4 Animation Innovators That Built the Industry
Written by Toonimo
Cartoon animation is the best medium of creative expressions these days and is used by thousands of online marketing professionals. Thanks to the modern techniques and multimedia aids, animations have moved from being a pipe-dream, to the silver screen, to the internet.
In this review, we’ll examine the key figures that helped shape the last century of cartoon animations.
Winsor McCay
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.
Winsor McCay is called the father of the animated cartoon and he developed animation from a simple camera trick to full character animation within a short period of 1911 to 1921. Each cartoon was his alone and he animated his films single-handed. To create a single 5 minute movie he sometimes spent more than a year. His famous character “Gertie the Dinosaur” was the first animated cartoon character and her movie was the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur. Winsor McCay worked prolifically as a commercial artist and made a number of newspaper comic strips like “Dream of the rarebit fiend” and “Little Nemo”. He was famous for performing chalk talks and he drew before the live audiences.
James Stuart Blackton
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923.
James Stuart Blackton is also considered as the father of American animation. His famous work “The Enchanted drawing” was a silent film and included sequences recorded in a standard film.
In 1896 Blackton met the famous Thomas Edison who shot a small film of Blackton with his shiny new invention Vitascope. This influenced Blackton a lot and he fell in love with filmmaking. The rest was history and Blackton founded American Vitograph Company and started making movies starting with the famous “The Enchanted Drawing”.
Walt Disney
This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed.
Walt Disney was a major figure in the American animation history and he is regarded as the cultural icon because of his contribution in the field of entertainment. His company Walt Disney productions is one of the best known motion picture companies of the world.
Walt Disney was famous for his innovations in animations and created the world’s most iconic animation character named Mickey Mouse for whom Disney himself provided the original voice. Walt Disney himself received many honorary awards including 22 times Academy awards during his lifetime. Disney established theme parks and gave his name to Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Paris and many more.
John Lasseter
Creative Commons Attribution
John Lasseter began his career as an animator with the Walt Disney Company. Later he became one of the three founders of Pixar animation Studios and is responsible for most of Pixar’s success and looks after all the studio projects. He has personally directed Toy Story, A Bug’s life, Toy Story 2, Cars and Cars 2. He has won two Academy awards for short animation film Tin Toy and for Special achievement award for Toy Story. He has been also nominated for Academy awards on numerous occasions in the category of animated feature for Cars, Monsters, Toy Story and Luxo, Jr.
