"Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive", Walt Disney
Artists have spent hundreds of years trying to capture a moment but to do that with one drawing, painting etc was sometimes the case where they either caught the moment before or after, trying to encapsulate the entirety of the moment sometimes couldn't be done.
"Yet, through all the centuries, artists continued to search for a medium of expression that would permit them to capture that elusive spark of life, and in the late 1800's new inventions seemed at last to make this possible".
This would be the invention of projectors that could project photos at a speed that would emulate life, this was the birth of cinema and with it aniamtion to, as we know it today. Unlike there contemporaries that were limited to what happened infront of them, an artist could create whatever was in his mind and put this onto the screen.
"An artsist could represent the actual figure, if he chose, meticulously capturing its movements and actions. Or hecould caricature it, satirize it, ridicule it...he could show emotions, feelings, even innermost fears. He could give reality to dreams of the visionary".
So far it's not film makers exploring the world of animation its the artists showing that in the early days taht the animation process was born out of an artists need to study and capture a moment, not the technology. Even the realisation of the translation of colour comes into it. When an artist paints or draws its only as bright or colourful as paints are manufactured, but with a light shining through it, the colour can be brighter as film is transparent.
"Their apparent brightness is relative to itself, a range from dark to light of about 20 to 1, but with the light intensity of thr projection lamp and highly reflective screen, this brightness factor increases 200 to 1... Just as the stained glass window had brought dazzling brilliance after centuries of relatively dull frescoes, the introduction of light behind the film made whole new ranges of colour possible to the artist. Add to this the potential for stronger empotional response and, an artsist has before him an incredible medium for self expression".
Animator Vladimir (Bill) Tytla is credited as the first animtor to achieve strong emotions and convincng actions with the human figure. He worked on Snow White, Pinocchio and Dumbo. He described the art form as...
"It was mentioned to me that the possibilities are infinite, There isn't anything you can't do in it as far as composition is concerned",
When he was asked how he got such amazing results by a couple of young animators,
"The problem is not a single track one. Animation is not just timing, or just a well-drawn character, it is the sum of all factors named... What you as an animator are interested in is conveying a certain feeling you happen to have at the time".
Here is evidence of an animator who is also an artist the way he mentions composition a key draw for him to interpret it, and how sometimes he gets it sometimes he doesn't, he also mentions what was said at the start about the artists doing the animation or being animators is that you as an animator are trying to convey emotion and on some level connect with your audience.
"Conveying a certain feeling is the essence of communication in any art form. It is one of animations gretaest strengths and ceratinly one of the most important aspects of this art for the young animator to study and master".
"As artists, we now have new responsibilities in addition to those of draftsman and designer; we have added the disciplines of the actor and the theatre".
Tha above statement relates to how we as humans communicate basic wants and needs that all men & women understand, before we develop speech. This may ahve been due to the fact that in early cinema there was no audio so actions had to be conveyed through body movement or gestures to eachother that the audience could relate to or understand. An actor knows these because these are the tools of his trade, and now that our drawings are moving and must do so realistically we are compelled to becme actors ourselves. The animation problem is different of that of the actors because we have to communicate the action through pictures which is more difficult thn the actors job which is more immediate.
"In animation we are trying to show that a charcater is sad we droop the shoulders, slump the body, drop the ehad, and add a long face. Yet those same symbols also can mean that the character is tired, or discouraged, or even listless. We can add a tear and pin point our attitude a little better.... The live actor has another advantage in that he can interrelate with others in the cast... There will be chemistry at work that will create charisma, a special excitement that will elicit an immediate response from the audience... in animation we start with a blank piece of paper! Out of nowhere we have to come up with characters that are real, that live, that interrelate".
In this instance for an animator to create that spark, we utilize our own experience in that we as part of the audience (as we are people to) we can sympathize, or empathize to. We inter our emotions onto the paper to create a connection and touch the viewer. Again relating to the most basic of communications that al audiences know in turn we convey something that connects us all as people and involves the audience this can be a character or a feeling, idea, or even a situation people can relate to.
One thing that will always grab peoples attention is personality, Charlie Chaplin once said that,
"Little as I knew about movies, I knew that nothing transcended personality"
In short personality is the audience window for them to identify with the story, the character has to be human enough so the audience can undertsand and identify with them. A character must be more than one note, they must have other facets to them. One good example given here is,
"a simple golfer getting ready to make a crucial shot. He shows concentration and determination as he prepares for that important swing. Then suppose he misses the ball entirely. His true character will be revealed at once!"
It is said most of the best story/animation are ones born out of conflict. The goal obvioulsy to get our audience to feel the characters emotions. To care, to show concern, and importantly invest in the character, and in turn the story.
When the art form was first discovered it was till trying to figure itself out, what it could do? and how it worked? One person who had an idea was Winsor McCay who was the cartoonist at the time for the New York Herald. He made many films between 1911 to 1921 with convincing cartoons that made the audience think he traced them from photos. To prove these people wrong he would draw his most famous character Gertie the Dinosaur, which in turn helped discover the importance of a characters personality in connecting with an audience. Although these were great works in history they were commercial flops and McCay had to return to his newspaper for steady income. Historian John Canemaker said that,
"Gertie was the first animated personality, showing shyness, stubborness, and even actually weeping big tears when jeered".After the other studios appeared and had "gimmicks that where successful and made the cartoons popular. Out of the Inkwell, by Max Fleischer was one and Felix the Cat, by Otto Messmer was also out there. Out of all the followers of McCay's "Gertie" only Felix the cat seemed to have a personality that the audience could relate to and in the end by 1923 people in the biz felt that everything that could be done in the field had been done.
"...only the films about Felix suggested the idea of giving a character personality, but his creators had failed to develop this past rudimentary beginnings, relying on visual tricks that got audience response. Most people felt by 1923 just about everything had been done that was possible, and the exhibitors were looking in other directions for something new to keep their audiences laughing".Enter Walt and Roy Disney. Walt by no means was an overnight success, but he fought hard through fights over the rights to his cartoons, staff, contracts, even when he got a studio people tried to run him out of town. He was supported by his staff, and family who in the end like all there predecessors cared more about keeping animation alive than making money.
"Walt was fighter and had great determination; he was no aesthetic artist living in a dream world...There were constant battles, many defeats, endless disappointments: he lost the rights to his contracts. And then when he finally began to achieve a bit of success, his studio became a prize to be taken over! Yet through all it all he never lost his love for people or his faith in their judgement."
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