Reading 1: Donald Crafton, Before Mickey, Chapters 1 & 2
Response question:
How do J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay use the hand as a symbol for the role of the animator? Draw on Crafton's history of animation in your response.
Crafton mentions, at the end of Chapter 2, that the hand was representing the artist as a center of attention. It was the source of magic, the origin of all the drawings that would appear before the audience. In early animations, pieces were moved by wires, and then later when stop-motion came into play the effect of the wires was translated into a flicker. When the animations became smooth enough they mimicked real-time drawings, similar to lightning sketches. The act of making something appear out of nothing is a talent that artists excel at. Even without the hand present in an animation, its actions are interpreted by the audience so like a magician's hand magic suddenly appears.
In lighting sketches, animator was the center of attention. In the film, animator was promoted as a magician, and often was represented by their hands. Film only display an illusion that the hand of animator can fill the magic power into ordinary objects and draw them into life. When artist makes drawings, “they become endowed with the magic ability to move, spontaneously change their shape, or become ‘real’.” (Melies has introduced the element of magic to the subject in Le Livre magique, a 1900 film that showed the artist transforming his full-size drawings into living people through stop-action substitution.)
Animation was discovered by accident, and it took a lot of time for animation to evolve and become what it is today. It was a slow process of experimenting and trying new risky things in order for new great creations to be made. I think that animation teaches us that mistakes that we have no control over or some control over can impact our artwork and make it turn into something extraordinary.
The hand of the animator, and the animator himself, is portrayed as the giver of life. In a way it's true. The pictures don't "move" unless the animator wills it. In film the illusion of movement was largely accomplished by using wires, but in animation the illusion of movement is created by the animator's own hand.
With the symbol of the hand, it is an animator who is presenting, and or creating the animation. As if they are giving it life. In Humerous Phases, the hand is seen erasing the face and ending the animation also.
So the hand serves as a signal to the beginning and end of an animation. At least when it comes to lighting sketches.
In later animation using pictures and drawings, the hand dissapears, making the animations appear like life themselves as if humans have no part in the animations life like animation, Such as "Gertie the Dinosaur"
In Both Blacktons's and McCay's animated features, "Humurous Phases," and "Watch me Move," the films start out with a shot of the artists drawign out their characters. As the film speeds up the artists disappear and the characters become animated and appear to be moving by themselves on the screen. I took these films as a demonstration of all your limitations as an artist, are only set forth by your own imagination. This wasnt the first time either filmmaker used tricks such as these. Blackton's "haunted mansion" is known for using frame by frame animation and wires to make appear that kitchen utencils and oridnary furntiture appear to be moving on their own. Films like this inspired intrigue and swe among the general public who would try to piece together the tricks behind the animation.
Ch. 1 In Donald Crafton's History of Animation, the hand of the animator is used as a symbol of God, or creator. "The very virtue of the animated cartoon is to animate, that is to say, endow lifeless things with life, or living things with a different kind of life," art historian Erwin Panofsky and Seldes agree. Ch.2 The hand of the animator is used as a symbol of magician, as described by other students in this blog thread.
Both J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay use the hand as a symbol for the role of the animator. This is done because their hands are the creator of the animation that is going on. For example, In Blackton's animation "Humorous Phases" we can see the amount of control in the hand that is needed to give movement. Blackton does this effectively through drawings. Because objects were animated successfully with single-framing techniques why not hand-draw them? "Humorous Phases" became an assembly of unrelated experimental effects. It was a sequence of animated drawings. The animation became the foundation for innovative and new ideas around. It was described as magic and the hand was the controller and creator of what was happening in animation.
With either digital animation or hand-drawn animation, how could the artist make the animation without his or her hands? Some artists may chose to use the hand as a symbol in the animation by showing the hands creating each frame. Other artists may prefer their hands to serve as a sort of backstage assistant to the final production. No matter how the artist choses to represent hands, be it visual representation or symbolic acknowledgment, the hands play an important (or even starring) role in the animation.
Crafton mentions, at the end of Chapter 2, that the hand was representing the artist as a center of attention. It was the source of magic, the origin of all the drawings that would appear before the audience. In early animations, pieces were moved by wires, and then later when stop-motion came into play the effect of the wires was translated into a flicker. When the animations became smooth enough they mimicked real-time drawings, similar to lightning sketches. The act of making something appear out of nothing is a talent that artists excel at. Even without the hand present in an animation, its actions are interpreted by the audience so like a magician's hand magic suddenly appears.
ReplyDeleteIn lighting sketches, animator was the center of attention. In the film, animator was promoted as a magician, and often was represented by their hands. Film only display an illusion that the hand of animator can fill the magic power into ordinary objects and draw them into life. When artist makes drawings, “they become endowed with the magic ability to move, spontaneously change their shape, or become ‘real’.” (Melies has introduced the element of magic to the subject in Le Livre magique, a 1900 film that showed the artist transforming his full-size drawings into living people through stop-action substitution.)
ReplyDeleteAnimation was discovered by accident, and it took a lot of time for animation to evolve and become what it is today. It was a slow process of experimenting and trying new risky things in order for new great creations to be made. I think that animation teaches us that mistakes that we have no control over or some control over can impact our artwork and make it turn into something extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteThe hand of the animator, and the animator himself, is portrayed as the giver of life. In a way it's true. The pictures don't "move" unless the animator wills it. In film the illusion of movement was largely accomplished by using wires, but in animation the illusion of movement is created by the animator's own hand.
ReplyDeleteWith the symbol of the hand, it is an animator who is presenting, and or creating the animation. As if they are giving it life. In Humerous Phases, the hand is seen erasing the face and ending the animation also.
ReplyDeleteSo the hand serves as a signal to the beginning and end of an animation. At least when it comes to lighting sketches.
In later animation using pictures and drawings, the hand dissapears, making the animations appear like life themselves as if humans have no part in the animations life like animation, Such as "Gertie the Dinosaur"
In Both Blacktons's and McCay's animated features, "Humurous Phases," and "Watch me Move," the films start out with a shot of the artists drawign out their characters. As the film speeds up the artists disappear and the characters become animated and appear to be moving by themselves on the screen. I took these films as a demonstration of all your limitations as an artist, are only set forth by your own imagination. This wasnt the first time either filmmaker used tricks such as these. Blackton's "haunted mansion" is known for using frame by frame animation and wires to make appear that kitchen utencils and oridnary furntiture appear to be moving on their own. Films like this inspired intrigue and swe among the general public who would try to piece together the tricks behind the animation.
ReplyDeleteCh. 1
ReplyDeleteIn Donald Crafton's History of Animation, the hand of the animator is used as a symbol of God, or creator. "The very virtue of the animated cartoon is to animate, that is to say, endow lifeless things with life, or living things with a different kind of life," art historian Erwin Panofsky and Seldes agree.
Ch.2
The hand of the animator is used as a symbol of magician, as described by other students in this blog thread.
Both J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay use the hand as a symbol for the role of the animator. This is done because their hands are the creator of the animation that is going on. For example, In Blackton's animation "Humorous Phases" we can see the amount of control in the hand that is needed to give movement. Blackton does this effectively through drawings. Because objects were animated successfully with single-framing techniques why not hand-draw them? "Humorous Phases" became an assembly of unrelated experimental effects. It was a sequence of animated drawings. The animation became the foundation for innovative and new ideas around. It was described as magic and the hand was the controller and creator of what was happening in animation.
ReplyDeleteWith either digital animation or hand-drawn animation, how could the artist make the animation without his or her hands? Some artists may chose to use the hand as a symbol in the animation by showing the hands creating each frame. Other artists may prefer their hands to serve as a sort of backstage assistant to the final production. No matter how the artist choses to represent hands, be it visual representation or symbolic acknowledgment, the hands play an important (or even starring) role in the animation.
ReplyDelete