5 Pioneers of Early Animation, Before Walt Disney

Image courtesy: makematic.com

Today, animation is universal. It has extended beyond television and cinema, and has a wider reach through the Internet, mobile phones, and even out-of-home media. When we think of animation, the first person that invariably comes to mind is Walt Disney. He is known as the father of modern animation. But animation existed long before Walt Disney made it a household name. 

Whether you are an animation student, a working professional in the industry, or a career aspirant who wishes to join a career course  & make a mark in the field of animation, it is important that you know about these five legendary people who laid the foundation of the empire that the animation industry has become today.

Émile Cohl

This cartoonist from France is fondly known as the ‘Father of animated cartoon’. In the year 1908, he created the first fully animated cartoon ever to be produced on film. The work was titled Fantasmagorie. When one watches the film, it appears as though the film was made on a black chalkboard but this is nothing more than an illusion. Instead, Cohl traced a set of seven hundred drawings by filming them with black lines on white paper, then reversing the negative to give the effect of black chalkboard. It took him about three months to complete the movie. Watch Fantasmagorie here:

Video courtesy: Robin Rousseau via YouTube 

Georges Méliès

Popularly called the world's first cinemagician, this French filmmaker quickly became well known in the industry for the use of special effects in his films. He made over 530 films in his career, using rudimentary filmmaking tricks, which were considered state-of-the-art technology at the time. In 1902, he appeared in one of his own films, L'oeuf du sorcier, which depicted several photography tricks like dissolves, fades and jump cuts that form the basis of the special effects industry today. With these tricks, he created the impression of an object appearing, disappearing, transforming and growing in size. He is one of the first people to make use of techniques like these in films, especially in the context of animation and motion.

Video courtesy: Smells Like Popcorn Huele A Palomitas via YouTube 

Winsor McCay

Known as the father of ‘true’ animation, Winsor McCay surprised movie goers with his production of 'Litte Nemo', which featured two minutes of pure animation previously not seen in films. 

Video courtesy: wangjacup via YouTube 

J. Stuart Blackton

Inspired by Thomas Edison's inventions, J. Stuart Blackton founded the American Vitagraph Company and started producing films. His first movie was The Enchanted Drawing in the year 1900. He was among the first people in the industry to create stop motion animation. 

Video courtesy: wangjacup via YouTube 

Eadweard J. Muybridge

The animal locomotion studies of Muybridge weren’t exactly animation; they were one of the very first experiments in moving images, laying the groundwork for generations of videographists to come. In 1893, he famously used the phenakistoscope – an animation device that captured the ‘persistence of vision’ principle in order to depict an illusion of motion - to further his visual studies in the field of animation.

GIF Courtesy: www.i.pinimg.com 

If you are ready to follow the amazing pathway set by these legendary animators, click here. Get ready to gain the skills to become the next-gen animator!