Pre-Degree Specialist

Research Project
Foundation Diploma Moving Image and
Photography
Viktor Berkita
UCA

Contents:
Title

Page

Number
Introduction

Figure 1 Stop Motion Animation

Figure 2 Rotascoping Animation

Pre-Modern Source Analysis

3-4

Modern Source Analysis

Post-Modern Source Analysis

4-5

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Summary
Bibliography
List of illustrations

UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017

Viktor Berkita

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7-8
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Within my chosen pathway; Moving Image and Photography,

I am interested in Animation and the wide range of
techniques used to show movement.
While I was in the Vis
Com Pathway, I had
to create a stop
frame animation (Fig
1) using charcoal. We
drew the animation
on the paper and
took photos of it after
every move. When
the photos were put
together it made a
two second film. I had to draw a figure, take a picture, then
erase it and replicate the previous design but change certain
aspects of it to create a moving affect a-modern practices as
well as the ideas from modern inventions in film making and
photography. Nowadays, most people still create animations
using modern time techniques because it is a very easy
process. Rotascoping is an example of a modern animation
technique used to animate. I created an animation using this
technique during my stage 2 project (Fig 2). I had to draw a
human figure on tracing paper and then replicate it onto
others to create movement.
This Pre-Modern work is a section of a cave wall, found in the
Mangura Cave, in Bulgaria. These drawings are pre-historic.
The date and artist is unknown to us. The Drawings are of
men carrying weapons and are following/hunting animals.
The species of animal is unknown to us because of the way
they were drawn. Like a photograph, these cave drawings
capture a moment and rhythm. If makes the viewer picture
what is happening. The exact reason for the Palaeolithic cave
painting is unknown to us. They are not home decorations;
we know this because the caves they are found in do not
have signs of ongoing habitations and some of the caves are
very hard to reach. Some theories also suggest that they
were used to communicate between each other. The reason I
chose to talk about cave drawings is because mostly all cave
drawings around the world, are identical. So how did prehistoric people from different parts of the world, end up
UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017
Viktor Berkita

drawing similar things? I believe that these drawings were

drawn to be storyboards of what has happened. The artist
wanted to portray what a hunt looked like, but the reason
why is unknown. Cave drawings are commonly created using
hand stencils made by blowing pigment on a hand held to
the wall. I find these paintings very fascinating and will link
my own work to them in the future. Linking them might be
through the style they were drawn in, or the material that
was used.
One hundred and One Dalmatians was created in the
Modern era. The animated movie was created by Walt
Disney, who was an American animation and film producer.
The Movie was very expensive, however because of Xerox
photography, animating the movie became much easier and
cheaper. By 1959 the Xerox camera was modified to transfer
drawings by animators directly to animation cels, thus
eliminating the inking process and saving time and money.
101 Dalmatians was created by multiple animators drawing
the scenes on stencils and then photographing each stencil
to put together and create movement. The Movie was about
101 Dalmatian puppies who are kidnapped by the antagonist
Cruella De Vil, who wants to use their fur to make into coats.
The main reason why it was a hard movie to animate was
because of the dogs spots. In total the film featured
6,469,952 spots which meant that most of the time went
into drawing the spots on each one of the puppies. The use
of the Xerox camera has a downside to it, all the
photographs that came from the camera had a black outline
of objects that it captured which meant that each character,
and object used in the animation had black outline which
gave it a 2D affect. The animation process that was used I
this movie was the same as I used in one of my stage 2
Rotascoping projects (Fig 2). I found it very fascinating but
time consuming. However, by doing it this way, the figure
that is drawn will come out 2D.
The picture shown in Fig 3 is a still from a Feature animated
movie entitled Up which was directed by Pete Doctor,
produced by Jonas Rivera and funded by Walt Disney
Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. The movie is about an
elderly widower named Carl Frederickson and an earnest
UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017
Viktor Berkita

young Wilderness Explorer named Russell. The story was of

the pair taking the elderly widowers house to south Africa to
fulfil a promise made to Carls deceased wife. The still shown
in Fig 3 shows the main character, Carl Frederickson looking
out the window of his house which is being lifted by balloons.
This scene was close to the star of the film where he first
sets off to fulfil his promise. Up was a 3D computer
animated film that was 96 mins long. The animation team for
the movie spent some of their time in Monte Roraima and
Angel Falls drawing and painting the landscape. The
animators had trouble designing the animals due to them
having to fit into a surreal environment of Tequis. By
designing the film digitally, the outcome ends up looking
more realistic and 3D. On the other hand, this process of
animation is very time consuming and more expensive than
the previous methods mentioned for Fig 1 -2. I would like to
use this method in my future projects, however due to it
involving applications that are very complex, I may need to
take some time to learn it. Im very fascinated in the detail I
will be able to create if I used this method.

Figure 1, Artist Unknown, Mangura Cave Drawings, Pre-Historic, Wall Drawing

UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017

Viktor Berkita

Figure 2, Walt Disney, One Hundred and One Dalmations, 25th January 1961, Animated Film, TwoDimensional Animations

Figure 3, Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation, Up, 29th May 2009, Digital Animations, TwoDimensional and Three-Dimensional Digital Animation

UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017

Viktor Berkita

Throughout history of animating, the context of it remained

the same but as time progressed, materials, techniques and
styles of documentation change, effected by artistic
movements and worldly events such as the Industrial
revolution. This has introduced the world to the
contemporary era, which as shown in my sources has led us
to the development of photography and film as well as
making documentation has become more accessible to the
world. The movie up has shown us how the advancement in
technology has boosted the animation industry by bring us
more methods of creating them. If you look at the difference
between the movie 101 Dalmatians (Fig 2) and Up (Fig 3),
we have come far. However only the process has changes,
the context behind it has stayed the same. In prehistoric
times, I believe that the cave drawings were used to show
life events. These drawings symbolized still animations of
what was happening and not just doodles on the walls.
Therefore, I believe that even though contemporary
animation films are new, the processes of making them are
not original and have all been passed down and developed
over time. The animations we see today are just mere
extensions of what has been made in the past.
Bibliography
Appignanesi, R., Garratt, C., Sardar, Z., Curry, P. and
Appignanisi, R. (2004) Introducing Postmodernism: A graphic
guide. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Icon Books.
Cel (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel (Accessed: 20 December
2016).
Eric Larson (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Larson (Accessed: 20
December 2017).
History.com (2009) Industrial revolution - facts &
summary, history.com,

UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017

Viktor Berkita

Kiely, A. (2014) The origin of the worlds art: Prehistoric cave

painting. Available at:
http://www.headstuff.org/2014/05/origin-worlds-artprehistoric-cave-painting/ (Accessed: 22 December 2016).
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (2017) in Wikipedia.
Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hundred_and_One_Dalmati
ans (Accessed: 16 December 2016).
Services, X. (2016) Xerox, in Wikipedia. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox (Accessed: 18 December
2016).
Solutions, M.W. (no date) Modernism. Available at:
http://www.artmovements.co.uk/modernism.htm (Accessed:
20 December 2016).
Terms, P.I. (2017) MOTION PICTURE AND THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION. Available at:
https://prezi.com/6x3oyd5xegkr/motion-picture-and-theindustrial-revolution/ (Accessed: 25 December 2016).
The Magura cave (no date) Available at:
http://bulgariatravel.org/en/object/32/magurata_peshtera
(Accessed: 20 December 2016).
Up (2009 film) (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(2009_film) (Accessed: 15
December 2016).
Illustration List
Berkita, V. (2016) The Trip.
Berkita, V. (2016) The Moving Man.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) Directed by Clyde
GeronimiHamilton Luske.
Up (2009) Directed by Pete DocterBob Peterson.
UCA Rochester Pre-Degree Specialist Research Project 2017
Viktor Berkita