What Is Animation

The definition of animation

Animation refers to the creation of a sequence of images drawn, painted, or produced by other artistic methods that change over time to portray the illusion of motion. Before the invention of film, humans depicted motion in static art as far back as the Paleolithic period. In the 1st century, several devices successfully depicted motion in animated images.

Eastern European Animation

Fighting the Cold War (1954) The first feature-length British animation to be released was a version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

Created by Halas and Batchelor, the film was thought to be secretly funded by the CIA as Cold War propaganda against the Russians. Around 80 animators were employed in the production and although it wasn

One of many animators to benefit was Bob Godfrey. Known as the Godfather of UK animation, he would go on to win Britain 's first animation Oscar in 1975 for a short film called Great. Probably most famous for children 's TV series Roobarb and Custard, the range, breadth and volume of Godfrey 's work was an inspiration to those that followed, including Aardman Animations. It was TV advertising revenue, however, that kept Godfrey 's studio solvent, allowing him to make more films.

Bob later described the period of 1955 to1965 as a golden age for British animation , but he also said that commercial work particularly ads “shattered the dream” of animation as a pure art form that had been building. Personally I would go with the former opinion, as the ad money bankrolled a series of independent short films from Biographic, and other contemporary studios, that pushed the boundaries of animation through progressive yet witty design. Bob’s early films, such as polygamous polonius (1958), Alf, Bill & Fred (1964), and The Rise and Fall of Emily sprod (1964) are all as joyful and eclectic as their names

Bob presents the series in a surprisingly serious yet warm fashion, and different episodes feature Terry Gilliam and Richard Williams as guests, in what surely must have been a huge inspiration to many animators who later blossomed under the enlightened sponsorship of channel 4 in the 1980s and 90s, Aardman’s adeptness of engaging audiences with compelling stories told through animation, has earned the company a deserved worldwide reputation. The studio has had ten Oscar® nominations, and has won four. Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at school. In 1972 they registered the name Aardman Animations. After graduating, they moved to Bristol in 1976 where they created Morph for the children’s programme 'Take Hart