The Development of 2D and Stop-Motion

The Development of 2D and Stop-motion Animation Techniques

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was the big importance in Animation. Walt Disney was an animator, cartoonist, producer, director and an American businessman. Walt Disney was regarded as an international icon around the world with all his work Walt Disney was largely regarded as a film producer. During his lifetime he received four honorary Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year, Walt Disney created the first sound animation in 1928. Steamboat Willie was created in black and white and this was the launch pad for Mickey mouse and this was the main breakthrough in Walt Disney’s work. Another reason why Walt Disney was a big influential animator because he created the first animation motion picture in colour called Snow white and this was the springboard for more movies by Walt Disney. Walt Disney went on to creating plans for creating theme parks all over the world called Disneyland and the idea for the amusement park came from a visit to the Children’s Fairyland in Oakland These plans were drew out in 1940 when Walt Disney was on a trip to Chicago in the 1940’s. He drew out his plans on making an amusement park and in 1955 Disney hosted a live preview of the amusement parks grand opening. This was a big influence in animation because once Disneyworld was expanding all over the world after this and other film company’s were taking notice to this such as Warner bros and Universal by going in the same direction as Disney with making theme parks all over the world and Disney’s theme parks were expanding as well by going to Europe in France as Disneyland and going to China and Japan.

Warner Bros

Warner Brothers was a major film company founded in 1923 with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Brothers has several subsidiary companies, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, The WB.com and DC Entertainment, Warner owns half of The CW Television Network. Warner Bros created a major breakthrough in film with discover and during the time between the times 1925-1935 they discovered sound and colour when they were making films and this was major for Warner Brothers and people because this was a different way of seeing films.  In the 1930s there was the birth of Merrie Melodies, which was the start of warner bros cartoons such as Leon Schlesinger was the creator of these cartoons. The first Merry Melodies cartoon was the Looney Tunes this was the major breakthrough in Warner Bros cartoons and in the same time as the Looney Tunes they created the cartoon series Sinkin in the Bathtub and they also created a sister series in 1930. By 1949 with the success of television threating the film industry more and more Harry Warner decided to shift his focus towards television production but the Federal Communications Commission would not permit it after the unsuccessful attempt to convince other studio bosses to switch their focus to television Harry abandoned his television efforts. But by 1955 Jack Warner was able to create a studio to finally engage television this was a major breakthrough in television because it allowed Warner Bros the make film productions and create entertainment for people. By 1995 Warner Bros were making films to suit everyone from ages 3+. In the 1990’s Warner Bros obtained the rights to create one of the best television productions of all time in Harry Potter and make all of the films and this was a big step for Warner Bros because they were now getting bigger audiences for there films and people were buying into there films since they created Harry Potter. Warner Bros most moneymaking film was the Dark Knight (Batman) which made over 1 Billion pounds.

Aardman Animations also known as Aardman Studios is a British animation company, which is based in Bristol and is famous for its films using stop motion clay animation and is mainly famous for Wallace and Gromit and also films such as Chicken Run. Aardman was founded In 1972 as a low budget project by Peter Lord and David Sproxton and there dream and they wanted to fulfil there dream of producing an animated motion picture and there other aims were to change animation on and let people see animation in a different and more modern way. There first segment was called Greeblies in 1975 using clay and this was the inspiration to go on to creating the morph a simple clay character and this was the main breakthrough for Aardman Animations because they were coming up with all sorts of ideas and shows for this morph figure. It started with Down and out and Confessions of a foyer girl using these Morphs and BBC were also helping Aardman with all these short segments. Aardman then created little title sequences for the egg race, which was a multiple award winning music video of the Peter Gabriel’s song Sledge Hammer. After this company like Channel 4 and BBC were noticing what Aardman was doing and channel 4 had Aardman producing short films for them and by this point they were hiring more animators to work for them. One of Aardmans biggest breakthroughs and inspirations in animation was when they announced that they would be teaming up with DreamWorks Animation to create their first feature film Chicken Run which was already in pre production when they announced it and with it being a huge success Aardman signed a contract with DreamWorks Animation to team up with films for the next 12 years. After nearly ten years of being absent from the world of animation Wallace and Gromit came back as a film called Wallace and Gromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and next year followed Flushed Away. David Sproxton and Peter Lord realised his dream and has been a huge inspiration to people who want to go into animation and they have been also helping out computer games for the Nintendo DS.