Survey Research Paper

Corey Atherley Survey of animation Otto Mesmer was an animator who revolutionize cartoons forever by creating the first major cartoon star,"Felix the Cat". What make his animation stand out from the rest is that he added human like characteristics to his character through emotion and human like situations. He inspired other animators to make their own cartoon stars like, "Mickey Mouse", Popeye, and other famous cartoons. He first started his career by first attending " Thomas School of Art" in New York. from 1911 to 1913. "He then work studied in "Acme Agency" where he produced illustration for a fashion catalogs . Inspired by Winsor McCay's work, he tried submitting his own comics strips to newspaper and tried to be a painter for film but failed. He attempt to make his own film short called "Motor Mike"which was never released, got him notice by Mayor who was an established cartoonist, which gave him an official start in his career by assisting Mayer on a short called " Travel with Teddy". After learning the techniques in animation, Otto Mesmer moved to the : "Pat Sullivan Studio" where he helped created shorts like, " Twenty Thousand Laughs Under the Sea" and other shorts. When Sullivan was sentence to piston in 1917 he began working for Mayor again and then went to world war 1. After returning back he worked for Earl Hurd who was the director of the "Paramount Screen Magazine" for cartoon shorts which lead to him creating "Feline Follies" where Master Tom which later became Felix the Cat (officially ) became the first cartoon star. Even though Felix was made first. Even though Otto made Felix Suillvan took the credit. In 1930 Felix the Cat stared in 150 cartoons. Otto Mesmer's fame started to decline when sound started to invade animation. Works like "Steam Boat Willy" where "Micky Mouse" stole the crowd from Felix. This animation was made using the rotoscope, a studio lights, electric Kinescope, and scanning disk. The light studio was use to transmit the picture on the screen. The scanning disk was used to make the broadcast so did the electric kinescope receiver and the rotoscope, which was the key to the animation. The rotoscope was needed to trace the character frame by frame which together forms the animation. All of these inventions plist the figure of felix made the animation more advance and easier. Most of Otto's fame came from the Felix series because some of the elements used in this shorts was used in our cartoons today. For instance In Feline Follies in 1919 we saw romance between two animal. We also see the body parts being use as tools like how Felix used his tale as a cane to impress the boss and how Felix used body transformation, especially when Felix turn himself into a bag. We also saw first person point of view like when felix was looking at the guy with the cigar in his mouth. In Felix goes West he demonstrated different points of view. For instance how felix was kicked out of the plane we sort of see the height at which Felix is falling from. In this work we also demonstrate how cartoons breaks the law of science. Especially when Felix was running on the air to get back on the plane and how Felix runs on the waterfall to get away from the bear. Also over exaggerated scenes were displayed especially when the bear ran into the wall and the impact flatten him like a coin. In my animation the elements I tried to adapted from this animator is the human like situation used for my animal like Felix. My mole is looking for food so be comes out the hole and sets of in the woods for food. I think I also adapted the manipulation of the body parts like hoe my moles pong tale turns into a exclamation mark. I adapted the dialogue, narration, and expression when my mole comes out of the ground and looks for a place to hunt. For example when my mole claims that he is hungry. I also demonstrated the points of view, like when my mole notice the snake form the first person point of view. I showed helicopter point of view, at the end when the mole fell of the cliff. Otto Mesmer was really an influential inspiration to cartoons today. Most of his techniques have been used in cartoon like " Tom and Jerry", "Mickey Mouse", "Looney Toons", and other american cartoon we watch in our childhood. If it wasn't for Otto Mesmer our Tv show would be completely different today. .

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