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Filip Stojanovski
Contemporary Storytelling: Comics and Animation
Moving Towards Animation
It is obvious that the core elements of the language
of comics are also used in animation. The
visual iconography is similar,
and use of closure is apparent in the activity of the viewer to
supplement for not seeing continuous movement, but a series of pictures
flashing on the screen. The difference between these two related mediums
is the following: comics use movement through space (of the page) as an
element of the storytelling, while animation uses movement through time.
The images are not juxtaposed spatially, but temporally. The space (the
position of the screen, and the eyes of the viewer) is unchanged during
the storytelling process. What is changed is the content of that piece
of space.
Origins of Animation
Although humans have been telling stories with the
use of motion over time (dance, puppet shows) since they evolved as a
species, the roots of animation are far more recent than those of
comics. That is so because there is far more technological expertise
required to produce the needed effects. Early animation devices have
their roots in the experiments with the properties of light. Various
inventors have built devices with the purpose of fooling the eyes of the
viewer by presenting them with successive images with slight progressive
changes, placed in the same spot. Such devices included the magic
lantern, the flipbook and the thraumtrope (Kinsey, 1970, p.10-11).
These devices were used as novelties or toys for
amusement, but did not have a big impact. They could show short scenes,
but could not tell real stories. The conditions for moving into that
direction started to emerge in the second half of the Nineteenth
Century, with the advent of photography and the growing ability to
create intricate machines. One of the main discoveries that cleared the
path for cinematography was George Eastman’s invention of the flexible
photographic film. The film was introduced on the market around 1885
(Kodak Eastmen Company, 2000). But even before that, there were efforts
to expand the use of photography to re-create (the illusion of) motion.
A prime example of this trend was the work of
Eadward Muybridge.
Contents
| Foreword |
Glossary |
Works Cited
Comics: Bits of History |
Modern Age |
Great Adventurers |
Vocabulary
| Grammar: Closure
Animation: Origins |
An Early Animator |
Classical Animation |
Making an Animation
| Epilogue
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