Emedia Blog: I am... I like... I want to...

Thoughts on this project.. I'm trying to think of it as more of a light, fun thing and try not to get too blogged down by the wall-text in the unit outline. I've picked out some key words such as.. Creative context, influences, concept, field, bigger picture, connections, self, personal, history, scope.

I'm starting to look at the very beginning of what inspired animators. So here's a quick introduction, mostly from memory.
Muybridge is probably where we all start when thinking about the moving image. When referring to animation the real start was with sequences on ancient pots, zoetropes and flipbooks. Pre and beyond 1900s stuff.

The first actual pictures on screen were by J. Stuart Blackton and Emile Cohl.

Fantasmagorie - Cohl. 1912.

After this of course there people started applying cartoons (which at the time, only appeared in comics) to the screen. And by this stage a lot of characters were developed such as Gertie the dinosaur, Felix the cat, Oswald the rabbit, Mickey, Betty Boop & Bimbo etc. This all happened during the 20-30s. Of course, lots of these characters are still popular today.

I'm partial to felix and bimbo (despite his outgrown name), because of the
absolute weird nature of the cartoons, and still gain inspiration from them.

After this, cartoons started to appear in colour and of course the 40s-60s, Looney Tunes ruled the stage. With Chuck Jones, Walt Disney, Tex Avery and Bob Clampett animation was . Tom and Jerry and Hanna-Barbera are also notable.

Chuck Jones: Founding father of animation.

During the 60s Hannah-Barbera cartoons like the Flintstones, Scooby Doo, The Jetsons and Top Cat were introduced. HB influenced the style of animation up until the 80s, and while everything was a bit flat. This stuff never really did much fo r me. However, at the same time, stuff like Kimba the White lion and astroboy were first established, I grew up watching kimba and astroboy (the 80s version). Though they produce great nostalgia for me, animation was clearly suffering its low points in the 70s and 80s compared to previous years.

The 90s came and 90s animation particularly influenced me as it was the period I grew up in. There is a huge list of influences I gained from the 90s..