W1: The Silent Era Flashcards
Name the early viewing devices in order
- Thaumatrope
- Phenakistoscope
- Zoetrope
- Praxinoscope
1906 Lightning Sketch with hand-drawn animation and stop motion
Humourous Phases of Funny Faces
Director-animator of Humorous Phases of Funny Faces
James Stuart Blackton
The first true animator
Émile Cohl
What is the title of Émile Cohl’s 1908 short film?
Fantamagorie
Creator, animator, director of Gertie the Dinosaur
Windsor McCay
Significance of Gertie the Dinosaur
1) First animated character to display personality
2) Displayed weight and volume
What was John. A Fitzsimmons’ involvement with GERTIE THE DINOSAUR?
Retraced the background scene for each frame
10k frames in total
Reasons why people simped for Windsor McCay
1) Excellent draftsman
2) An acute sense of perspective
Inventor of the peg-system for registration of animation drawings
Raoul Barré
Who was William Randolph Hearst?
- founder of Hearst International Film Service
- one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry
- owned a national newspaper which displayed King Feature comics, and from those comics he made animated cartoons like KRAZY KAT
Earl Hurd’s great contribution to the animation world
Invented the celluloid system (The Bray-Hurd System)
Briefly describe the Celluloid Process
- Drawing of a complete, stationary background on paper
- Characters inked, and painted on clear celluloids laid on top
“Transparent sheets in conjunction with a background which is photographed thereupon the negative film,” -Bray
Who created what is arguable the first commercial theatrical animated series, COLONEL HEEZA LIAR?
John Randolph Bray
Name two key men responsible for FELIX THE CAT
PRODUCER: Pat Sullivan
DIRECTOR-ANIMATOR: Otto Messmer
Significance of Felix the Cat
first character to display a thinking process
Why did Felix decline in popularity in the late 1920s?
- Advent of sound
- Sullivan believed sound films were simply a fad and stubbornly continued to animated Felix in silence
Name first three major animation studios in the history of the industry
- Barré Studio
- Bray Studios
- Hearst INTERNATIONAL FILM SERVICES
Name McCay’s comic and its short film equivelent
Comic: Little Nemo in Slumberland
Short film: Little Nemo
Bray Studio’s most notable contribution to the animation industry (not his patents)
Systematization of the animation production process creating DIVISIONS OF LABOUR
Earl Hurd’s character @ Bray Studios
Bobby Bumps
Cartoon duo based off of Bud Fisher’s cartoons
Dick Huemer worked on this series at Barré Studios
Mutt and Jeff
What series did Walter Lantz work on during his time at Bray Studios?
Dinky Doodles
What did McCay use for the first time in The Sinking of the Lusitania?
cel animation
First Felix the Cat cartoon
Feline Follies, his name was Master Tom
Who redesign Felix in Felix in Hollywood, and what were the changes?
Bill Nolan
change from an angular design to circles and softer shapes, which made him easier to animate
Fastest animator during the silent era
Bill Nolan
