The Evolution and Craft of Animation

---

Background

Animation is the art of creating the illusion of motion by presenting a sequence of still images in rapid succession. The term derives from the Latin anima (life) and animare (to breathe life into). Throughout history, cultures have experimented with techniques that give the appearance of moving pictures. From cave paintings that overlap animal legs to Greek bas-reliefs, Egyptian funerary art, medieval stained glass, and modern comic strips, the fundamental principles of animation have long been evident.

In 1640, Jesuit monk Athanasius Kircher invented a “magic lantern” that projected enlarged drawings onto a wall. His contemporary, Gaspar Schott, extended this concept by creating a continuous strip of images—a precursor to the filmstrip—that could be drawn across the lantern’s lens. Schott further refined the device into a revolving disk. A century later, Dutch scientist Pieter Van Musschenbroek projected sequential drawings of windmill vanes in 1736, producing the illusion of a spinning windmill.

The magic lantern quickly became a popular form of entertainment. Traveling performers showcased it across European towns, while figures like Swiss-born physician Peter Mark Roget—best known for the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases—explored the scientific basis of persistence of vision in his essay “Persistence of Vision with Regard to Moving Objects.” This work influenced subsequent inventions such as the thaumatrope, developed in the 1820s by John Paris. The thaumatrope— a disk with contrasting images on each side—spun to blend the two images, creating a simple yet effective animation.

Joseph Plateau, a Belgian physicist, introduced the phenakistoscope, a flat disk with evenly spaced slits and sequential figures. When spun and viewed in a mirror, the slits produced the illusion of motion. Around the same time, Simon Ritter von Stampfer in Austria experimented with stroboscopes, leading eventually to the zoetrope. The zoetrope, invented by William Henry Homer, is a drum with slits and a paper strip of drawings inside; spinning the drum animates the images.

By 1845, Baron Franz von Uchatius had created the first movie projector, using painted glass images. In 1888, George Eastman introduced celluloid film—a light‑sensitive cellulose acetate strip—that vastly improved image durability and projection quality. The first fully animated short, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton, debuted in 1906. Two years later, French animator Émile Cohl released Phantas m agorie, while Winsor McCay introduced Gertie the Dinosaur in 1911. The 1920s saw the rise of notable cartoonists such as George McManus (Maggie and Jiggs) and Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, Popeye). In 1923, Walt Disney began adapting children’s stories into animated shorts, leading to the iconic 1928 debut of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. Disney’s first full‑length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in 1937.

The 1968 film Yellow Submarine employed pixilation, photographing live actors in stop‑motion to achieve surreal movements. Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings used rotoscoping—tracing live footage frame by frame—to blend realism with animation. By the late twentieth century, digital techniques emerged, culminating in John Lasseter’s 1995 Toy Story, the first feature film created entirely with computer animation.

Raw Materials

While imagination drives animation, practical tools are essential. Animators typically work at a specialized animation stand, which holds a baseboard with register pegs, a camera, lights, a work surface, and a platen (a clear glass or plexiglass sheet) that secures the drawings.

Professional animation is usually drawn on 5‑mm thick transparent acetate sheets—cels—measuring approximately 10 in by 12 in (25.4 cm × 30.5 cm). Holes punched along the top edge align with the register pegs to keep the surface rigid. Opaque inks, paints, transparent dyes, felt markers, crayons, and litho pencils are common media.

Photographing the drawings traditionally requires 35‑mm cameras, though Super 8 or 16‑mm models are sometimes used. A range of lenses—including standard, zoom, telephoto, wide‑angle, and fisheye—are employed to capture the desired perspective.

The Manufacturing Process

Producing an animated short or feature is labor‑intensive; a typical short contains about 45,000 frames. Rendering a single line of dialogue can demand 12 drawings to capture lip movement accurately.

The story is written

• 1. The writer—often the animator—creates a storyboard: a series of one‑panel sketches on a board, each accompanied by dialogue or action notes. The storyboard may be revised multiple times through collaboration with the director and team.

The dialogue, music, and sound effects are recorded

• 2. Voice actors record character lines, while musicians and sound designers capture ambient sounds (e.g., doors slamming, footsteps). These recordings are preserved on magnetic tape and timed to musical beats, a process known as Mickey Mousing. Modern studios often use optical soundtracks, with electronic readers synchronizing frames to sound.

Dialogue measurements are entered on an exposure sheet

• 3. A track reader measures every vowel and consonant, noting them on exposure sheets (x‑sheets). Each sheet represents a single frame, allowing animators to sync mouth movements with dialogue. Slugs—silent film segments—are inserted where action occurs.

Model character sheets are created

• 4. For consistency, a detailed model sheet is drawn for each character, depicting poses, facial expressions, and proportions.

Artists create the layout or set design

• 5. Layout artists produce linear drawings that guide animators and inform background painters.

Characters’ actions are sketched

• 6. Using model sheets, the lead animator sketches key poses—known as “extreme” frames—such as the foot lifting in a run or eyes blinking. Assistants then fill in in-between frames. Sketches are drawn on a transparent board lit from below; a second sheet is laid on top and slightly varied to indicate motion.

Drawings are cleaned up and checked for accuracy

• 7. Artists review the sketches against model sheets, enhancing lines without altering design. Scenes are verified to include all actions specified on the exposure sheet.

A video test is conducted

• 8. A digital playback of the sketches ensures smooth motion and correct facial expressions; adjustments are made as needed.

Artists create backgrounds

• 9. Background artists paint color scenes—landscapes, interiors, buildings—based on pencil layouts. Colors are applied digitally by selecting hues from a palette.

Sketches are inked in and painted

• 10. Paper drawings are transferred to cels via xerography or hand‑inked. Colors are applied to the reverse side of each cel, typically by computer. Each cel undergoes multiple quality checks.

The action is filmed

• 11. Cels and backgrounds are photographed according to exposure sheets. Scenes may take hours to capture. A multiplane camera stacks cels over the background, lighting each layer to create a 3‑D effect. The footage is developed into prints and negatives.

The sound is dubbed

• 12. Dialogue, music, and effects are re‑recorded from multiple tracks onto a single balanced track. A secondary track pairing dialogue with music aids in foreign‑language translation.

The dubbing track and print are combined

• 13. The final audio track is married to the visual print, producing a “married” film. For television releases, the negative and audio are sent to a post‑production house for videotape transfer.

The Future

Computer‑generated animation has advanced dramatically since the 1990s. While some purists resist this shift, the persistence of cel animation is uncertain. Meanwhile, Japanese anime has evolved, offering richly detailed storylines, realistic characters, and dynamic camera angles that deepen viewer immersion.