Max Fleischer

Max Fleischer - Out of the Inkwell

Max Fleischer was born 1883 in Vienna, from an early age he had an interest in mechanics. He invented the Rotoscope with his brother in 1915, it is an incredible device which helps to produce realistic animation. He is known for bringing characters such as Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman to the movie screen and was responsible for other technological innovations.

Fleischer’s studio was a major operation in New York under the support of Paramount Studios. When the three-color Technicolor process became available, Paramount vetoed it based on their concerns with economic balance, giving Disney the opportunity to acquire its exclusivity for four years. Two years later, Paramount approved colour production for Fleischer. These colour cartoons were augmented with a Fleischer-patented 3D background effect called “The Stereoptical Process”, this was before Disney’s Multiplane.

Fleischer invented a concept to simplify the process of animating movement by tracing frames of live action film. Extensive use of this technique was made in the Out of the Inkwell series. It starred Koko the Clown and Fitz the dog..

The positives are that it was a quick animation, KoKo the Clown had human movement, and the animation is very impressive for something that was made 94 years ago; there is also diagetic sound which helps to make KoKo’s movements more comical, all in all it was a fantastic use of the rotoscope. The rotoscope bought animation and live action together. However it was very repetitive as it was the same movements just at different locations, the quality was poor as the quality decreased due to changing from animation to live actions.

Out of the Inkwell - Modelling (1921)

https://youtu.be/hyetrAePLTA

Winsor McCay

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)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36gqBoUSJ4M

Advertising - Task 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKuEwsEiSp8 - old

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpXRoPFy1AM - new

 

Similarities:

• They both promote the protection for teeth.
• They both state that the paste help to whitens your teeth.

Differences:

• The new one has music
  • The voiceover isn’t monotone so this help keep the viewer’s attention.
  •  It is in colour instead of black and white.
  • The new advert is also half the time of the old one, a shorter advert would also help to keep the audience’s attention unlike a longer advert.
  • It also does not explain what the toothpaste does in a lot of detail.

• The old advert is very simplistic, it has no creativity to it; it’s telling you what the toothpaste does in a very boring manner.

• The shots of the toothpaste seem to be pictures put together to make the advert have the illusion that the toothpaste is moving of things are moving around
• The only moving spot is when the woman puts the toothpaste on her toothbrush and brushes her teeth.

• The old advert is boring and dull whereas the new one is energetic.
• The new advert does not incorporate humans in the video as much as the old advert does, you only see a brief shot of someone’s hand.
• The old advert also has no catchphrase and no text

Presentation

Mind map

Storyboard

Final Creative piece