Films, VFX and animation have evolved over the years as technology and wider access to be able to create media has progressed. The first film was “The Horse in Motion” from 1878. However, even though this film was preceded by other animation, it is debatable what can count as “film”. Animation existed long before cinematography and used different invented modes of viewing to create the illusion of movement. For example, the Thaumotrope, Phenakistiscope, and Zoetrope were created in the era from 1820-1840, using different methods of moving the area where images were painted or drawn to make it seem like they were moving when really it is a visual illusion where the viewers eye keeps a “persistence of vision”, still seeing the original image as well as the new one that is being shown to merge the two. Later, the invention of the flipbook would make animation far more accessible, as technically anyone could make an animation at this point if they had access to a drawing implement and a book they could flip through. These flipbook animations were more likely to be inspirational to later film animators than the other devices, as they were so accessible and didn’t require a complex device. The other devices would also later be tweaked and improved using mirrors and glass discs. At this point in history though, animation was not used much for storytelling and was often just used as a novelty, though for its time it was very impressive.

In 1891 the Kinetoscope would be invented by the Edison company, and later the Lumiere brothers (inspired by this invention) would create their own Cinématographe and began showing films to paying customers in 1895. This began the commercial history of film. The Lumiere brothers are famous for their contributions to what would become modern cinema. Their father ran a photographic business so they had the means to develop more technology relating to photos. Louis Lumiere would create a new photographic plate that would become successful enough that the Lumiere family began a factory creating these plates, giving them the funding for their other endeavours. Louis Lumiere created the Cinematographe, basing the movement of the pins to show the next frame of film on the movement of sewing machines. The Cinematographe would at first not be shown much interest, though each day more and more people would come to see it, and later it would even be shown in Britain. The Lumiere brothers would move away from cinema and focus on photography in 1905, though their contribution to cinema was great. With the invention of cinema, VFX would also begin. Mostly during this period the best VFX “trick” (created by Alfred Clark) was to film something, cut the filming process, move something, then restart the filming process with everything else still in place. This would give the impression that the film was seamless and had not been cut, with some movement. George Melieles would later discover this trick accidentally when his camera jammed. This would inspire him to create over 500 films using techniques such as time lapse, multiple exposure, and dissolves.

In terms of what these films were actually like at this point in history, they were generally fairly short and often just showed everyday life. They were also mainly black and white, as methods to add colour to film had not been fully explored yet, though there were some such as Kinemacolor, which used red and green gelatine to add these colours to film (this wasn’t accurate to how the real-life footage would’ve looked but still added colour). By 1914 though, films began to be more focused on storytelling, with actual plots to follow. The American film industry would lag behind the European, Russian and Scandinavian film industries, though due to World War 1 slowing a lot of the film producers in these areas, the American film industry had time to catch up. In terms of animation at this point, films such as “Gertie the Dinosaur” (Winsor McCay) were being created by individuals drawing each frame. However, these individuals quickly became overshadowed by large scale studios that were forming such as Fleischer, Barre, and Edison studios, creating works like “Koko the Clown”. Walt Disney would begin working with Ub Iwerks and Fred Harman, eventually creating “Steamboat Willie” (1928) featuring Mickey Mouse. Later, films like “Snow White” would be released to massive acclaim as well as other series like “Looney Tunes”. Other studios like Fleischer would continue to compete with films like “Gullivers Travels” (1939). In the 1930s, colour films would be developed using the Technicolor process (which began development in 1915) which used dye-transfer techniques to make colour prints. This process had been improved a lot with a new three-colour system, and using this new system the famous films “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” were created in 1939. During this period the usage of sound in cinema would be explored, with different films using sound differently; until 1927 most films would just be sound effects with a soundtrack behind them. With the release of Don Juan in 1927, “talkies” would take off. This involved recording all of the audio from the film onto one phonographic record, and then playing it at the same time as the film to match it up. During this period, experimentations with VFX would be taking place as well, such as in “The Invisible Man” where mechanical systems and hidden wires would move items as if moved by an invisible man. “The Wizard of Oz” would also use a large bag, a fan and some dust to create the effect of a cyclone. Other films like “King Kong” would use puppets and stop motion (taking a sequence of photographs and playing them in quick succession) to show the titular character.

In the 1950s, the war ended and so a lot more films were made. This lead to the “Golden Age” of Asian cinema, with works such as “Seven Samurai” by Akira Kurosawa being created, as well as “The Apu Trilogy” by Satyajit Ray. This trilogy would later be inspirational for several notable directors including Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese. India, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines all making progress in producing more well-acclaimed films. During this time and the following years, a lot of progress would be made not just in the technology, but in the creation of new film techniques such as different types of camera shot, different editing techniques, use of sound, etc. In the 1960s, “Jason and The Argonauts would be released with a CGI scene where a character fights against skeletons. This usage of stop motion was more advanced and smoother than previous attempts, as well as using several figures to pose and animate, sometimes meaning only 13 or so frames would be completed each day. The late 1960s would produce films like “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Planet of the Apes” and “Midnight Cowboy”. Later, in the 1970s, film would begin the decade at a low point, with little innovation and little money. Standards would become looser, and a lot of films would become more violent and sexually explicit, like “The Godfather”. A type of film also emerged that would be more of an “event”, with advertising building up to a film franchise that would span over several films, including the likes of “Jaws” and “Star Wars”. At this time animation shifted more onto a focus on animated kids TV series, with several studios dedicated to creating them. The mindset was also now more on creating media quickly and cheaply – before, it was all about creating the best thing you possibly could but as animation became more commercially viable, innovation was less important than profit to some companies. Series like “Loopy de Loop”, “Colonel Bleep” and “Tom Terrific” were released in the late 1950s. William Hanna and Joseph Barbara would begin to create iconic shows such as “The Flintstones”, “Yogi Bear” and “Scooby-Doo” into the ’60s and ’70s. Disney would also release films like “101 Dalmations” and “The Jungle Book” in this time too. During the ’60s, Japanese animation (anime) would become very popular, though very different to Western animation as there was less focus on dynamic movement and more focus on aesthetics. Overall this would mostly only have domestic success in Japan, and would only become popular internationally over time.

In the 1980s film developed even more, partially because people began using VCR’s, which the film industry tried to ban on the grounds of copyright infringement unsuccessfully, eventually settling to begin selling their films as a secondary form of revenue. A lot of blockbusters were being made such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Ghostbusters”, “E.T.”, “Back to the Future”, multiple “Star Wars” films, etc. These films would become incredibly famous and referenced in different media countless times in the future. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are probably the most famous directors of this time, innovating cinema with the usage of CGI in “Tron”. In the 90’s films like “Jurassic Park” and “Titanic” would be released to critical acclaim. During the ’90s films would start to grow in terms of how much money was invested – for actors salaries, special effects, advertising campaigns becoming larger, etc. This money was not necessarily spent in the correct places, and so many films of this era suffered from having money thrown at them without much thought to what money could be spent on to improve the film. However, this age of cinema is widely regarded as one of the best decades of film, with directors like Spike Jonze, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson all making their first films in this time. Films at this time were often made with an accessible feel to a general audience (as they needed to be profitable) but are still not dull, owing to clever writing and interesting themes such as “Starship Troopers” which is heavily satirical whilst still being accessible for people who don’t see the satire. As this is one of the decades of film that the majority of young to middle-aged people have as their furthest back content than they would watch, many people hold nostalgia for it. For VFX, the ’80s would continue to experiment with different techniques, like in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” which blended 2D animation characters with real-life actors and is impressively seamless. “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and “The Terminator” would also use innovative CGI techniques to impress audiences and give off more of a sci-fi feel to these films. The ’90s would also have new techniques, such as in “Forrest Gump” when the titular character is inserted into a pre-existing film with JFK. “The Matrix”, “Babe” and “The Mummy” would be released with impressive CGI. Sci-fi films would gain in popularity massively as directors could begin to use effects that would impress audiences whilst looking very realistic. Some of these effects in these films have not aged very well to what we see today, but it must be remembered that we have had a lot more developed CGI in films to compare it to. In animation, the ’80s were big for franchises of animation that could also be used to sell kids toys and figures, such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “My Little Pony” and “He-Man”. A lot of these shows were not high quality because they were often just seen as more expensive advertisements to kids for the toys. At the end of this decade, a lot more quality animation would be produced with what is known as the “Golden Age of Animation” beginning, with work like “The Little Mermaid”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “The Land Before Time” being produced as well as animated TV series such as “The Simpsons” created. Disney would lead this new era of animation with “Beauty and the Beast”, “Alladin” and “The Lion King”, films that feature very high-quality animation that is also accessible to children whilst still being entertaining for adults. This is a difficult feat to achieve, and one that Disney and later Pixar would consistently hit. Personally, I think that “The Lion King” remains the film I have watched the most times, as it was so entertaining as a child that I would watch it endlessly. Pixar would begin the history of popular 3D films with “Toy Story”, a film that would instantly generate interest in the medium of 3D animation and become the top-grossing film of the year, cementing Pixar as a high-quality studio. Because technology has progressed so quickly these films do not feel like they are ancient history, as they were released in many people’s lifetimes, unlike film history where many films that would shape the future of film were created long before many people were born.

In the 2000s the widespread introduction of several pieces of technology and sites such as high-performance laptops, iPods, smartphones, Youtube, Amazon, Google, allowing people to create, buy and share media whenever and wherever they are, created another hurdle similar to television and VCR before that would force cinema to innovate even further to remain relevant to the masses, with features like 3D films, improvements to venues, increased advertising campaigns, etc. After the 9/11 attack as well as the linked war in Iraq, the American film industry began to create a lot of “patriotism” war films. This also seemed to chain a reverse effect, with certain films that would not paint America in such a good light. 6 studios (Time Warner, Sony, Walt Disney, NBC, Viacom and 20th Century Fox) would begin to dominate the film industry, producing the majority of major English speaking films, and this would continue until the present (though 20th Century Fox got acquired by Disney). Technology in the film industry would continue to improve, with equipment like the “Red One” camera being created. The film industry continued its growth, with films having larger and larger budgets, casts, and more equipment, such as “The Lord of the Rings”, “Star Wars”, and “King Kong”. In terms of VFX, motion capture techniques began to take off, as well as the usage of CGI, with computer-generated characters beginning to seamlessly blend with the rest of the film in ways which the untrained eye would not notice. “Gollum” from “Lord of the Rings” is a large proponent in impressing the average moviegoer with CGI. Fully animated CGI films would be made using motion capture, such as “Beowulf” and “The Polar Express”, very impressive for the time but still having a slight uncanny valley feel. During this time 3D cinema was pushed heavily, with older popular films even being re-released in 3D such as “Toy Story” and “The Matrix”, though it never fully took off and seemed more like a gimmick. Over the 20 years from 2000 to today, VFX would improve at a rate far faster than before, with many films heavily relying on special effects such as the films “2012” “Avatar”, “Pirates of the Caribean” and “The Life of Pi” to entertain audiences. CGI would begin to become more commonplace in films, and more easily understood by audiences as information relating to it was made more accessibly to the general public. For animation, there was also a huge boom as Disney would continue to have great success with films like “Toy Story”, as well as studios like Dreamworks producing films like “Shrek” which helped cement 3D animation as a valuable medium for storytelling. As the 3D industry developed, lighting, texturing, poly count of models, render speed improving, etc would help 3D animation become better and better as well as more efficient with more and more potential for creating different things. 2D animation would slowly be overtaken by 3D in film, with Disney, who relied massively on 2D animation for their previous films, beginning to make all their animated films in 3D. 2D animation would continue to have heavy usage from independent artists, with the processes of 2D animation focusing more on the technical skill of drawing than 3D focusing a lot more on the skill of knowledge of how to use multiple pieces of software together. In the 2000’s adult animation would begin taking off in popularity; previously most animation was created with children in mind. Shows like “Family Guy”, “South Park” “Beavis and Butthead” would show that there was an audience for adult animation, with more recent shows like “BoJack Horseman” “Rick and Morty”, “Castlevania” “Invincible” showing that the usage of animation in entertaining adults is growing.