Winsor McCay – Gertie The Dinosaur
Winsor
McCay used an animation technique called ‘key-frame animation’ which allows the
animation to move from one point, to the other smoothly. McCay also used the
‘split-system’ that he said he created to carefully lay out and time an entire
sequence. By the 1930’s, the ‘split-system’ was known as the breakdown
drawing or the passing position.
He then drew his subject midway between
his split and an extreme, and continued drawing in this manner until the
sequence was finished. McCay’s discussion of drawing for animation ends at this
point (Richard Williams The Animators Survival Kit barely begins at this point)
and he moves on to discuss his career, achievements and the future of
animation.
Winsor McCay was born in 1867 in Canada.
McCay had an interest in drawing from the moment he could hold a pen. In 1888
McCay went to work at the National Printing Company of Chicago to illustrate
posters mainly for circuses. In 1890 he moved to Cincinnati, creating
advertising posters for the Kohl and Middleton Dime Museum. McCay also picked
up additional work as a billboard painter.
In 1903 he produced sort of experimental
comic strip entitled "Tales of The Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle",
based on poems by George Chester.
In this period newspaper comic strips were becoming very popular
so McCay began experimenting with his own original strips.
While working for Hearst, McCay began
experimenting with the idea of using animated pictures as part of his
Vaudeville act. His first attempt was made using the popular characters from
the "Little Nemo" strip. It was a huge success. He continued his
experiments with animation and created "How a Mosquito Operates",
which was also a success. Finally, in 1914 McCay created "Gertie The
Dinosaur". Gertie was an instant success and is the first original
character developed solely for the animated cartoon and not based on a
pre-existing comic strip.
Gertie was made into a feature film with a
live-action prologue and epilogue and shown around the world. McCay began working purely on animated
films. The next film released in 1918 was "The Sinking Of The
Lusitania”.
Gertie the
Dinosaur - Gertie on tour (1921)
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