Bringing You All The Important Animation Related News
Established 15,000 B.C.
Volume , November 1914.
McCay Releases
Gertie The Dinosaur
Winsor McCay produces over 5000 drawings to bring Gertie the Dinosaur to life. He has integrated the film into his new vaudeville act. McCay would step out onto the stage and while the film was being played, he would interact with the images, commanding the dinosaur to do a variety of tricks, culminating in his climbing onto her back as they walk off into the distance.

This film lays the foundations for 'character animation' in which the animated character's personality is shown in their movements.

So laborious was the job that McCay hired John Fitzsimmons, a young teenager as his assistant to trace all the backgrounds onto each of the drawings.
Gertie the Dinosaur catches an apple thrown to her by McCay

During the mid-teens, there was a sudden boom in animation, mainly because of the success of McCay's 'Gertie' Last year, Raoul Barre opened up his studio, while this year saw the opening of 'John Randolph Bray Studio', producing a Bobby Bumps series. Pat Sullivan has left the Barre studio to open up his own shop, producing “Universal Newsreel” and advertising films for U.S. War Bonds.

This expansion of the animation industry (as we like to call it) has also led to many attempts to streamline production and make it more efficient. Several innovations such as the peg bar for registration, animation 'cels' to replace the old "slash system", the pan background and assembly line production helped to advance the medium to the point where cartoons were being produced by some studios on a weekly basis.

However, this increase in production has not resulted in a higher quality product.

In a bold effort to attempt to take control of the animation industry, John Randolph Bray began to patent many processes and techniques such as: animation, cycles, extremes and inbetweens, registration and the use of tracing paper. Earl Hurd obtained a patent for the use of clear sheets of celluloid.

Bray and Hurd got together to form the Bray-Hurd Processing Company. With their collection of patents, the company held a monopoly on the animation process. They have compelled other animators to buy licences and pay royalties.
Earl Hurd's patent for the use of clear 'cels'

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