Left: a computer graphics render with soft shadows. Right: a cel shader and border detection.

This is a guest post by Olivia Lennox.

As you’ll well know, there are far more animation techniques out there than the average movie-goer or TV watcher knows about. You can’t blame them for only really knowing about stop-motion animation, CGI animation, and what goes into shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. These techniques are what ‘make it big’, and what can be seen on screens, both big and small, all over the world. But there are plenty of other forms of animation that don’t get the credit they deserve.

Rotoscope by Max Fleischer, patent drawing from 1914.

This is a guest post by Olivia Lennox.

Animation has come a long way since the days of the first cartoon motion pictures in the early 1900s. It’s come so far in fact that it’s difficult to believe it started as a few hand-drawn images on a page. Compare and flick book to the trailer for Pixar’s upcoming movie Brave and you’ll get the idea. But here we are, in a world where computer generated imaging has quite literally taken over the world of animated film: when was the last time Disney released a ’2D’ movie in their original style? It’s been some time indeed.

Animal Farm.

This is a guest post by Lori Hutchison.

In the history of animated film, relatively few films have been released for adults (with the exception of the anime industry in Japan). Here are ten ground-breaking films that feature mature adult themes and prove that animation can be just as moving as it was when we were young.

A page from the Book of Keys

Following on from Mitchell Manuel’s guest post about the Book of Keys, here are some photographs showing the early pages in the book. They are colored images cut out of books or magazines and pasted into the book. This gives an interesting insight on the book as an educational tool.

Following on from Mitchell Manuel’s guest post about the Book of Keys, here are some photographs showing pages in the actual book. The drawings from Disney and G.B. Animation films are around 70 years old.

Lion cub

Following on from Mitchell Manuel’s guest post about the Book of Keys, here are more images from his collection of David Hand drawings and model sheets. They are model sheets from the British animation studio G.B. Animation. They are probably from the Animaland series of short cartoons (1948 – 1950).

Donald Duck model sheet 1

Following on from Mitchell Manuel’s guest post about the Book of Keys, here are some Donald Duck images from his collection of David Hand drawings and model sheets.

Sleepy, Bashful, Grumpy and Dopey relative proportions.

Following on from Mitchell Manuel’s guest post about the Book of Keys, here are some more images from his collection of David Hand drawings. They are model sheets from the Walt Disney feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

Jiminy Cricket from Pinochio.

Following on from Mitchell Manuel’s guest post about the Book of Keys, here are some more images from his collection of David Hand drawings. They are from the Walt Disney feature film Pinochio (1940) and The Reluctant Dragon (1941).

The book of keys.

Disney animator David Hand was invited to England in 1944 to help set up GB Animation. It was to be a studio of sufficient size and capacity with which to challenge Disney’s supremacy. Key drawings and character sheets believed to be by David Hand were later taken to New Zealand by animator Bob Morrow, with the aim of setting up a studio there. Mitchell Manuel tells the story in the following guest post.