Day of the animation

In 2002, the ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d Animation) proclaimed 28 October as International Animation Day. This is in honor of the first animation performance (the optical theatre) performed on October 28, 1892, by Charles-Emile Reynaud at the Musee Grevin in Paris.

The first animations were created at the end of the 19th century. Each movement of a character was drawn by hand as a separate picture. By showing all these pictures in quick succession, the illusion of a flowing movement is created. A labour-intensive and expensive process, because one second of imagary requires about twelve to twenty-four separate drawings, which were all drawn by hand. Out of dissatisfaction with the functioning of the phenakistiscope, an animation device from 1831, Charles-Emile Reynoud designed the praxinoscope and later the theater Optique (optical theatre). Multiple people could view the images with this device. The first show lasted about 15 minutes. Each cartoon consisted of 500 to 600 images hand-painted by Reynaud. With 12,000 performances in eight years and with more than 500,000 visitors, these animations were a great success. One of Charles Emilie's first animations.

Further developments

The development did not stagnate. Three years after the first animation show, The Cinematographe, the world's first projection device, created by the Lumière brothers, arrived on the market. With this came the first paid public showing of a film ever. With the advent of computers in the 20th century, there was an efficiency battle in animation creation. Many 2D animations are now created using software packages. This means that every movement no longer needs to be drawn picture by picture. It is often enough to make the start and end image, the rest is done by the software package.

And then came 3D. The first 3D computer animation (used in film) was created in 1972 by Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke. Two nerds at the University of Utah created a 3D animation of Edwin's left hand and the face of Fred's wife. The short film they made of this is now seen as a revolutionary moment for both art and film. The same Edwin later became the co-founder of Pixar and is president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. The first fully 3D animated feature film was Toy Story. This movie was produced in 1995 by Disney and Pixar. It became a big hit. Since then, this form of animation has grown enormously, and animated films such as Toy Story, Shrek and UP! are some of the hottest films of the past 20 years.

Really something of the times

Nowadays, 3D animations are indispensable in our (digital) world. It's all right now. 3D animations are frequently used in films, series, promotional videos, games and so on. At C4Real you will mainly find 3D animations for promotion and education purposes. Whether it concerns a company film, a product configurator, or an instruction film. 3D animations can be used in many ways. We are happy to tell you how this can best be used for your organization during a non-binding conversation. Feel free to contact us with any questions or to have an impressive 3D animation made.