Portal:Animation
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Introduction
Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets (cels) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry. Many animations are computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms.
Animation is contrasted with live-action film, although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of the two. As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery, filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). (Full article...)
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Diary of a Camper is a short 1996 American film created by United Ranger Films, then a subdivision of a popular group of players, or clan, known as the Rangers. Made using id Software's 1996 first-person shooter computer game Quake and released over the Internet as a non-interactive game demo file, the video is considered the first example of machinima—the art of using real-time, virtual 3-D environments, often game engines, to create animated films. The story centers on a lone camper, a pejorative for a player who waits in a strategic location instead of seeking active battle, who faces five members of the Rangers clan in a deathmatch, a type of multiplayer game whose goal is to kill as many opponents as possible. Although players had previously recorded segments of gameplay, these were usually deathmatches or speedruns, attempts to complete a map as quickly as possible. Diary of a Camper was the first demo to contain a narrative with (text-based) dialogue, instead of merely showing gameplay. Commentators agree that the work itself is primitive, but acknowledge its importance in establishing video games as a medium for filmmaking.
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Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Bruce Timm created most of the character designs for Batman: The Animated Series?
- ... that the animated film The Exigency took thirteen years to make?
- ... that at age 12, Shaylee Mansfield became the first deaf actor to be credited alongside the voice actors for a signed performance in an animated production?
- ... that Encanto's Isabela Madrigal was animated to be aware that she is "always on stage"?
- ... that the interactive cartoon Cat Burglar takes about 15 minutes to watch, but features 90 minutes of animation?
- ... that the stylized animation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was inspired by rough sketches in school notebooks?
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Selected biography
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening (born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama. Groening made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. Life in Hell caught the attention of James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. The shorts would be spun off into their own series: The Simpsons, which has since aired 768 episodes. In 1997, Groening, along with former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen, developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999. After four years on the air, the show was canceled by Fox in 2003, but Comedy Central commissioned 16 new episodes from four direct-to-DVD movies in 2008. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell.
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Season Three (Book 3: Fire) of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, first aired its 21 episodes from September 21, 2007 to July 19, 2008. The season was created by Michael Dante DiMartino (pictured) and Bryan Konietzko and starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Dante Basco, Dee Bradley Baker, Grey DeLisle, and Mark Hamill as character voices. This third and final season focuses on Aang's quest to defeat the tyrannical Fire Lord. In the season's beginning, protagonist Aang and his friends Sokka, Katara, and Toph are traveling through the Fire Nation, conjuring a plan for invading the Fire Nation and looking for a teacher to teach Aang Firebending. Midway through the season, Aang gathers friends he met in previous episodes and leads a failed invasion into the Fire Nation. The final season features twenty-one episodes, one more than the previous two seasons. The season finale consisted of the four episodes airing together as a two-hour television movie. Season Three received a similar positive critical reception to that of the previous seasons. The season, and especially the finale, received much critical acclaim, with praises from sources such as DVD Talk and IGN. Between October 30, 2007 and September 16, 2008, Nickelodeon released four DVD volumes and a "Complete Box Set". Each of the four volume DVDs consisted of one disc and five episodes, with the exception of volume four, which had six episodes, and the boxed set contained all twenty-one episodes on five discs.
More did you know...
- ...that in his later years Dick Dastardly was often Yogi Bear's nemesis?
- ...that in the animated Laff-a-Lympics, non-competing Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone and Jabberjaw made appearances as guest announcers?
- ...that the Fire Nation, from the Universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender, was inspired by photos of volcanic islands of Iceland and the Pacific Ocean?
Anniversaries for May 21
- Films released
- 1938 – Injun Trouble (United States)
- 1948 – Donald's Dream Voice (United States)
- 1949 – Curtain Razor (United States)
- 1954 – Pigs Is Pigs (United States)
- 1966 – Snow Excuse (United States)
- 2010 – Shrek Forever After (DreamWorks Animation, Paramount Pictures, United States)
- Births
- 1992 – Olivia Olson, American actress and singer-songwriter
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