History of computer graphics

We looked at the development of Computer graphics and how they have been used in animation.  The first computer to create computer graphics was the Whirlwind. The Whirlwind was originally designed to track enemy movements during the war, they had radar that would send signals to the computer that would produce real time images. The Whirlwind computer was developed in 1951 and was the first computer to use RAM( random access memory).

here is an image of the computer Whirlwind and some workers operating the machine

 

The Next thing we looked at was the Sketchpad which was developed in 1963 by Ivan Sutherland. The Sketchpad is a computer program that allowed the user to draw on a computer using a light pen.

image of the light pen and sketchpad being used

 

We also looked at the first game Space Wars that was created by Steve Russell a student from MIT that Ivan Sutherland also part of.

Here is video about the first video game Space Wars

French Animation

We looked at some French animations. French where responsible for making systems to capture images to make animations along with sound and color.  Here is the first color animation in history it’s an animation that was in color and had weird transformations and timing and the story was hard to follow, perhaps doing something a bit more simple and easy to follow would have been better.

Experimental Animation

This time we looked at experimental animation. Experimental animation is usually abstract and is made when an animator is exploring new methods of animating. A lot of the animations i find to have a lot of morphing and transformations with shapes and colors. There are usually a lot of patterns too be seen along with a soundtrack that would match the animation.

 here is a video of some early abstract animations

                                                   "Early Abstractions" (1946-57), Pt. 3

UPA

We looked at how Disney animators took a strike during the making of the film Dumbo in 1941. Following the strike a lot of animators left Disney, some of the members that left formed United Productions of America also known as UPA.

UPA used a simple art style and they reduced the amount of drawings in their animations. They started off by making animations during war.

We looked at the animation called The Magic Fluke

                                               The Magic Fluke (Fox and Crow, UPA, 1949) 

Continuation of a look a Hollywood characters

We look at other popular characters in Hollywood and the animations that they were in. We looked at Fred Averys animation work and we noticed a style to he’s animations, they all had over exaggerated characters and physical jokes that where very similar to the physical jokes that where in the Tom and Jerry series.

The Red Hot Riding Hood animation is a perfect example of how similar the physical comedy is.

                                                          Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) 

 In this animation the characters are all over exaggerated and the comedy style is usually quite physical.

Another example we looked at was Ventriloquist Cat. The animation is about a mischievous cat that hates dogs and he’s pulling pranks on a dog using a device he find that allows him to project he’s voice. The comedy style is very violent.

                                                    Tex Avery - Ventriloquist Cat (1950)

This was my favorite animation of he’s work because I liked the moral of the story and I also found it really funny.