Chapter I: Introduction

We learn through the functioning of our senses; sight the most precious shows us the appearance of the exterior world. Before the dawn of pictorial presentation, man was visually cognizant only of his immediate or present surroundings. On the development of realistic picturing it was possible, more or less truthfully, to become acquainted with the aspect of things not proximately perceivable. The cogency of the perceptive impression was dependent upon the graphic faithfulness of the agency—a pictorial work—that gave the visual representation of the distant thing.

It is by means of sight, too, that the mind since the beginning of alphabets has been made familiar with the thoughts and the wisdom of the past and put into relationship with the learning and reasoning of the present. These two methods of imparting knowledge—delineatory and by inscribed symbols—have been concurrent throughout the ages.

It was nearly a century ago that Joseph Nicéphore Niepce (1765-1833), at Châlons-sur-Saône, in France, invented photography. Since that time it has been possible to fix on a surface, by physicochemical means, pictures of the exterior world. It was another way of extending man’s horizon, but a way not dependent, in the matter of literalness, upon the variations of any individual’s skill or intent, but rather upon the accuracy of material means.

Thoughts and ideas once represented and preserved by picture-writing, recorded by symbolical signs, and at last inscribed by alphabetical marks were, in 1877, registered by mere tracings on a surface and again reproduced by Mr. Edison with his phonograph. As in the photograph, the procedure was purely mechanical, and man’s artificial inventions of linear markings and arbitrary symbols were totally disregarded.

Through photography we learn of the exterior nature of absent things and the character of the views in distant places. Or it preserves these pictorial matters in a material form for the future. The phonograph communicates to us the uttered thoughts of others or brings into our homes the melodies and songs of great artists that we should not otherwise have the opportunity to hear.

And now a new physicochemical marvel has come that apprehends, reproduces, and guards for the future another sensorial stimulus. It is the motion-picture and the stimulus is movement.

Photography and the rendering of sounds by the phonograph have both been adopted for instruction and amusement. The motion-picture also is used for these purposes, but in the main the art has been associated with our leisure hours as a means of diversion or entertainment. During the period of its growth, however, its adaptability to education has never been lost sight of. It is simply that development along this line has not been as seriously considered as it should be. Motion-pictures, it is true, that may be considered as educational are frequently shown in theatres and halls. Such, for instance, are views in strange lands, scenic wonders, and pictures showing the manufacture of some useful article or the manner of proceeding in some field of human activity. But these are effected entirely by photography and the narration of their making does not come within the scope of this book.

Our concern is the description of the processes of making “animated cartoons,” or moving screen drawings. Related matters, of course, including the inception and the development of motion-pictures in general, will be referred to in our work. At present, of the two divisions of our subject, the art of the animated comic cartoon has been most developed. It is for this reason that so much of the book is given to an account of their production.

But on the making of animated screen drawings for scientific and educational themes little has been said. This is not to be taken as a measure of their importance.

It is interesting to regard for a moment the vicissitudes of the word cartoon. Etymologically it is related to words in certain Latin tongues for paper, card, or pasteboard. Its best-accepted employment—of bygone times—was that of designating an artist’s working-size preliminary draft of a painting, a mural decoration, or a design for tapestry. Raphael’s cartoons in the South Kensington Museum, in London, are the best-known works of art coming under this meaning of the term. (They are, too, the usual instances given in dictionaries when this meaning is explained.) The most frequent use of the word up to recently, however, has been to specify a printed picture in which the composition bears upon some current event or political topic and in which notabilities of the day are generally caricatured. The word cartoon did not long particularize this kind of pictorial work but was soon applied to any humorous or satirical printed picture no matter whether the subject was on a topic of the day or not.

When some of the comic graphic artists began to turn their attention to the making of drawings for animated screen pictures, nothing seemed more natural than that the word “animated” should be prefixed to the term describing their products and so bringing into usage the expression “animated cartoons.” But the term did not long remain restricted to this application, as it soon was called into service by the workers in the industry to describe any film made from drawings without regard to whether the subject was of a humorous or of an educational character. Its use in this sense is perhaps justified as it forms a convenient designation in the trade to distinguish between films made from drawings and those having as their basic elements actuality, that is, people, scenes, and objects.

Teachers now are talking of “visual instruction.” They mean by this phrase in the special sense that they have given to it the use of motion-picture films for instructional purposes. Travel pictures to be used in connection with teaching geography or micro-cinematographic films for classes in biology are good examples of such films. But not all educational subjects can be depicted by the camera solely. For many themes the artist must be called in to prepare a series of drawings made in a certain way and then photographed and completed to form a film of moving diagrams or drawings.

As it is readily understood that any school topic presented in animated pictures will stimulate and hold the attention, and that the properties of things when depicted in action are more quickly grasped visually than by description or through motionless diagrams, it is likely that visual instruction by films will soon play an important part in any course of studies. Then the motion-picture projector will become the pre-eminent school apparatus and such subjects as do not lend themselves to photography will very generally need to be drawn; thereupon the preponderance of the comic cartoon will cease and the animated screen drawing of serious and worth-while themes will prevail.

E. G. L.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. THE BEGINNING OF ANIMATED DRAWINGS 3

II. THE GENESIS OF MOTION-PICTURES 35

III. MAKING ANIMATED CARTOONS 57

IV. FURTHER DETAILS ON MAKING ANIMATED CARTOONS 83

V. ON MOVEMENT IN THE HUMAN FIGURE 99

VI. NOTES ON ANIMAL LOCOMOTION 131

VII. INANIMATE THINGS IN MOVEMENT 153

VIII. MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS IN MAKING ANIMATED
SCREEN PICTURES 171

IX. PHOTOGRAPHY AND OTHER TECHNICAL MATTERS 201

X. ON HUMOROUS EFFECTS AND ON PLOTS 223

XI. ANIMATED EDUCATIONAL FILMS AND THE FUTURE 245

ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustrating the method of making animated cartoons
by cut-outs _Frontispiece_

PAGE

Magic-lantern and motion-picture projector compared 7

Geneva movement 9

A motion-picture projector 11

Illustrating the proportions of light and dark periods during
projection in two types of shutters 12

Section of an animated cartoon film 15

The thaumatrope 17

Two instruments used in early investigations of optical phenomena 18

Apparatus on the order of Faraday’s wheel 19

An antecedent of the phenakistoscope 20

A phenakistoscope 21

Phenakistoscope combined with a magic-lantern 22

Phenakistoscope with a cycle of drawings to show a dog in movement 23

The zootrope 24

Zoetrope of William Lincoln 25

Reynaud’s praxinoscope 26

The theatre praxinoscope 28

Projection praxinoscope 29

Optical theatre of Reynaud 30

The kineograph 31

Plan of the apparatus of Coleman Sellers 36

The ostrich walking; from Muybridge _Facing page_ 40

Marey’s photographic gun 42

Plan of the kinora 43

Plan of Edison’s first kinetoscope 46

Projector and motion-picture camera compared 48

A negative and a positive print 49

Plan of a motion-picture camera 50

Types of camera and projector shutters 51

One foot of film passes through the projector in one second 53

“Animator’s” drawing-board 61

A sheet of perforated paper and the registering pegs 63

Illustrating the making of an animated scene 67

Illustrating the making of an animated scene with the help of
celluloid sheets 71

Arrangement of board, pegs, and hinged frame with glass 75

Balloons 78

Three elements that complete a scene 79

Phenakistoscope with cycle of drawings of a face to show a movement
of the mouth 80

Cardboard model of an airplane with separate cut-out propellers
_Facing page_ 84

The laws of perspective are to be considered in “animating” an
object 86

Perspective applied in the drawing of birds as well as in the
picturing of objects 87

Articulated cardboard figures 89

Illustrating the animation of a mouse as he runs around
the kitchen 95

Successive phases of movements of the legs in walking 101

Illustrating the action of the foot in rolling over the ground 103

Successive phases of movements in walking 105

Phases of movement of a quick walk 107

Contractions and expansions as characteristic of motion 109

Order in which an animator makes the sequence of positions
for a walk 112 and 113

Phases of movement of a walk. Six phases complete a step 115

A perspective walk 117

Four positions for a perspective run 118

Phases of movement for a perspective run 119

Running figure 121

Phases of movement for a quick walk 123

Walking movements, somewhat mechanical 124

Phases of movement for a lively walk 125

Phases of movement for a quick walk 127

Walking movements viewed from above 128

Trotting horse 134

Trotting horse (_continued_) 135

A panorama effect 138

Galloping horse for a panorama effect 139

The elephant in motion 140

The elephant in motion (_continued_) 141

Pigeon in flight; from Muybridge _Facing page_ 142

Comic walk of a duck 143

Cycle of phases of a walking dog arranged for the phenakistoscope 144

Phenakistoscope with a cycle of drawings to show a dog in
movement 145

Running cow 147

Phases of movement of a walking lion 148

Dog walking 149

Various kinds of wave motion 150

Cycle of drawings to produce a screen animation of a waving flag 157

Cycle of drawings for an effect of falling water 159

Cycle of drawings for a puff of vapor 161

An explosion 162

The finishing stroke of some farcical situation 163

Piano practice 164

Three drawings used in sequence and repeated as long as the
particular effect that they give is desired 165

A constellation 166

Simple elements used in animating a scene 167

Symbolical animation of snoring 172

Series of drawings used to show a baby crying 173

A “close-up” 175

Illustrating the use of little “model” hats to vivify a scene 176

“Cut-out” eyes 178

Illustrating the making of “in-between” drawings 179

Illustrating the number of drawings required for a movement 180

Illustrating a point in animating a moving limb 182

Making drawings in turning the head 183

Easily drawn circular forms and curves 186

Foreground details of a pictorial composition 190

Making an animated cartoon panorama 193

Illustrating the apparent slowness of a distant object compared to one
passing close to the eye 195

Distinguishing marks on wheels to give the illusion of turning 197

Elements used in giving a figure the effect of trembling 198

Typical arrangement of camera and lights 203

Part of a length of film for a title 208

Vignetter or iris dissolve 211

To explain the distribution of light in a cross dissolve 213

Illustrating the operation of one type of motion-picture printer 217

Another plan for an animator’s drawing-board 218

Canine thoughts 219

Plenty of movement demanded in screen pictures 224

The plaint of inanimate things 227

The pinwheel effect of two boys fighting, elements needed in
producing it 231

Cycle of drawings to give the illusion of a man spinning
like a top 235

A blurred impression like that of the spokes of a turning wheel is
regarded as funny 236

Hats 239

Radiating “dent” lines 240

A laugh-provoking incident in an animated cartoon 241

The Mad Hatter 246

Detail of a fresco by Michael Angelo 248

Mr. Frost’s spirited delineation of figures in action 249

The peep-show 250

Demeny’s phonoscope 251

Drawings used in making a film of a gasolene engine in operation 255

Character of drawings that would be prepared in producing moving
diagrams of the muscles in action 258

THE BEGINNING OF ANIMATED DRAWINGS