Winsor McCay and Early Animation

 

Early Animation: A Study of Winsor McCay

Naomi Blowe

Animation History - Lambert

02 February 2022

    Animation has a long and extensive history and it all dates back to the mid-1600s. Since then it has developed and formed into what we know now, blockbuster movies and tv shows. Along that journey, one name sticks out in the earlier years. That name is Winsor McCay. 

    McCay is often considered the "Father of Animation." Starting out as a portrait artist and moving on to circus posters, he found his way to comics. This is where he created his strips such as Little Sammy Sneeze (1904-6), Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (1904-11), and one of his most famous works Little Nemo in Slumberland. It is in his Little Nemo comic where he demonstrates his incredible understanding of movement. As can be seen in the picture below.

    It was the latter comic from which he created his first animated film released in 1911. The film itself starts out in the "real world" (this portion was directed by James Stuart Blackton, another well-known animator) this is where we see McCay make a bet that he can animate his characters and make them come to life. Towards the end of the video when McCay presents his work to his friends we see him do what many before him had done; he draws a lightning sketch of one of his characters and shows us the mechanism in which he takes the photos to give the drawings the appearance of movement. After all that we finally get to see the completed characters consisting of Nemo and some other regular from the strip, perform a series of movements including elongating and shrinking their bodies, a visual technique that will later become known as "rubber hose" animations.

    It was in this film and others to come where McCay developed "personality animation." The two films that exhibit this the best are How a Mosquito Operates (1912) and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). The characteristics of the characters are evident in the actions they take, displaying distinct personalities -although sometimes rather violent- they are prevalent in their nature. Not only did these characters display McCay's understanding of personality and how to make characters think they also showed his evolution of accuracy to reality. One may notice that the mosquito (Steve) has trouble lifting himself after taking an excessive amount of blood from his target. His bulbous behind has a real sense of weight and space to it. This is all expressed through visuals only. And as it is in Gertie it is obvious more study into the movement and behaviors of other animals was put into this work. For example, Gertie rolls onto her back in a very cat-like way, she is also seen wagging her tail.

 

    

  Now of course one must be thinking, "well how did he accomplish such skill all on his own, the drawings must have taken ages!?" And you would be correct in all of his earlier films McCay drew each frame by hand by himself and photographed them individually, the same process we witnessed in his first Little Nemo film. Another of McCay's great advancements came after a terrible American tragedy. The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) was a great shift from McCay's earlier works. This film took on a more realistic and documentary look, utilizing great detail, shifts in framing, perspective, and a darker tone. The film itself was a starting point for a discussion on the U.S joining the Great War in 1917. McCay showcased his ability to create depth by having the ship emerge diagonally from the left side of the screen. It was in this film that he also debuted his new method of using celluloid films to speed up the process of animation making.

    It was the use of the new Cels technology that allowed for faster production and for McCay, a man who valued the quality and art of animation over the quantity who was being quickly swept away by competition, this was much needed. The cels allowed for the background to remain stagnant and not have to be redrawn and characters could be placed in open spaces and moved around the area. This technology became a great advantage to everyone in the industry, that is of course until John Randolph Bray started slapping patents on everything, even technology, and techniques that weren't originally his that no one had claimed yet. This put McCay in a spot when Bray tried to sue him due to this patent, but thankfully he could easily prove he had been using the method long before Bray came along.

    Winsor McCay has had a long and full career starting as a portrait artist and circus worker all the way up to creating works that would earn him the title of "Father of Animation." he laid the foundation for the animation world as we know it and I believe I speak for everyone when I say we thank him for his contributions.