Pioneers Of Early Animations

Pioneers of early animations

George Melies

George Melies was a French illusionist and film maker/director and was famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of the cinema. He was born in Paris, France December the 8th 1861 and died January 21st, 1938 ( Aged 76 ). He was known for his involvement in The Voyage Across the Impossible, A Trip To The Moon, The 400 Tricks of the Devil and The Devilish Tenant, however he was involved in many more short films. 2 of these short films are below. 

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay was a writer, producer and director, he was born September 26th, 1871 and died aged only 62 on July 26th 1934. He was mainly known for Little Nemo which was a short animation TV series and Gertie the Dinosaur. As you can see below the video shows you how good Winsor McCay was in animating and the way he coloured in every part of the story. The animation was the piece of a 10 minute short film entitled "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics". Winsor McCay set a very high standard with this piece of animation and therefore had a big impact on animation. 

Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger was born on the 2nd of June, 1899 as Charlotte Reiniger. She was a Director for animation projects and a writer. She is known for her work on ' The Adventures Of Prince Achmed ' and ' The HPO '. When Lotte Reiniger started doing animations she got very successful, it meant she could go to the institute for cultural research which was an experimental animation and short film studio. This was where she met her spouse, Carl Koch. She made six short films whilst she was there, all produced and photographed by her husband, some of these films even had special effects for there time - this being a silhouette falcon for a dream sequence for the film ' The Nibelungs '. As you can see above there was also a silhouette feature in "Däumelinchen".