Where did animation begin?


As I was sitting in my room, I was thinking, where/how did animation begin? So, I did my research and turns out animation has been around longer than people actually realize. By definition, animation is simply just the act of creating the illusion of movement through still images. Depending on what you consider animation, it can date back all the way to the Paleolithic period. Many people are familiar with the stereotypical cave paintings, which usually was hunting depicted in motion. There was also shadow play, an ancient form of storytelling, that could date back to the 1st millennium BCE, which used flat articulated cut-out figures. There was also the magic lantern invented in the 1650s, which employed pictures that were painted, printed or produced photographically and projected images on a screen that was moving. Then, major studios, who were not so major at the time, helped to push this new type of art form underway. It's just kind of crazy to think about how this all started and thought it would be interesting for the people that didn't know this!

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 27, 2018 at 2:06 PM

    I think this is interesting because it can be hard to know when exactly "animation" came to be based on how we define animation. I wouldn't have initially thought of these cave paintings as being a part of animation but they were the original form of storytelling through painted imagery and I think that definitely fits the definition of animation. But I also think it just depends on the person and what they believe to be true about this art form. Now I'll be thinking about cave paintings in a completely new way!

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