This post will be about a little history of Animation.
Mainly what people created before film to create animation!
I’m planning to do more research on American, European, Asian and etc… Animation history as well.
Why?
Not only because I’m interested, but I think it can be a good source of inspiration. A little background knowledge can’t hurt, right?
What is Animation?
Animation is a huge illusion factory using still images and imagination.
Officially defined as the illusion of motion using still images or also the creation of a sequence of images produced by artistic methods.
What was the very first Animation?
Honestly, I don’t know. 🙂
Actually, nobody does. Why is that?
The reason is maybe: It is a tricky question. It depends on the way we think about animation.
Humans seem to be interested in portraying movements since living in caves! I mean thousands of years ago from about 30,000 B.C.
Arc Cave Paintings of the Iberian Peninsula (10,000-4,000 B.C.)
However, there’s no evidence that humans created anything closer to animation than these cave paintings of hunting and animals.
A certain pot found in Israel made ~3000 B.C shows sequence of images of a goat leaping. This is said to be an early example of the attempt to depict motion.
3,000 B.C., SHAHR-E SUKHTEH
Another great example of this early attempt is a about 4000 years old Egyptian burial chamber’s mural showing a very detailed sequence of a (as it seems) wrestling match.
~2400 B.C. , from the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, Egypt
Well, it’s not animation as we know now, not yet, but we have some more convincing experiments later on such as the Magic Lantern! No, it’s not like Aladdin’s lamp, not the one with the jinny in it. It is the earliest (known) type of image projector. (circa 1600)
Prepared for the tropes and scopes?
The Thaumatrope (1824) was a simple optical toy, if you watched the Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp, then you know what it is! Do you remember hat two-sided picture, which shows a bird on one side and a cage on the other side with two pieces of string attached to it? Ichabod Crane twirled it all the time.
Phenakistoscope (1831) is another painlessly memorable word, but don’t worry if you are greek or speak greek you have an easier job to remember, it comes from a greek word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenakistoscope here you can check out what I’m trying to talk about. 🙂
Anyway it was a spinning disk placed in front of a mirror. On the disk there were evenly spaced images creating an image sequence. The images seemed to move when spinning.
Phenakistoscope
Phenakistoscope
The Zoetrope (1834) is quite similar to the Phenakistoscope. You had to spin it too to create the illusion of movement. It was a cylindrical device with vertical slits around the sides. You could see the images through these slits.
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Next comes the Flip Book! Yes, it is also a piece of history of animation, it was also known as the kineograph.
The Flip Book is still quite popular, so let me put a video here, I think it’s pretty amazing!
OK, so we had some fun! Who comes next?
Praxinoscope/ Movieola (1877)
It was almost like the zoetrope but instead of slits there were an inner cylinder made of mirrors to show the rotating images. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxinoscope
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A really nice sum up of Zoetrope, Phenakistoscope and Praxinoscope:
All right! So I’ve talked about what a story is and its main components; story plot, structure, setting, theme, subject matter, conflict. What’s missing?
“the stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual’s life which determine his or her response regardless of circumstances.”
Believe it or not, characters are really important in stories.
Yes, I’m being sarcastic. People can give personalities to objects, or natural forces when telling stories. Our imagination is limitless.
So, stories always have characters one way or another. Why, though?
Remember the post about stories and why we tell them?
“Our lives are stories. Because we live stories, naturally, we tell stories.” And we tell stories about our lives or what we lack in life. Anyhow, stories are in close connection with humans and the way humans think. We all have personality, when telling a story we obviously would like others to understand our story. Therefore we create characters with interesting personalities, who will help us to deliver the message and/or entertain our audience. By telling what these characters do and why – a story comes to life.
Well then, here’s a great article by Chuck Wendig, really worth reading through! It basically gives you answers right away, an idea about how you can create a “great character” for your story:
Stories normally have a main character. This character usually loved by the audience, well if not loved then cared about. So, most stories have a hero. What other character archetypes are there?
Before we would have a look at that, let’s define what archetype is:
“ In literature, an archetype is a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.”
“Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, argued that the root of an archetype is in the “collective unconscious” of mankind. The phrase “collective unconscious” refers to experiences shared by a race or culture. This includes love, religion, death, birth, life, struggle, survival etc.”
Protagonist – he is the hero! Like Harry Potter or Batman. In most stories we see the story and everybody else from the hero’s point of view
.
Antagonist/Shadow – the bad guy, like Voldemort or The Joker. This character opposes the protagonist.
6 more archetypal characters in stories:
Mentor – who gives knowledge to our protagonist, teaches him/her but it can also be something that teaches him/her or gives the hero something valuable and useful that will help later on. So the mentor is not always a person. But if it is, then a good example is Dumbledore or Obi-Wan.
Herald – According to the Hero’s Journey the hero usually meets with the Herald first. This character calls the hero to the adventure. Again, it can happen that someone acts like the Herald but has another archetype in the story or that this Herald is not a person but for example an event or happening.
Anyway. The Herald usually gives the hero motivation to go on the adventure.
For example in The Matrix, Trinity and Morpheus both functions as the Herald, calling Neo on an adventure.
Shape Shifters – can really be characters who can change their appearance but it is usually more than that. These characters change which side they’re on, with the hero or against the hero, Cypher, Boromir (or a character who pretends to pretend to choose Dumbledore’s side over Voldemort ‘s while telling to Voldemort that he is still a Death eater when he is actually not. Like Snape. )
Threshold Guardian – somebody or something that blocks the hero’s path. The Agents from Matrix
Trickster – this character adds humour to the story, often this character opens up important questions and disobey normal rules. Just like Fred and George Weasley or Han Solo.
Ally – obviously somebody who supports the main character, especially when the hero almost gives up or hopeless, a best friend for example like Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley.
Ok so to sum up here’s a weird video:
They were the character archetypes defined by Christopher Vogler, based on Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory. Campbell took Carl Jung’s idea of archetypes and applied them on mythical stories.
“Skeptic – the lone objector. The skeptic does not believe in the theme nor in the importance of achieving the protagonist’s goal. Without loyalties, the skeptic is on his/her own path. The skeptic may like the protagonist and want the protagonist to succeed but not at the cost of the skeptic’s goals. However, the skeptic may have a change of heart by the end of the story.
Emotional – this character acts according to their gut and lets motions fuel decisions. Impulsive. Reactive. Sometimes the emotional character is right and succeeds in ways that a thinking person would never have even tried, but sometimes the character finds trouble by not thinking before jumping.
Logical – the rational thinker who plans things out, shoots for logical solutions and gives reasonable, matter-of-fact answers to questions. However, sometimes the head needs to listen to the heart to work at its best.”
A story is more exciting if a character or characters undergoes certain change(s). Here comes in Character Development!
Characters can change and develop in stories. They’re learning from their mistakes and become more mature, to mention a really cliché hero-development: first the hero is whiny and shy, doesn’t believe in him/herself, then (s)he turns out to be actually brave and smart while facing several dangers and so.
It can also happen that a character become evil because of a tragedy like The Joker in The Killing Joke comic book.
All credits To Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
Character development doesn’t necessary happens in a story, but I think it makes a story more enjoyable. They say that character development is more important in character driven stories than in plot-driven ones. All right, a little explanation here:
What is the difference between character-driven and action-driven stories?
Character driven stories said to be decision driven, that’ll be the main turning point while in an action driven story, and action will turn things upside down. It is said that character driven stories focuses on internal conflicts and in action driven stories the emphasis on external conflict and action.
A story doesn’t have to be this one or that one, it can combine both of them.
Remember when you read that book, you most likely should’ve slept instead but you just couldn’t put the book down and eagerly turned the pages until that character get out of trouble? Or how you grabbed that person’s arm sitting next to you in the cinema when you worried sick about the hero?
It’s all thanks to Conflict. (And of course to the author or director) Who is or what is Conflict?
What is a Conflict?
image from http://www.vfp49.org/PeacefulAlternatives.html
“Conflict creates tension and interest in a story by adding doubt as to the outcome. A narrative is not limited to a single conflict. While conflicts may not always resolve in narrative, the resolution of a conflict creates closure, which may or may not occur at a story’s end.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_(narrative)
There are External and Internal Conflicts. What does it mean?
Pixar storytelling rules; Drama and conflict episode:
Why is conflict important in a story?
Well, if you think about it, a story is built around a main conflict and contains more minor conflicts as well. Think about your favourite stories.
In the Lord of the rings the main cause of all problem, struggle and battle is the One Ring created by Sauron. The story wouldn’t be too interesting if Frodo could just simply fly to Mordor and destroy the ring with ease and laughter… and it probably wouldn’t be that long either.
I’ve also read that conflicts not only make heroes or characters stronger but actually can help us, the reader or audience to get stronger and learn from our mistakes (and/or the hero’s mistake) and resolve the real problems in our lives.
It does makes and can be connected with my post about the stories in general.
Another video to watch here:
THEME, SUBJECT MATTER, GENRE
What is a theme?
The theme is the soul of the story. It is “defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.” http://literarydevices.net/theme/
Image from http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/themelist.htm
Why is theme important?
“If a story lacks theme, the reader might not connect with it.” So, if a book or film has a good theme, which is well communicated to the audience, it will give them something more, a new experience and will satisfy them.
The theme is said to be the link between the plot and the characters. The characters reaction proves and argues the theme. They’re against it or support it, so the dialogues also depends on the theme not only the types of the characters.
Therefore theme works as a tie that unifies the story.
What are the most common themes?
It appears that most common themes are various messages relating to human’s life. Such as love, revenge, war, crime, racism, religion… etc.
I found various lists, but I think they were a bit confusing as sometimes they’re included conflict and subjects too.
What is the difference between theme and subject?
First let’s find an answer for the question What Subject Matter is?
It is what the film or book is all about.
The best way to find out the difference is to ask questions and have a look at examples. We defined what theme is, a message and the subject matter is what’s the story all about. We have then two questions: What is this story about? And What is the message of this story?
“if there is a love story and main point of the story is about true love, then the theme and subject would be on love. There is overlap.”
If our story is about revenge, that is the chosen subject matter, let’s say that the theme is that revenge will breeds more revenge and gives no satisfaction, so this is the opinion of the author, the message of the story towards the audience.
🙂
Careful, don’t mix up subject matter with genre either!
What is a genre?
It is the style or category of any kind of art, film or literature. Genre is a french word, it means: “kind” or “sort”.
Image from http://digiliteratelibrarian.weebly.com/k-2-genre-study.html
Film genres for e.g: crime, comedy, thriller … etc.
Harry Potter series for example are: Fantasy/Fiction but also Adventure
I’ve continued my research and I found out that stories have certain (various) patterns occurring in different forms. So, if you read a book, watch a movie or see a play in a theatre you will notice that basic elements are (mostly) the same.
What are these elements?
First of all, a story starts somewhere, it has a middle part and an end with, usually, one main character. That’s pretty obvious. 🙂
“There are numerous key elements you have to master to weave together a tightly-written tale”.
Talking about waving, did you know that people told (and still do) tell stories with tapestry? Here you can read a bit about on of the most famous western-tapestry, the The Bayeux Tapestry: https://daydreamtourist.com/2014/05/05/bayeux-tapestry/
Anyway, let’s get back to the basic elements of Story.
It is a huge and way bigger topic than it seems at first. There are numerous studies and books about how to write a good book, story, screenplay, how to categorise the elements of a story and types of stories are there … and so on.
However, as we know already, films can adapt stories from book, life or wherever. (Animation can do the same.) It is possible, because the basic story elements are set.
I found this video on YouTube about the basic elements of a short story, which seems to be, for me at least, the basic elements of a story in general:
These are:
Setting
Plot
Theme
Character
Conflict
It’s been explained really simply in the video above, that what these elements are for.
Let’s have a closer look one by one on these elements.
What is a Setting?:
“The setting is the context in which the story takes place, which includes the time, the place, and the social environment.” http://study.com/academy/lesson/setting-in-literature-definition-importance-examples.html
So setting answer the questions: When? Where?
Now, the website I got that quote above from, suggests that your favourite story would not make sense in a different environment. I have to argue with that. There are stories which relies on the environment a lot, although there are stories with focus on something else, for example what is happening within our main character. No, not the internal organs but the soul and mind. Actually, from another point of view that can be an alternative place where the important things are happening. Although the “When” might not be as important…
Social environment seems to be more important in most stories though.
Overall setting is very important and does effect most stories, but there are stories what would be just fine in a different context, place or era, the message would remain the same.
Here’s a website describing 4 story structure types:
You can read about this theory in more detail there. I think it can give some idea about the role of the setting in a story and its relation to the character(s).
We arrived to the next topic, the Plot.
What is a plot?
“A story’s plot is what happens in the story and the order it happens in.”
It’s simple, right? If it’s not clear, then here is another definition 🙂 :
“Plot is a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part of a story. These events relate to each other in a pattern or a sequence. The structure of a novel depends on the organization of events in the plot of the story.”
A story doesn’t have to be in one exact plot type, it can be a mixture. For example the story of Harry Potter fits into the description of both The Quest and Overcoming the Monster (and from Voledmort’s point of view..
it is a Tragedy…)
Then there’s the bible for storytelling and screenwriting, well if not the bible then let’s just say the basic guidance:
Joseph Cambell and the Monomyth! His Book: Hero with a thousand faces
So, it is in itself again is quite a big bite but I’ll try to sum up (and copy a few sentence from my last essay):
Campbell’s idea for narrative structure is built up from seventeen stages. “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” Campbell
This story model was developed by Christopher Vogler, who analyzed Campbell’s monomyth and archetypes in his book “The Writer’s Journey”, and simplified the stages into twelve while keeping the main pattern of the Hero’s Journey.
Watch this great video and I promise, all comes to light (contains 3examples as well):
There’s one on the first site I also found under the keyword(s) Conflict Theory, this definition, in my opinion suits well to this category as it describes the basic conflicts that are the core of a story (and it seems that lots of sites agrees with it, just like the second one above):
Ok, first let’s define what is a story structure: “The structure of a story depends on what kind of story it is as well as the audience and purpose, but all narratives fall into a broad three-part structure that includes exposition, rising action and resolution. The exposition is also referred to as the setup, and the rising action can also be called the conflict.”
Or
“Narrative structure, a literary element, is generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. The narrative text structures are the plot and the setting.”
In short:
“It is a map of the way people go about solving different kinds of problems, and a message by the author as to which methods are better than others.”
What is important:
That most stories have four main parts:
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Resolution
So they usually have a triangle or mountain-like form as the climax is the most heated event, action, moment,part of the story. 🙂
I know, this one also says: falling Action, which makes 5 parts all together.
I’ve linked this website earlier regarding to Christopher Bookler and his 7 Basic Plots. http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/seven-basic-plots.html Here’s analysing the 7 plots and mentions something about a structure, which looks like this:
He writes: “The Dramatica model and others (such as the W-Plot) divide stories into four stages. Each stage begins and ends with a key event which Dramatica calls a Driver. Other terms for these key events are Turning Points (ala Michael Hague), or Trigger Events (ala the W-Plot). Regardless the term, each of these events are changes that send the story off in a new direction (except for the final one, which marks the end of the story).”
In the next great article, the author is the co-creator of Dramatica theory, which was also mentioned in a previous study. I put here a link for you to quickly see through what this is all about in general: http://dramatica.com/theory
Now then. From here on things are becoming more complex and complicating, you probably have noticed that already. As I said earlier, there are many different story structure theories and ideas about how to sort plots by type.
“I chose to compare the Dramatica theory of story with the story paradigms of six popular writing gurus: Syd Field, Michael Hauge, Robert McKee, Linda Seger, John Truby, and Christopher Vogler. “
He says that most of these structure are 4 act structure and he simplified them to compare what is common in them.
You see, there are for example Act I; Act II-Part 1; Act II-Part 2; Act III. So it can be very confusing when just scan through the pages. As there can be a “four-act structure camouflaged as a three-act structure.”
This one, however is a “straightforward three-act structure”.
I think if you had a look at that article, you’ll understand how complex this is.
As I go further and deeper in this research things are getting more complex and complicated but a lot of my questions find their answers. On the other hand, it is confusing sometimes and feels like that I’m only scratching the surface. Which is probably the reality. But hey, I’ve started to unfold the mystery behind storytelling so, I might not be there yet but I’m closer than I was yesterday! 😀
“Most dictionaries define a story as a narrative account of a real or imagined event or events. Within the storytelling community, a story is more generally agreed to be a specific structure of narrative with a specific style and set of characters and which includes a sense of completeness”
“Storytelling is the social and culture activity of conveying stories in words, sounds, and/or images, often by improvisation, theatrics, or embellishment.”
or
“Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.”
My favourite definition is : “storytelling is an ancient art form and a valuable form of human expression.”
What I’ve realized is that I first thought about books as the main form of storytelling as children learn stories and how to read with help of books. Many films adapt stories of books or we can find successful films’ book adaptions later on.
However, stories are as ancient as humans. Come to think of it, I always thought cave paintings are trying to tell us stories.
From the information I collected during my research, it can be concluded that our ancestors told stories verbally and using their bodies or they could also draw or paint to emphasise the message. Scientists say that humans told stories before knowing how to write. Here are some interesting information if you feel to dive in this subject a bit more: http://www.storynet.org/resources/whatisstorytelling.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling
Why do we tell stories?
There are many studies on this matter with great amount of interesting information.
To start with our ancestors again, humans probably told stories to teach younger members of their tribe, these ideas were supported by observing indigenous cultures. I think that they not only told stories to teach but to entertain as well.
Now then, there are scientific explanations for our questions as well. According to several studies our brains different parts activate while hearing (or watching) a story. More precisely: “Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too.”
Yes, there is still the question why this activation happens? They gave a quite simple answer: This is how our brain works. DNA. That’s all, accept it. Fact. (for now)
It seems there are several reasons why we tell stories.
We can learn and develop by listening to stories, we can “hide” from the harsh real world by reading stories, we can teach others by telling stories. It seems to be some kind of an instinct to survive as not only our body needs nourishment but our mind and soul as well and storytelling appears to be something, which is useful and entertaining at the same time. Moreover, it can satisfy one’s need for self-expression. It is indeed “an ancient art form of self-expression.”
One sentence conclusion: “Our lives are stories. Because we live stories, naturally, we tell stories.”
This quote is from this interesting video on youtube by Narrative under the Knife:
What forms of storytelling exists?
This is something, I could not find specific, collective information about. I wanted to collect things like books, dance and such. So we know there are books, novels, poems, short stories. But there’s history too. So maybe we can have a group called literature and history? There are films and animation. But we also hear stories on the news, by politicians and so on. Musicians also can tell stories such as dancers and fine artists. So what kind of groups can we create? Is there any part of our lives where we don’t tell stories?
As I would like to focus more on storytelling in animation I will leave this question open and collect more information later on. If you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to share. 🙂
According to this research (2014) the top six storytellers are:
William Shakespeare
Stephen King
J.K Rowling
Roald Dahl
Charles Dickens
Neil Gaiman
Yes, well the research was before everyone got crazy with Game of Thrones. I am surprised though that J.R.R Tolkien is not popular. What is interesting that the top six storyteller are writers. It seems that people tend to think that storytelling is all about books. What have I said at the beginning…? 😀 All right, it’s probably because films and such mediums are fairly new compared to the history of mighty Books!
What are the most famous stories?
When I typed this question into google all links were about love stories. Top 20 love stories, most famous love stories…
So I tried a different approaches:
What are the best selling stories?
It was all about books.( oh well, here we are again:) ) So, I categorized my interests. First, all right,
what are the best selling books then?
I don’t think that these lists based on the opinion of all the world’s countries, anyway, in general these are the books I saw in the top ten/twelve:
(This list is not in best-selling order and is excluding the Bible)
A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens
The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqion
And there were none by Agatha Christie
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K Rowling
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
It is interesting, that the best selling animated movies are not the same as the best animated movies according to several websites (so according to people).
Best animated movies ever?
It is a very subjective question. I am sure it is different for every one of us. However, after checking various lists there was one animated movie that stuck in the top 3 all the time, even when the other 2 was completely different on every single list. Can you guess which one?
Spirited away directed by Hayao Miyazaki. (No surprise there 🙂 )
As I said the top few were mostly different, but here are some I saw the most frequently among the bests:
The Lion King directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
Toy Story directed by John Lasseter
The Iron Giant directed by Brad Bird
Wall-E directed by Andrew Stanton
Fantasia (different segments different directors) produced by Walt Disney
Up, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles also occurred with different ratings. Some other sites listed Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir as well.
People seems to like fantasy and let their minds go wondering to other worlds. Another interesting question occurred to me while writing this post: how many stories does not contain love?
Well, these are the results of my first topic, hope you found it interesting or useful, if not, don’t worry! 😀 I’ve definitely learnt a lot even though I did not posted all information I found or learnt. 🙂
I’m Anna and I am an animation student at UCA, Farnham.
I decided to make this blog to keep my thoughts and development in check, also to share with anyone who is interested in storytelling or animation.
What is this blog will be all about?
As I plan it will be about creating stories and creating my own stories. You might say: “No kidding, isn’t what animation is all about? Telling stories?” Well, yes and no. Animation is such a diverse industry that I found myself lost before finding out what I really want to do. 🙂 One can study 3D, 2D (traditional and/or digital), stop-motion animation or there is the game industry and film industry as well. There are different roles you can specialize to and I think I won’t explain right now how many and what kind of, here are two links instead if you are interested: http://www.animationcareerreview.com/careers-animation/types-jobs and http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/animation/job_roles/p3 🙂
One thing is sure, that I would like to deal with creating stories. This is what I like the most and animation seems to be the best platform for it so far.
In order to do what I really like, telling stories, I realised, that I have to develop my storytelling skills, above all. Like hell.
I’ve created a plan where I start with researching certain topics, such as What is Storytelling? or What are the most famous stories?. I will then analyze the information I found and share the conclusion here, with you.
After I finished with the topics I will summarise everything and with the help of my super-new knowledge I shall redeem the world… well, all right, that’s might not gonna happen but I will definitely start to create my own stories with more specific knowledge. And prepare them for presentation! Yeeay! 😀
All credits To Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
Image from http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/themelist.htm 
Image from http://digiliteratelibrarian.weebly.com/k-2-genre-study.html
Creating Stories 