A Brief History of Animation - Visual Effects

From McCay firstly introducing animation into live action, animation began to become incorporated into live action more frequently but for different reasons than McCay..

We saw animation firstly become a tool to enhance the visual effects of live action.

Georges Méliès was a professional magician, whom by accident discovered that he could use stop-motion to render trick visual effects, thus incorporating his skills as an illusionist to film. He also was the first to use the fade-in, fade-out and dissolve technique to create the first real narrative films. Méliès was a revolutionary figure in showing that film can be what you make it with the use of animation, whether its to create illusion to stun (like Méliès) or wonder to entertain.

Ray Harryhausen was another pioneer in coexisting these 2 mediums of film to create masterpiece in Jason and the Argonauts. (1963) Harryhausen made monsters real. Using puppets and green screening them onto live film footage, he made them interact with actors as if they were real, children did believe they were.

For many people this was the first time they had witnessed animation being used in this way. When put alongside live action, we believe that the animation is live action of real monsters, and for children who were watching it especially, they went away thinking monsters were infact real. This is a fine example of how with animation anything is possible, you can make monsters from the depths of your imagination come alive on screen for all to see, making the insides of your mind come alive.

This artful combination is still present today. With the likes of the animation studio encyclopedia pictura in the new IKEA advert;

Where live action puppets are conjured into this fantastical animated environment, reflective of the inside of childrens minds at playtime, the characters echoing aesthetically straight from 'Dark Crystal' (1982). In my opinion this commercial is highly effective, the imaginative features reflect onto ikea itself, branding itself and therefore its products as unique and innovative, capable of making childrens minds come alive with their products. The colours are bright and bold, connoting of fun and happiness, along with the slogan "come home to play", depicts how they can supply your home with all the elements needed for a good, enjoyable childrens play time.

The Dark Crystal (1982) for comparison;

Because of the film industry wanting more realistic special effects, stop motion began to fade. Stop motion offered a crisp, still photo in each frame, which is unrealistic of real movement to the naked eye as we get "Motion Blur" and so "Go Motion" was created which creates this realistic blur and was first employed in Star Wars - V.

Later leading on to the CGI graphics of today, with the rise of computer technology, also becoming a more economical alternative to puppets and paper.