Latest / History Archives - The Children's Hour / Animation Podcast For Kids

Transcript

Animation Podcast For Kids · History Archives - The Children's Hour

0:01
Coming up on the Children's Hour, what makes drawings move and how do cartoons go from paper
0:06
to screen? Our junior producer and intern, Daniel, takes us on an animated adventure from
0:11
ancient tools like the magic lantern to the earliest movie stars like Felix the Cat and
0:16
Mickey Mouse. Daniel also teaches us the 12 principles of animation and we discover how
0:23
computers changed everything from Pixar's earliest short films to Toy Story. Whether drawn by
0:29
hand or sculpted in 3D, animation is filled with color, creativity, and wonder. Don't
0:35
miss the celebration of art, invention, and imagination only on The Children's Hour. The
0:40
Children's Hour is an independent production of The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New
0:45
Mexico-based nonprofit. We're distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American radio
0:50
network. It's time for The Children's Hour. Kids, public radio. What does Bugs Bunny
1:06
listen to on road trips? Cartoons!
1:19
Kids Public Radio!
1:51
I'm a pencil
2:09
do it all
2:26
you
2:32
Mysteries inside
2:52
I'm star I'm a beacon in the night
3:45
I am cool and deep
4:02
Drop to the ground and we begin
4:08
We are giving life And we are having fun
5:13
That was Draw by Allison Faith Levy. You're listening to The Children's Hour. I'm Katie
5:20
Stone. And today we're going to take a dive into the world of animation. Animation has
5:26
been around for centuries and it has changed a lot over time and both how it looks and how
5:33
it is made. Our intern Daniel takes a closer look into the magical world of animation and
5:41
he can't wait. tell you all about it. Have you ever picked up a pencil or crayon and wondered
5:49
why your drawings stayed still while those on your television or tablet seemed to move?
5:56
Well, that's due to the magical world of animation. However, the process of animation is not magic
6:03
at all. In fact, animation is simply hundreds or usually thousands of individual pictures
6:09
played one after the other. The pictures then switch so fast that we think the images are
6:15
moving. But the art of animation has been around way before the invention of cameras. And today
6:22
I want to show you how we went from the zoetrope to our modern computer generated graphics.
6:27
So we're gonna start off long before Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and long before the classic
6:34
Steamboat Willie cartoon. All the way back to the 1600s and the creation of the magic lantern.
6:43
The Magic Lantern is widely considered to be one of the first examples of animation, and
6:48
it worked by shining a candlelight through a painted lens inside a dark box. The light
6:53
would then be projected on nearby walls in a very similar way to the slide projectors that
6:59
we have today. Entertainers would then swap out pictures for new ones, to tell their often
7:05
humorous stories. However, this method was very slow, and entertainers realized... that
7:11
if they got a long piece of glass and drew multiple pictures on it, they could slide the glass
7:17
through the magic lantern very fast, and it would look like the pictures were moving.
7:23
You can actually try this at home. Take a piece of paper and draw a smiley face. Then draw
7:29
a sad face directly to the right of it. Finally, cover the areas you don't want to see with
7:35
a cloth, and by sliding the paper back and forth very fast, it looks... like the faces changing
7:41
expressions. After the magic lantern came the Fennecista scope, invented by Joseph Plateau
7:48
in 1832. The Fennecista scope was a wooden disc with cuts at the edges and pictures that
7:55
surrounded the center. The series of pictures often showed a simple action that could be
8:00
repeated forever, such as a running horse or a jumping man. The disc would then be spun
8:06
and by looking through the cuts into a mirror, it would have Here as if the pictures were
8:11
moving
8:16
This was a huge step up from Magic Lanterns, which required swapping out individual frames
8:21
of animation. The next evolution of the Fennecistiscope was the Zoetrope, which instead of using pictures
8:28
on a spinning wheel, used sculptures on a spinning table. Artists would sculpt out a bunch of
8:34
little figures, and then they would set them in slightly different poses beside each other
8:39
on the round table, and then when the table began to spin, it looked... like the sculptures
8:45
we're moving. However, the beauty of these art pieces is best experienced through sight.
8:52
So after this episode, head over to ChildrensHour.org to see videos, photos, and more. Look for
8:58
this episode, animation. This then brings us to the most popular form of animation created
9:06
before the 1900s, the kinograph, which is also known as a flip book. The simplest way to make
9:14
an animation without a camera or a computer is by drawing a bunch of pictures on small
9:21
sheets of paper and then flipping through the pictures as fast as you can. That is exactly
9:27
how a flipbook works. First, with your parents' permission, take a notepad and draw a simple
9:33
picture on the top piece of paper. Then draw a second picture that copies the first one,
9:39
but with a LITTLE change on the second note page right below it. Then continue to draw
9:45
new pictures on each note page until your animation is complete. For centuries, these were the
9:51
ways that people made animation. But everything would change when humanity gained the ability
9:57
to take and save images. This would then lead to the cartoons that we know today. And we'll
10:03
cover the beginning of these cartoons in just a little bit. Stay tuned to us, because you're
10:11
listening to the Children's Hour, and we've got a lot more coming up.
10:47
stars will come
10:55
If your heart is in your dreams you
11:08
start as dream
11:45
The light steps in and sees you through
12:08
when you wish upon a star by Lee Harline and Ned Washington from Disney's Pinocchio. Today
12:14
on the Children's Hour our intern, Daniel, is teaching us about the magic of animation.
12:21
1890, the Kintograph, one of the first cameras capable of capturing moving images, was invented.
12:28
While the first motion pictures were created a few years prior to the Kintograph, they often
12:34
used still cameras. But They both took something called frames and then played them one after
12:42
the other very fast to make it look as if the pictures were moving. The Kintograf, however,
12:49
made the process of creating and viewing videos far easier. And this led to the creation of
12:55
the first silent films. In 1900, J. Stuart Blackton created the Enchanted Drawing. which
13:05
many consider to be one of the first examples of what we might think of as animation. However,
13:12
the enchanted drawing is very different from the animated films created even just a few
13:17
years later. The film shows a real man in live action drawing and interacting with a character
13:24
he made on a large easel. The video is then paused at a few points, the picture is then
13:31
changed, and then the video resumes to make it look like the character changed expressions.
13:38
After Stuart Blackton came Emil Cole, a cartoonist who created the first traditional animation
13:44
in 1908. The film titled, Fantasma Gorge, was made up of 700 hand-drawing pictures and
13:53
was printed in a way that made the background look black and the drawings white. During
13:58
this time, the first top motion films also began to appear. Modern sculptures. The first claymation
14:04
film in 1908 was created by Sehundo de Chomon and showed a series of clay figures morphing
14:11
into different shapes. That same year also saw the release of Dreams in Toyland by Arthur
14:17
Melbourne Cooper, which used stop animation to depict a child's nightmare. And in 1912,
14:23
Wadilas Derwitch would create a series of stop animated films using real dead insects as characters.
14:31
Now, going back to drawn animation, a man named Winsor McKay, another cartoonist, claimed
14:40
to be the first person to create animation. And while this claim was... not true, he
14:47
didn't make large contributions to the developing world of animation. In 1914, his film Gerty
14:55
the Dinosaur was created with over 10,000 drawings, and included multiple characters, and a detailed
15:03
background, that had to be redrawn every frame. And speaking of animated characters, that
15:10
brings us to the first cartoon celebrity, Felix the Cat.
15:18
Felix the Cat was first released to the public in 1919 as a black cat with small spiky ears
15:25
and large eyes. He became known around the world for his playful personality that often
15:32
got him into trouble, which led him to starring in 181 different cartoons between 1919 and
15:40
1953. However, Felix would not remain the top cat for long. because eight years later, a
15:48
new cartoon animal mascot would come onto the scene. One with big ears, a love for old
15:55
school transportation, and created by Walt Disney himself, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
16:02
Oswald's first starring performance in a film shown to the public was Trolley Troubles.
16:08
In this cartoon, Oswald, a trolley driver, faces many struggles at his job. such as windy
16:15
tracks, a cow who won't leave the road, and a hill too steep to ride over. Like Felix the
16:20
Cat, Oswald became known for his distinct personality, which many other cartoons lacked. However,
16:27
he is most important, because one year after the release of Trolley Troubles, the character
16:32
would be reworked into none other than Mickey Mouse, in the classic Steamboat Willie cartoon.
16:39
Steamboat Willie was truly a massive hit for Walt Disney. and it became famous for being
16:45
the first cartoon with sound that matched up to the animation.
17:06
That iconic whistle was the first time groups of people sat together, watching a cartoon
17:14
sing, while realizing the true potential of animation and film as a whole. Movies with
17:21
synchronized sound had only been around for a year or two when Steamboat Willie was released.
17:26
And that little mouse and his little tune really did change the world. Coming up... The Arthur
17:35
theme song on PBS Kids by Ziggy Marley. You're listening to The Children's Hour and we've
17:42
got plenty more. Every day when you're walking down the street and everybody that you meet
17:51
has an original point of Say hey, what a wonderful kind of day If we could learn to work and play
18:02
And get along with each other Listen to your heart, listen to the beat Listen to the rhythm,
18:10
the rhythm of the street Open up your eyes, open up your ears Get together and make things
18:16
better By working together It's a simple message and it comes from the heart Believe in yourself,
18:24
in yourself For that's the place to start, and I say Hey, hey What a wonderful kind of
18:31
day If we can learn to work and play You got to listen to your heart Listen to the beat
18:41
Listen to the rhythm The rhythm of the street Open up your eyes Open up your ears Get together
18:47
and make things better By working together It's a simple message And it comes from the heart
18:55
Believe in yourself Or that's the place to start a wonderful kind of day, if we could learn
19:05
to work and play, and get along with each other. What a wonderful kind of day, if we could
19:13
learn to work and play, and get along with each other. What a wonderful kind of day,
19:20
what a wonderful kind of day. Ziggy Marley right here on The Children's Hour. Today on
19:32
the show we're learning about animation with our intern, Daniel, who loves animation and
19:39
makes animations himself. He is passionate about the topic and has done so much research
19:46
and we hope you're learning as much as we are. There's always so much to learn on The Children's
19:52
Hour and we know that teachers love our shows. You can find learning materials that accompany
20:00
this episode at ChildrensHour.org. Look for animation. You're listening to the Children's
20:09
Hour Kids Public Radio. We'll be right back. The Children's Hour is a production of the
20:16
Children's Hour Incorporated. We're a New Mexico based non-profit organization supported by
20:21
listeners just like you. You can learn more about us at ChildrensHour.org. New Mexico Department
20:28
of Cultural Affairs supports the Children's Hour. Museum of International Folk Art and
20:33
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico celebrate cultural heritage from
20:38
New Mexico and across the world. More at MOIFA.org. Keep up with all the news of the Children's
20:46
Hour by signing up for our monthly newsletter. Find the sign-up form at ChildrensHour.org.
21:31
Sounds good to me. Let's draw. Let's draw. Let's draw a picture for the world to see.
21:40
Pick, pick, pick your
21:59
Do you want Let's draw, let's draw, let's draw a picture for the world to see. Paint, paint,
22:11
paint your
22:25
You
22:46
Let's draw a picture for the world to see Pink, pink, pink, you're
23:05
Wow! Pick your favorite color and draw with me. That was Let's Draw from the album of
23:12
the same name by Bounce Patrol. We're learning about animation today on The Children's Hour
23:17
with our intern, Daniel. Up next, the golden age of animation lasted about 30 years, beginning
23:25
in the 1920s. Daniel explains.
23:31
If I were to ask you what the first movie in color was, what would you say? If you said
23:39
The Wizard of Oz, you'd be wrong, because Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs came out two years
23:45
earlier. I mean, Snow White was also not the first movie shown in color, because a French
23:51
film released in 1902 titled A Trip to the Moon also had color, and there are a few other colored
23:58
movies that came out before Snow White. But Snow White is the movie we're focusing on right
24:03
now because it was the first feature length animated movie. And that color changed how
24:11
animation was made. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was one of the most artistically influential
24:16
movies in animation history. And we'll talk about why that is later. But right now I want
24:23
to discuss how the movie was made. The first step in creating a traditional animated film
24:30
is writing the story and creating what is called a storyboard.
24:37
In a storyboard, artists will draw the most important moments of the film, and plan how
24:41
the story will progress and look. This is essential, because without a storyboard, the animators
24:47
would know nothing about when or how characters talked, when scenes started or stopped, and
24:54
what they needed to include in the first place. Then the animators got to work, drawing in
24:59
detail every character and every movement for the movie's 1 hour and 23 minute runtime. Furthermore,
25:07
movies play by using frames, which are still pictures that when played in rapid succession
25:12
create the illusion of movement. And because Snow White played at 24 frames per second,
25:18
animators had to draw these characters and movements 24 times just to make a single second
25:25
of film. However, these animators did not draw the backgrounds or paint the color. Because
25:31
while Disney animators had used them many times before, This movie popularized something called
25:38
cells, clear sheets of plastic, which became the most commonly used method for animation
25:44
until the 1990s. If you think back to Gardi the Dinosaur, a film I mentioned earlier,
25:52
the entire background had to be redrawn again for every image. This cost a lot of time and
25:59
money. leading many people to believe that it would be impossible to make a detailed animation
26:05
run for an hour or more. But this all changed with the introduction of cells. With cells,
26:13
a background would only need to be drawn once, as all of the characters would be drawn on
26:17
their own cell sheets that would then be placed on top of the background. Furthermore, characters
26:24
were often created using many different cell sheets so that different parts of the character
26:29
can move independently. An example of this would be if a character's body became paralyzed
26:36
with fear, but their head turned to look at a scary monster. The head and body could be
26:46
drawn on different cells, so that the still body would only need to be drawn once, while
26:51
the turning head would be redrawn multiple times. But these cells were not created by the animators.
26:57
These cells, instead, were created by the inkers and painters at Disney. Now is the perfect
27:07
time to mention the often overlooked, but extremely important role women played in early animation.
27:14
Due to unfair hiring practices, women were not allowed to be animators at Disney until
27:21
1941. But women entirely made up Disney's inking and painting departments. These women took
27:27
the drawings made by the animators and transferred them to cell sheets adding thick black lines
27:33
and vibrant colors. Furthermore, Mary Weiser, a painter turned chemist, created a unique
27:41
paint solution, designed both to resist cracking under the California heat and stick firmly
27:47
to the cell sheets. While these women were heavily responsible for the success of Disney,
27:54
many of these women were not credited for their work. Finally, after all the animations were
28:01
planned, drawn, inked on the cell sheets, and colored, The cells were finally put together
28:07
and then photographed to film. Traditional animation takes time, friends, and plenty
28:14
of money. That is part of the reason why we don't see it very much nowadays. However,
28:21
you might be surprised to find out that many of the ideas and practices of traditional animation
28:28
have carried over even today. And nothing better represents that. than the 12 principles of
28:35
animation, which we'll be talking about next.
28:43
Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you'll see into
28:58
your imagination. We'll begin with a spin, traveling in the world of my creation. What
29:11
will see? will defy explanation. If you wanna view paradise, simply look around and view
29:28
it. Anything you want to do it, wanna change the world, there's nothing to it. There is
29:44
no life I know To compare with pure imagination Living there, you'll be free If you truly will
30:19
If you wanna view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to do it,
30:32
or wanna change the world, there's nothing to-
30:41
There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free
30:55
if you're true. Wish to
31:18
In the world of imagination, it is one thing to have the technical skills to make an animation,
31:25
and another to make that animation look good. While not being an animator himself, Walt
31:32
Disney's best trait was finding and bringing together talented people. And from 1927 to
31:40
1935, Walt Disney established his core group of animators, which he would later name...
31:47
the Nine Old Men. These Nine Old Men, and all of the other animators who worked on Snow White
31:54
and the early Disney films, invented what is now known as the Twelve Principles of Animation,
32:01
a term made known by the book The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston,
32:08
two out of nine of the old men. These principles are a huge artistic discovery. as they turned
32:16
images into characters and characters into the greatest of heroes and the most evil of villains.
32:24
First is Squash and Stretch. The Disney animators learned early on that by having characters
32:32
scrunch up or expand out while moving, it makes their animation feel more fluid. Squash and
32:38
Stretch also makes the impacts of action feel more powerful. Think of Thomas from Tom and
32:44
Jerry. when he runs into a wall or gets a watermelon dropped on his head.
32:52
Some people think that squash and stretch are only for Disney-like or cartoony animations.
32:58
I mean, us humans can't fit into a keyhole or reach our arms across the room like on TV,
33:05
but we do still squash and stretch. Think of how your biceps stretches out when you flex
33:11
or bend your arm, or how your thigh squashes when you sit down on a chair. Second is timing
33:17
and motion. This principle states that the more pictures you use to make up an action, the
33:22
slower that action will be. If you make a character run with five pictures and another that runs
33:28
using 20 pictures, if those pictures play at the same speed, the one with the 20 pictures
33:34
will be much longer. Third is anticipation. It's hard for things to move if they don't
33:41
first prepare and build up the strength to do so. Just like a batter needs to wind up before
33:47
a swing, Our characters need to prepare for their actions. Anticipation not only makes
33:55
your animation feel more realistic, but it also gives the audience more time to recognize
34:00
and understand your character's Fourth is staging. Just like it's hard to concentrate when there
34:08
are multiple people talking over each other, it's difficult to understand what you're watching
34:13
if there's too much going on on screen. Make sure your movements and story are clear and
34:20
concise. Fifth is follow through and overlapping action. Follow through is meant to emphasize
34:27
that all objects have momentum. One way to think about it is that if you're running as
34:33
fast as you can, you can't stop instantly. It takes time for your body to stop moving
34:40
as your feet screech across the floor. and your arms wobble to prevent the top of your body
34:47
from flying forward and falling onto the floor. Overlapping action shows that not every part
34:53
of your body stops at the same time. If you were to say, wearing a scarf while running,
34:59
that scarf would trail behind you as you run and then stop later than the rest of your body.
35:04
Six is straight ahead and pose to pose. When we move, we're not conscious of every part
35:11
of our body. If we wants a cup of water, we think about grabbing the cup, and then we
35:18
do it. We don't think about moving every part of our body, leading up until we finally get
35:25
the cup, we just act. In post-opposed animation, the animator draws the most important parts
35:32
of the action, such as grabbing the cup and then pouring water into their mouth, and then
35:37
they draw the pictures in between to fill the gaps. However, for something like fire or water,
35:45
can't think, animators will often draw them one frame after the other, using what they
35:51
know about physics to guide their drawings. Seventh is slow in and slow out. Like stated
35:56
earlier, humans can't start or stop moving whenever they like. We need to build up strength to
36:03
move, and then use a lot of strength to stop. Because of this, we often move slowest, when
36:09
we're starting or stopping an action, and go fastest in the middle. So, if we were to animate
36:17
someone kicking a soccer ball, you would draw the most amount of pictures as the kick winds
36:22
up, and then once again, once the kick is over and they're returning both feet to the ground.
36:27
Ace is arches. Try shuffling forward like a robot. In a straight line without bobbing
36:34
your head up and down, without raising your feet or arms, You'll find it's very hard.
36:41
That is because we move through a joint and muscle system that swings and bends around,
36:46
allowing us to move. Because of this, all organic life moves in arcs, even if it's difficult
36:53
to see. So make sure that nothing in your animation moves in a perfectly straight line. Ninth
37:00
is exaggeration. Taken all the way back from the theater, actors often exaggerate their
37:07
movements. They open their mouth wide and take large steps. This helps us to understand the
37:14
character's personality through their movements, and just like actors, animated characters
37:19
should exaggerate their behavior to the audience. Tense is secondary action, which is meant
37:25
to call attention to the importance of small actions that we aren't consciously aware of.
37:30
We may lick our lips before we eat, or curl our hair when we're nervous or shy. And it's
37:37
these little actions that can make an animated character feel more human. Eleventh is solid
37:44
drawing, which focuses on the importance of making characters with volume, which can be
37:49
thought of as creating characters that look 3D rather than flat. And finally, twelfth
37:54
is appeal, which just as it sounds, refers to how appealing a character looks or acts.
38:00
And appealing doesn't just mean cute, it can mean sinister, or rave, or- Now, we've been
38:08
talking a lot about Disney, and that's because their animators and the so-called Golden Age
38:14
of Animation from the 1930s to the 50s dramatically changed how animation is made on a technical
38:22
and artistic level. But they alone did not turn entertainment into what we know today.
38:28
And those people are who we're gonna cover next. Stay tuned to The Children's Hour.
38:36
you
39:32
In the background, you're hearing Powerhouse by Raymond Scott. That's a classic tune that
39:37
can be found in the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry TV shows. Before that, Pure Imagination,
39:44
a cover by Uncle Rock. And it was originally from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
39:50
Factory. You're listening to The Children's Hour, and today we're learning about animation
39:55
with our intern, Daniel. You can find educational learning materials that go with this episode
40:02
at childrenshour.org. Look for animation. You're listening to The Children's Hour. Kids call
40:10
the radio. We'll be right back. The Children's Hour is now producing weekly educational modules
40:17
to go with every episode, thanks to a grant from the Albuquerque Community Foundation.
40:22
You can support this effort too. go to childrenshour.org and click donate. The Children's Hour is grateful
40:30
to the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, New Mexico for hosting our recordings. Many
40:36
thanks to New Mexico Arts, a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs,
40:42
and the National Endowment for the Arts for their support of the Children's Hour. The
40:48
Children's Hour is grateful to the City of Albuquerque Cultural Services Department and the Urban
40:54
Enhancement Trust Fund for their support.
41:00
You're listening to the Children's Hour. We're learning about animation with our intern, Daniel.
41:07
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Walt Disney Productions worked to revolutionize the animation industry.
41:16
With films like Snow White, Nokia, Dumbo, and Fantasia, Disney pioneered Technicolor technology,
41:23
which expanded past black and white films. They created structure and work practices to make
41:29
higher quality films faster. And they created techniques still used by artists today to make
41:35
their characters move in appealing ways. However, the 1950s saw the rise of television. The
41:43
television, which really isn't that old, allowed cartoons to be shown not just in the theater,
41:50
but in our homes. And now, suddenly... Disney had a lot more competition in the business
41:57
of laughter. The company Fleischer Studios had been making short cartoons for the theater
42:04
long before the invention of television, animating characters such as Popeye and Superman, but
42:11
Betty Boop became one of the first animated characters on television.
42:19
Alright and I'll tell you a story. Many of the studios and animators who made the jump
42:28
to television from the 50s to 80s got their start like Flesher Studios, making animated
42:35
shorts that would often play before feature films. And this is true of one of animation's
42:41
most iconic duos, William Denby Hanna and Joseph Roland Barbera, who together formed Hanna Barbera
42:50
Productions. The company which made The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The original Scooby-Doo and
42:56
Smurf TV Shows, Yogi Bear and so much more. With their first huge success, an Academy
43:04
nominated animation that starred a grumpy gray cat and a small brown mouse getting into silly
43:10
slapstick action, two characters who would eventually become the Tom and Jerry that we
43:16
still love today. While Hanna-Barbera Production is known for their wide array of characters
43:25
they created, they were also heavily influential through their use of limited animation techniques.
43:31
To do this, they often reused animation cells or backgrounds. So, if they, say, needed
43:39
Tom to run across the same room in two different episodes, they could simply reuse some of the
43:44
same animation cycles. Furthermore, Hanna-Barbera Productions... also made heavy use of simple
43:50
character designs that could be animated in many separate parts. The Hanna-Barbera studio
43:57
would continue to produce its own hilarious animated films and shows, until they were bought
44:03
and merged with Warner Brothers Animations, who you might know as the creator of Looney
44:09
Tunes, Batman the Animated Series, The Iron Giant, Animaniacs, and more. Just like Hanna-Barbera,
44:17
Warner Brothers Productions began their animation journey by creating short animated films that
44:23
featured many of the characters who would star in the original Looney Tunes TV show. You
44:29
know Bugs Bunny, don't you? What's up, dog? That mischievous little rabbit, always finding
44:38
himself in ridiculous situations and coming up with hilarious solutions to get out of them.
44:44
Where did- Warner Brothers come up with all their hilarious gags for the Looney Tunes group?
44:51
Well, actually, the answer to that question is really quite simple. Because characters
44:56
like Bugs, Daffy, Elmer Fudd, and more were actually based on the silent film actors such
45:03
as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and more. The films of the 1920s were dominated by silent
45:11
film actors who spent years getting better and better. at slapstick and visual comedy. Because
45:19
they could not speak in film, visual comedy was all they could do. And these humorous
45:25
gags, tripping over ropes, running into walls, all came from these silent films, and worked
45:32
perfectly in the exaggerated and loony world of animation. Animation has always tried to
45:40
both imitate live-action films and the real world. Because of this, silent film actors
45:46
influenced animated comedy, real scientific principles influenced how they move, and directors
45:52
such as Akira Kurosawa created the modern ways that we film, direct, and edit our movies,
45:57
both live-action and animated. And I mention him because people say that every frame in
46:06
Akira Kurosawa's movies could be a painting. And animators realized that they could do
46:14
Just that. Next, we'll cover how computers influenced animation and changed everything.
46:21
You're listening to The Children's Hour, and we've got a lot more coming up. That's Daniel,
46:27
our intern, and he's helping us understand the world of animation. You can learn more and
46:33
find our playlist at childrenshour.org. Look for this episode, animation. Coming up next
46:41
is from the album, I've Got Imagination. This is the title track by Rachel Sumner right here
46:46
on The Children's Hour. like a silly goose. My arms feel flappy and my legs are loose.
46:55
I'm a honking and a tonking in a wacky way. I'm having lots of fun and it's okay. I've
47:02
got imagination. I've got imagination
47:14
Everybody has one, no one's is the same I've got imagination I jump up and down like a kangaroo
47:23
I'll dance the monkey and the boogaloo I'm wild, I'm outrageous, I'm a crazy thing If anybody
47:31
doubts it I just start to sing I've got imagination
47:40
Yeah, yeah, genation
47:46
Everybody has one, but no one's is the same I've got a ma-agination
48:12
You think it's cool You hold it up to show the kids at school Billy Bobo says, what's wrong
48:20
with you? Your trees are purple and the cat is blue Say, I've got imagination I've got
48:33
a ma-y-y-y-y- Imagination Everybody has one, but no one's the same I've got imagination
48:45
Do you know that when people daydream they use their imaginations? And did you know that
48:54
when you paint you use your imagination? You could be an actor every day of your life just
49:01
by using your imagination. Isn't that cool? Imagination!
49:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Gnation
49:17
Everybody has one, no one's is the same I've got imagination, imagination
49:30
May-ay-ay, donation. May-ay-ay, Everybody has one and no one's just the same
49:42
The year is 1984, and you're watching a 15-minute long short film titled, The Magic Egg. But
49:52
what you saw in front of you didn't look like any cartoon you had seen before. What you found
49:58
were brightly colored ribbons that morphed into steps. Magical sparkles, a planet, a train?
50:06
Not drawn, but rendered in 3D. Because with the creation of computers, animation would
50:15
go through a massive change once again. Before the Magic Egg in Montreal, Canada, a group
50:22
of college professors created a short film called Dream Flight, which included a primitive animated
50:28
character two years prior to the Magic Egg. Live-action films such as Star Wars began
50:34
using computer-generated graphics for small animations such as the Death Star plans. and
50:39
films such as Willow began using them for limited special effects in the late 1970s and 80s.
50:46
And in 1984, a company that would become Pixar released their first 3D animated short film,
50:54
The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. This short was important as it pioneered many 3D film
51:01
techniques, and it also marked the first time that traditional animation techniques described
51:07
in the 12 Principles of Animation were used to a wide extent in a 3D project. Then, in
51:13
1995, the first film to be done entirely using 3D animation, or CGI, was released. Toy Story.
51:23
Computers have become an irreplaceable tool in every form of animation. For animation
51:31
that mirrors the traditional works of Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera, images are created on computers
51:37
or tablets, and instead of using layers of cells to create and move characters, we use digital
51:43
layers to swap, change, and adjust drawings with ease. Rigging technology also dramatically
51:51
changed how animation is made, because just like how there are bones and muscles which
51:57
move around our body, we can place something called an armature on something like a character's
52:02
arm or head and use it to move, rotate, and scale the drawings.
52:09
Most animation that we see today is done through something called 3D animation or sculpted animation,
52:16
which works very differently from cell-drawn traditional animation. Instead of a character
52:23
being drawn, outlined in ink, and colored, in a 3D computer software, a character is
52:30
sculpted in a way very similar to claymation or real sculptures. Then... The sculpture
52:36
is simplified and redone through a process called retopology to work better during the animation.
52:42
Then, lines which are invisible to the audience are drawn all over the character to create
52:47
what's called UV maps, which allows us to color and detail the character's appearance very
52:53
similar to how you would, say, paint a toy. Finally, once the character is fully made
52:59
and colored, a technical artist rigs the character to an armature so can be animated like a puppet
53:06
or a stop-motion character. Once the process is done, that character will not need to be
53:12
remade like how hand-drawn characters need to be redrawn each frame. 3D animation, in many
53:18
ways, is actually much faster than traditional animation. Backgrounds can be constructed
53:23
and then viewed from any angle. Animators can more easily fix and tweak poses and movements.
53:30
Furthermore, the programs that run 3D animation are so advanced that nowadays we can make animations
53:35
that look like real life. It can be used for special effects in live-action movies. It can
53:43
create creatures such as the Balrog, a towering beast that Gandalf battles in the 2001 movie,
53:50
The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. And it can be used for entire animated
53:55
films as well, for say, The Lion King remake in 2019. However, this then creates a really
54:02
big question. If sculpted and rigged animation created in 3D software is so much faster, cheaper,
54:10
and more technologically powerful than traditional animation, will 2D animation go away forever?
54:16
Well... Not really. While big companies will always be making fancier programs and stronger
54:24
technology, I don't think audiences will ever lose their love. of the classic works which
54:31
made animation what it is today. In 2020, a film titled Wolfwalkers was released, which
54:41
used 3D models to help plan and shape some of their more complex scenes, but primarily used
54:47
sketched and charcoal art on paper for backgrounds with hand-drawn animated characters. Movies
54:55
such as The Wild Robot, Flow, and Into the Spider-Verse also use art styles which resemble
55:02
paintings, comics, and the classic cartoons many grew up with. From light in a box, chalkboard
55:11
art, cartoons with sound, with color, in theaters, on TV, drawn flat or sculpted round, as long
55:21
as we never forget where we started and why we started loving art. There will always be
55:28
a need for talented and passionate artists. And whether it's done on pen and paper or
55:35
keyboard and mouse, there is something that always draws us back to the magic in animation.
55:44
That's all the time that we have for today. We've only got one more song left, and it's
55:50
You've Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman from Toy Story. So we're gonna have to catch you
55:56
for another edition of the Children's Hour. Thanks for listening.
56:06
You got a friend in me.
56:21
You just remember what your old pal said Boy you got a friend in me Yeah you got a friend
56:32
in
56:40
Godfrey
56:44
Oh
56:48
You got trouble. There isn't anything
56:56
See ya
57:04
You got a friend in
57:16
baby
57:23
you A friendship will never die
57:35
I'm You gotta forgive me
57:46
You got a friend in me.
57:59
Children's Hour is produced by The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico non-profit.
58:04
You can find photos, links, learn-along guides, and more about us at Children'sHour.org. This
58:11
episode of The Children's Hour was written and produced by our junior producer and intern,
58:16
Daniel Lentz, with production help from me, Katie Stone, and Sara Gabrielli. You can find
58:23
pictures, our full playlist, links, and so much more at Children'sHour.org. Look for animation.
58:29
Find our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or go to our patreon.com slash The Children's
58:35
Hour or ask your smart speaker to play The Children's Hour podcast. Our theme music was written
58:42
by C.K. Barlow. The Children's Hour is distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American radio
58:50
network. Thanks for listening to The Children's Hour, kids' radio.