Animation Timeline

EADWARD MUYBRIDGE
In 1872, a businessman seeked out Eadward Muybridge to prove whether all four of a horse's hooves leave the ground at the same time during a gallop. Muybridge had photographed a horse in fast motion, the series of photos is called The Horse in Motion. The result was one of the earliest forms of Animation.



WINDSOR MCCAY
Windsor McCay gained his place in history through his combining of his skills in chalk drawings and in making comic strips. His most notable works include Gertie the Dinosaur and Little Nemo. He was one of the earliest animators, and was the biggest name in the industry for 20 years, until Walt Disney.



WALT DISNEY
Responsible for the creation of Mickey Mouse and was the first to release an animation that had a soundtrack, Steamboat Willie. He would also later release the first animated feature in America and Technicolour, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Ub Iwerks was responsible for reworking the sketches made by Disney so that it was easier to animate.



URB IRWEK
Urb Irwek creates a multi-plane camera. This camera is capable of filming several separate layers of cels giving the final frame a truly three dimensional look.



TRON
One of the first films from major studio, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, to use extensive computer graphics. It made use of computer animation, intercutting with live action.



TOY STORY
Milestone in animation as the entire film is completely computer animated with incredible attention to detail. 27 animators worked on the film, using 400 computer models to animate the characters.In total, the film required 800,000 machine hours and 114,240 frames of animation, with 2–15 hours spent per frame.



AVATAR
the $237m budget of Avatar signals a leap in technology - indeed, Cameron waited 15 years before starting filming as technology had not advanced enough to portray his vision.

Tired of waiting for technology to catch up, he co-developed a new generation of stereoscopic cameras.

Simplified, this is the equivalent of two cameras strapped together, each providing a slightly different perspective on the scene, mimicking the way human eyes view the world in three dimensions.

However, these advances are different - the entire screen has depth, taking on the appearance of a window through which the viewer is watching a 'world' on the screen, with a distinct foreground and background, rather than a flat, moving paintingIn effect, the cinema screen becomes a theatre stage.

Continuing to develop new technology as he went along, Cameron also devised a 'virtual camera', a hand-held monitor that allowed him to move through a 3D terrain.

his, Cameron said, allowed him to create 'the ultimate immersive media', which he anticipates will exceed any and all expectation.

In essence, this allowed Cameron to direct the film as if it was computer game. If he wanted to change the viewpoint, he could click a few buttons on a mouse and a computer would redraw the virtual world from the new perspective.