From sketch to screen: The birth of animation 

Animated films are everyone’s favourite, and why shouldn’t they be? Animations can steal anyone’s heart with their vibrant colours and brilliant storylines. And to justify how effectively they have cast a spell worldwide; the industry is estimated to be worth over 68.4 billion dollars!  

But do you know how animations were made when the first animated movie was released in 1906? Well, they operated on the principle of vision persistence. But what exactly is this principle? Keep reading to find out how the principle was used to create the first animated film and how it paved the way for the iconic creations of Walt Disney. 

The first projected animation film 
Simply put, animation creates the illusion of movement through images, via the principle of persistence of vision. If different stages of action were shown to you through images, in fast succession, your mind would perceive those images as continuous movement. You might have seen those books that create the illusion of continuous motion when you quickly go through them, right? This is nothing but the persistence of vision. Phenakistoscope, an animation device created in 1832 by Joseph Plateau, a Belgian-based scientist was one of the first devices created using this effect. It included a cardboard dish that could spin to give the illusion of movement when viewed through a mirror. Later, William George Horner, a British mathematician invented the Zoetrope, another animation device in 1834, which consisted of a rotating drum surrounded by a band of interchangeable images. Eventually, these two early inventions inspired French inventor Emile Reynaud, to create the world’s first projected animation film! Using persistence of vision, Reynaud created a device in 1876 that could convert his beautifully hand-painted celluloid ribbons into a theatrical performance. Quite like the movie reels! He then projected these movements onto a theatre screen using a mirror system. It is because of Reynaud that we can now watch movies on big screens! 

The first film-based animation (1906) 
Emile Reynaud’s invention pushed the boundaries of animation. But the world of animation saw even more advances, beginning with the first film-based animation in 1906. Stuart Blackton, a British-American film maker, created the first film-based animation called the Humorous Phases of Funny Faces using newspaper-style cartoon characters. This was the first film-based animation in history. A lot closer to animation the way we see today. For his next short film in 1907, The Haunted Hotel, Blackton experimented with the stop-motion technique. In this technique, objects were photographed, repositioned and photographed again. Till now, only short films were being made.  

Gertie the Dinosaur and El Apóstol 
So, when were full-length animated movies introduced to the world? Gertie the Dinosaur, created by American cartoonist and animator McCay in 1914, transformed the field of animation! McCay’s exceptional drafting skills provided the character with a fluid sense of movement, endowing the character with a personality and a life of her own. Gertie immediately struck a chord with the audience, and thus, the first cartoon star was born! But when was the first feature-length animated film made? Not long after Gertie the Dinosaur was released, in 1917, El Apóstol was released in Argentina. The film was created by Quirino Cristiani, an Italian-Argentinian cartoonist and lasted 70 minutes. It ran at a rate of stunning 14 frames per second! It was the first commercially successful animated film ever made. Sadly, the only copy of the film was destroyed in a house fire. 

 Walt Disney creates his first animated feature film 
It is impossible to discuss animation without mentioning Walt Disney. Disney’s decision to create a synchronised sound cartoon shook the film industry. When sound was added to the movies (in 1923), it completed the illusion, making it more magical and enjoyable. Disney added various features to its short films and cartoons over the years, beginning with music in the film The Skeleton Dance (1929), then three-strip Technicolor in the movie Flowers and Tree (1932). They even added the illusion of depth with a multiplane camera in The Old Mill (1937). With each step, Disney improved the art of animation. Using all these techniques, Disney created his first animated feature film with music, our favourite, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. The film received a Hollywood-style release and is still regarded as a critically acclaimed animated film till date.