After watching McCay’s “Gertie the Dinosaur” and Cohl’s Fantasmagorie, I’ve noticed that they are both black and white silent animated shorts. A few differences I took note of is that Cohl’s Fantasmagorie seems to have a constant flow of movement with no pauses whatsoever. However, “Gertie the Dinosaur”, is more slow-paced and is focused more on the character interacting with the artist. You can see this concept a lot in earlier animation as well as referenced in today’s animation.
Daily Archives: September 20, 2022
6 posts
Print comics had more stories played out so it was easier to flesh out what the animation was. There were already keyframes there. It was kind of like a storyboard in a way.
I think the only reason why the animation films was based on print comics is because it has to be drawn inspiration from the old comics that is from the previous years and make it very easier in order to make the characters to feel relatable to the audience in real life.
I think that reason that many early animated films, particularly in the US, were based on print comics was that it was probably popular and when animated they already had an outline to go off so it was probably easier because they had a character design and a script. in comic books, they probably had a character or a story that would appeal to a particular set of audience. A good example of this is spider-man the words everyone remembers are “with great power comes great responsibility”.
Winsor McCay’s “Gertie the Dinosaur” is more of an interactive anime that gives the audience a sense of connection to the character “Gertie” and the setting is more stationed and not changing scenary. Emile Cohl’s “Fantasmagorie” animation is multiple short stories that are put together. The character is constantly changing and is a little confusing as to what is going on. Both are comical and have 16 frames per second in their films.
Prompt 1
Winsor McCay’s “Gertie the Dinosaur” and Emile Cohl’s “Fantasmagorie”, both are drawn using simple line drawings although overall “Gertie the Dinosaur” looks more detailed and realistic, and Cohl uses morphing, stick figures, and different shapes to draw the characters and objects in the movie. Both movies are silent. Both are black and white, but Cohl uses black color for the background, and McCay’s background is drawn. McCay is interacting with “Gertie the Dinosaur” as he is telling the dinosaur to perform different tricks whereas “Fantasmagorie,” tells the story without any interaction.
