Portal:Animation

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Introduction

The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these six frames, repeated indefinitely.

Animation is a method in which figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets, or clay figures.

An animated cartoon is an animated film, usually a short film, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips, often featuring anthropomorphic animals, superheroes, or the adventures of human protagonists (either children or adults). Especially with animals that form a natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers around violent pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life.

The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to persistence of vision and later to the phi phenomenon and/or beta movement, but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a stroboscopic effect. While animators traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over a separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between key frames to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment. (Full article...)

Outline of animation

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The letter "A" in the alphabet created for the film

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is the first science fiction film in Disney's animated features canon and the 41st overall. Set in 1914, the film tells the story of a young man who gains possession of a sacred book, which he believes will guide him and a crew of adventurers to the lost city of Atlantis. Linguist Marc Okrand created an Atlantean language for the film (letter "A" pictured). Atlantis made greater use of computer-generated imagery than any of Disney's previous animated features; it remains one of the few to have been shot in anamorphic format. Atlantis, which adopted the distinctive visual style of comic book creator Mike Mignola, is one of the few Disney animated features not to have songs. The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on June 3, 2001, and went into general release on June 15. Due to the film's poorer-than-expected box-office performance, Disney quietly canceled both a spin-off television series and an underwater attraction at its Disneyland theme park. Some critics praised it as a unique departure from typical Disney animated features, while others disliked it due to the unclear target audience and absence of songs.

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Flip the Frog

Credit: Ub Iwerks Studio

Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American cartoonist Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933. The series had many recurring characters besides Flip, including Flip's dog, the mule Orace, and a dizzy neighborhood spinster.

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... that the Pakistani film Shehr e Tabassum was the first animated cyberpunk film to be made by an Urdu development team?
... that the Tuca & Bertie episode "The Jelly Lakes" employs a paper-cutout animation that helps to depict abuse in a way that centers the victim's story?
... that at age 12, Shaylee Mansfield became the first deaf actor to be credited alongside the voice actors for a signed performance in an animated production?
... that Encanto's Isabela Madrigal was animated to be aware that she is "always on stage"?
... that the Long Sault Parkway connects eleven islands created by the flooding of the Long Sault rapids during the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s?
... that the nickname of a Russian submarine constructed from interconnected spheres comes from an animated circus animal made out of juggling balls?

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Yes, we worry about what the critics say. Yes, we worry about what the opening box office is going to be. Yes, we worry about what the final box office is going to be. But really, the whole point why we do what we do is to entertain our audiences. The greatest joy I get as a filmmaker is to slip into an audience for one of our movies anonymously, and watch people watch our film. Because people are 100 percent honest when they're watching a movie. And to see the joy on people's faces, to see people really get into our films...to me is the greatest reward I could possibly get.

— John Lasseter, reflecting on the impact of the film, Toy Story

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James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolper's documentaries. Brooks wrote for several shows before being hired as a story editor on My Friend Tony and later creating the series Room 222. Although he did not intend to do so, Brooks returned to television in 1987 as the producer of The Tracey Ullman Show. He hired cartoonist Matt Groening to create a series of shorts for the show, which eventually led to The Simpsons in 1989. The Simpsons won numerous awards and is still running after 22 years. Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote the 2007 film adaptation of the show, The Simpsons Movie. In total, Brooks has received 47 Emmy nominations, winning 20 of them.

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The cast members of Family Guy, an American animated sitcom that features five main voice actors, and numerous regular cast and recurring guest stars. The principal voice cast consists of show creator Seth MacFarlane (pictured), Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis (who replaced Lacey Chabert after the first season) and Mike Henry. Recurring voice actors include Patrick Warburton, Adam West, John G. Brennan, Nicole Sullivan and Jennifer Tilly, and repeat guest stars include Phyllis Diller, Charles Durning, Rush Limbaugh, and Phil LaMarr. Many cast members provide voices for multiple characters. The voice actors, in portraying the various character personalities on the show, draw inspiration from celebrities and pop culture. Family Guy characters have been played by more than one actor, after members of the show left the series or had conflicting obligations. Kunis was nominated for an Annie Award for voicing Meg Griffin in the season 5 episode "Barely Legal" and MacFarlane has also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production, though no other cast member has won an award for their work on the series.

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More did you know...

...that the actors in the film Planet of Dinosaurs had to sign partial payment deferments on their contracts, because most of the budget was spent on stop motion dinosaurs?
...that after bad reviews, the distributors of the 1992 animated film The Princess and the Goblin used enthusiastic comments from children in its promotional material?
...that Kot Filemon is the hero of a Polish animated TV series by Academy Award-winning studio Se-ma-for?