes thought, it was the first cartoon to feature a character with an appealing personality. The appearance of a true character distinguished it from earlier animated "trick films", such as those of Blackton and Cohl, and" by Winsor McCay A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades. His two best-known creations are the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, which ran from 1905-1914 & 1924-1927, and the animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur,. It is considered the first example of true character animation Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work. It is usually as one aspect of a larger production and often made to complement voice acting. Character animation is artistically unique from other animation in that it involves the creation of.

In the 1930s to 1960s, theatrical cartoons were produced in huge numbers, and usually shown before a feature film In the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening . The term is also used for feature length, direct-to-video and television movie productions in a movie theater Most movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. The movie is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium. Some movie theaters are now equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film. MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, Disney Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney Studios, acquires and produces output that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures banners. Their most, Paramount Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount is and Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. is an American producer of film and television entertainment were the largest studios producing these 5 to 10-minute "shorts".

Competition from television Television is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is derived from mixed Latin drew audiences away from movie theaters in the late 1950s, and the theatrical cartoon began its decline. Today, animated cartoons are produced mostly for television.

Technologies

The advent of film technology opened opportunities to develop the art of animation. The basic animation process is described in the article Animation Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion, and the classic, hand-drawn technology in Traditional animation Traditional animation, also referred to as classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation, is the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand. The term "traditional animation" is often used in contrast with the now more commonly used computer.

At first, animated cartoons were black-and-white Black-and-white is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts. It is often abbreviated B/W or B&W and silent. Felix the cat Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in the silent film era. His black body, white eyes, and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the situations in which his cartoons place him, combine to make Felix one of the most recognized cartoon characters alongside Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Popeye, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom and is a notable example.

The first cartoon with synchronized sound A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to is often identified as Walt Disney Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions,'s Steamboat Willie Steamboat Willie is an animated cartoon released on November 18, 1928. It was the Third Mickey Mouse cartoon, behind Plane Crazy (Released six months earlier) and The Gallopin' Gaucho (Made earlier, but released after). It was the first Disney cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using, starring Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who has become an icon for the Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Company celebrates his birth as November 18, 1928 upon the release of Steamboat Willie, although Mickey had already appeared six months earlier in Plane in 1928, but Max Fleischer Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios. He brought such animated characters as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen and was responsible for a number of technological innovations's 1926 My Old Kentucky Home is less popularly but more correctly credited with this innovation. Fleischer also patented rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, pre-recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device has been replaced by, whereby animation could be traced from a live action In film, video, and other media, the term live-action refers to cinematography not produced using animation. As it is the norm, the term is usually superfluous, but it makes an important distinction in situations in which one might normally expect animation, as in a Pixar film, a video game or when the work is adapted from an animated cartoon, film.

With the advent of sound film, musical themes were often used. Animated characters usually performed the action in "loops", i.e., drawings were repeated over and over, synchronized Synchronization or synchronisation is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time. Systems operating with all their parts in synchrony are said to be synchronous or in sync. Some systems may be only approximately synchronized, or with the music. The music used is often original, but musical quotation Sometimes the quotation is done for the purposes of characterization, as in Puccini's use of The Star-Spangled Banner in reference to the American character Lieutenant Pinkerton in his opera Madama Butterfly, or in Tchaikovsky's use of the Russian and French national anthems in the 1812 Overture, which depicted a battle between the Russian and is often employed.

Disney also produced the first full-color cartoon in Technicolor Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Technicolor SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952. Technicolor became known, "Flowers and Trees Flowers and Trees is a 1932 Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney, directed by Burt Gillett, and released to theatres by United Artists on July 30, 1932. It was the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, after several years of two-color Technicolor films", in 1931, although other producers had earlier made films using inferior, 2-color processes instead of the 3-color process offered by Technicolor.

Later, other movie technologies were adapted for use in animation, such as multiplane cameras, stereophonic sound Stereophonic sound, commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound using two or more independent audio channels through a symmetrical configuration of loudspeakers in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing. It is often contrasted with monophonic, or "mono" sound, where in Disney's Fantasia Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney. The third feature-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions, Fantasia features eight animated segments set to classical music selections. The animated segments feature no dialogue; the only dialogue in the film is featured in live-action introductions to each piece in 1941, and later, widescreen processes (e.g. CinemaScope CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series created by the president of 20th Century Fox in 1953. It was used from 1953 to 1967 for shooting widescreen movies, marking the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection. The anamorphic lenses theoretically allowed the process to create an image of up to a), and even 3D.

Today, animation is commonly produced with computers, giving the animator new tools not available in hand-drawn traditional animation. See Computer animation for further information of the specific technologies. However, many types of animation cannot be called "cartoons", which implies something that resembles drawings. Most forms of 3D computer animation, as well as clay animation and other forms of stop motion filming, are not cartoons in the strict sense of the word.

An animated cartoon created using Adobe Flash is sometimes called a webtoon.

Feature films

The name "animated cartoon" is generally not used when referring to full-length animated productions, since the term more or less implies a "short". Huge numbers of animated feature films were, and are still produced; see List of animated feature-length films

Notable artists and producers of "shorts"

• Tex Avery
• Hanna-Barbera
• Walt Disney
• Max Fleischer
• Chuck Jones
• Walter Lantz
• Bob Clampett
• Fred Quimby
• Ub Iwerks
• Pat Sullivan
• George Herriman

Television

American television animation of the 1950s featured quite limited animation styles, highlighted by the work of Jay Ward on Crusader Rabbit. Chuck Jones coined the term "illustrated radio" to refer to the shoddy style of most television cartoons that depended more on their soundtracks than visuals. Other notable 1950s programs include UPA's Gerald McBoing Boing, Hanna-Barbera's Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw, and rebroadcast of many classic theatrical cartoons from Warner Brothers, MGM, and Disney.

Hanna-Barbera's show The Flintstones was the first successful primetime animated series in the United States, running from 1960-66 (and in reruns since). While many networks followed the show's success by scheduling other primetime cartoons in the early 1960s, including The Jetsons, Top Cat, and The Alvin Show, none of these programs survived more than a year in primetime. However, networks found success by running these failed shows as Saturday morning cartoons, reaching smaller audiences with more demographic unity among children. Television animation for children flourished on Saturday morning, on cable channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and in syndicated afternoon timeslots.

Primetime cartoons were virtually non-existent until 1990s hit The Simpsons ushered in a new era of adult animation. Now, "adult animation" programs, such as Aeon Flux, Beavis and Butt-head, South Park, Family Guy, The Boondocks, American Dad!, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Futurama are a large part of television.

Commercial animation

Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and the humor it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals.

The legendary animation director Tex Avery was the producer of the first Raid "Kills Bugs Dead" commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company. The concept has been used in many countries since.

Genres of animated cartoons

Funny animals

The first animated cartoons often depicted funny animals in various adventures. This was the mainstream genre in the United States from the early 1900s until the 1940s, and the backbone of Disney's series of cartoons.

Zany humor

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck of Warner Brothers, and the various films of Tex Avery at MGM introduced this popular form of animated cartoons. It usually involves surreal acts such as characters being crushed by massive boulders or going over the edge of a cliff but floating in mid air for a few seconds. The Road Runner cartoons are great examples of these actions. The article Cartoon physics describes typical antics of zany cartoon characters. Disney has, to a lesser extent, applied this to some of their cartoons.

Sophistication

As the medium matured, more sophistication was introduced, albeit keeping the humorous touch. Classical music was often spoofed, a notable example is "What's Opera, Doc" by Chuck Jones. European animation sometimes followed a very different path from American animation. In the Soviet Union, the late 1930s saw the enforcement of socialist realism in animation, a style which lasted throughout the Stalinist era. The animations themselves were mostly for kids, and based on traditional fairy tales.

Limited animation

In the 1950s, UPA and other studios refined the art aspects of animation, by using extremely limited animation as a means of expression.

Modernism

Graphic styles continued to change in the late 1950s and 1960s. At this point, the design of the characters became more angular, while the quality of the character animation declined.

Animated music videos and bands

Popular with the advent of MTV and similar music channels, music videos often contain animation, sometimes rotoscoped (see: Take on Me), i.e., based on live action performers. Cartoons animated to music go at least as far back as Disney's 1929 The Skeleton Dance. These are now popular with the animated bands Gorillaz and Dethklok, the latter of which is based on a television show about the band.

Computer animation

Beginning in the 1990s, with the rise of computer animation, some cartoons implemented CGI and a few were done entirely in computer animation. Beast Wars and Reboot were done entirely in CGI whereas Silver Surfer only partially implemented CGI. Donkey Kong Country also used CGI to make it look like the SNES game. CGI is common today, whether obvious such as in Tak and the Power of Juju or made to look two-dimensional such as in Speed Racer X.

See also

• Animation
• Cartoon
• Cartoon series
• List of animated short series
• List of animated television series
• List of animated feature-length films
• List of animation studios

References

Bibliography

• Barrier, J. Michael. Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-503759-6.
• Bendazzi, Giannalberto. Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-253-20937-4.
• Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: Plume, 1980. ISBN 0-45225-993-2.
• Stabile, Carol and Mark Harrison, eds. Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-28326-4.
• Stephenson, Ralph. The Animated Film. London: Tantivity Press, 1973. ISBN 0-49801-202-6.

External links

• Animated Films
• The making of an animated cartoon
• Chronology of animation
• The History of the Discovery of Cinematography
• Complete list of Soviet animated cartoons (in English, with descriptions. Also includes cartoons from all of the countries that the Soviet Union split up into)

Categories: Cartooning | Art genres | Film and video terminology | Animation by medium

See Also:

• Animation: Encyclopedia
• Animation Camera: Encyclopedia
• Limited Animation: Encyclopedia
• Computer Animation: Encyclopedia
• Independent Animation: Encyclopedia

What Links Here:

Recently Viewed Pages:

• Search Terms
• Home
• Arts: Movies: Chats and Forums: Directory
• Arts: Movies: Chats and Forums: Mailing Lists: Directory
• Film: Videos
• Actors and Actresses
• Referrers
• Filmek
• Filme: Blogs
• Gujarati: Blogs

Most Popular Pages:

• Search Terms
• Filmek
• Filme Groaza
• Home
• Filmy: Images
• Filmy
• Filme
• Epoka Lodowcowa 3: Images
• Animated Cartoon: Web Search
• Slumdog Millionaire: News

Related 'Animated Cartoon' Searches: