Five traditions
Topic histories
The timeline shows what happened when. These five essays follow a single tradition from beginning to present, so that a development can be read as an argument rather than as a sequence of dates.
01 · 14 linked events
Traditional animation
From paper cycles to the last painted cel
Read the history 02 · 17 linked eventsStop motion
Objects, puppets and the oldest animation technique still in daily use
Read the history 03 · 15 linked eventsTelevision animation
Economy of means, and the format that kept animation alive
Read the history 04 · 15 linked eventsJapanese animation
How constraint became a language, and a domestic industry became a global one
Read the history 05 · 21 linked eventsComputer animation
From a light pen on a laboratory display to a painted line rendered in three dimensions
Read the history