Week2: The history of film, animation and VFX & Note

The history of Film

1877, Eadweard Muybridge set up a system, which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-motion photographs. This is the basic stage of film formation

1891, Thomas Edison had perfected the kinetoscope

1892, Emile Reynaud projected the first animated film on his praxinoscope

1895, Robert W Paul and Bert Akers had invented the first British 35-millimeter camera

1895.12.28  Lumiere brothers Showing their own films in Paris—It was the birth of cinema

1897, George Melies built the world’s first film studio in Montreal

George Melies

1. Filming and showing began in 1896, promoting the principle of “stop and shoot again” (Edison used it earlier than Melies but did not carry it forward).

2. To tell a story “in an artificial way” :

① Tell the whole story;

(2) Transplantation of theatrical methods into film creation;

③ Establish the basic length of each film;

Create a new method of camera combination (fade in and out, fold, fade out, etc.).

1901, James Williamson The Big Swallow using extreme close-up. He was very influenced by Smith’s work but developed the film narrative. James Williamson was the first filmmaker to develop multi-shot films and for dramatic effects.

1902, <A Trip to the Moon>a French black-and-white silent science fiction film. It was written and directed by Georges Melies, It runs 14 minutes at 16 frames per second.<A Trip to the Moon> is considered the first science fiction film and is famous for its innovative animation effects.

From the late 1920 s, Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age‘

The history of Animation

At the beginning of the 20^th century, with the advent of films, animations began to appear.

1906, James Stewart Blackton produced “The Humorous phases of Funny Faces”, which is widely regarded as the earliest animation in the world.

1914, “Gertie the Dinosaur” was the first characteristic animation.

1928, Walt Disney “Steamboat Willie”— first animation that uses music to transmit information

During the Great Depression, Disney demonstrated an ability to defy the economic cycle, Disney gradually pushed animated films to the peak.

With the maturity of technology, more and more good animated films have appeared in front of people

The history of VFX

1977, Star Wars was the first film ever recorded to be filmed using a motion-controlled camera.

1982, Industrial Light & Magic invented a computer processing method called “source sequence” and applied it to the science fiction film “Star Trek”, which produced the first computer-generated scene in the history of cinema.

1985, Industrial Light & Magic created the first computer-generated character in film history.

1989, Industrial light and Magic produced the first-ever computer-generated three-dimensional character in the sci-fi film The Abyss

1991, Terminator 2, the first computer-generated protagonist in film history.

1994, Jurassic Park, the first time in film history, digital technology created breathable characters with real skin, muscle, and movement.