The word animation comes from the latin "animare," which means "to give life to." Certainly, all humans may be accused of doing this on some level. There is magic (even more than in the medium of film) to seeing the static,... [more]

The word animation comes from the latin "animare," which means "to give life to." Certainly, all humans may be accused of doing this on some level. There is magic (even more than in the medium of film) to seeing the static, the inanimate, the never-alive, take on the appearance of life. Animation engages the persistence of vision and involves the capture and training of motion itself. The forms in animated pieces (unlike in films) can be completely imaginary and fantastical, and must involve a Frankenstein-ian level of fascination and investment. Much like the biblical god, animators can conjure their own world in detail and make it so -- though the painstaking labors of animating take longer than a mere eight days (it takes 24 frames to make one second of moving film in traditional cell animation). The origins of animation can be traced all the way back to the Paleolithic times. Cave art was really a graphic narrative, probably the first pictorial expression of human thought and emotion. There is also evidence of a machine as early as 70 B.C. that projected hand-drawn images in sequence. The first animator in the modern era, Emile Cohl, created "Fantasmagoria" in 1908 by shooting 700 drawings frame by frame in a sequential order. The film has no real plot, but follows a series of events which are linked through metamorphosizing forms -- like an elephant transmogrifying into a house. Traditional animation materials include clay, foam, puppets, cut-outs, and pen drawings. Now, powerfully rendered computer generated animations press the boundaries of make-believe: virtual worlds come closer and closer to representing our own reality -- this Frankenstein monster may yet blunder up into life. [show less]