Winsor McCay - gertie the Dinosaur research

‘Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 American animated short film by Winsor McCay. Although not the first animated film, as is sometimes thought, it was the first cartoon to feature a character with an appealing personality. The appearance of a true character distinguished it from earlier animated "trick films", such as those of Blackton and Cohl, and makes it the predecessor to later popular cartoons such as those by Walt Disney. The film was also the first to be created using key-frame animation. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, and was named #6 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time in a 1994 survey of animators and cartoon historians by Jerry Beck.' 

How Gretie The Dinosaur was created:

  ‘In creating the film, McCay came up with a number of techniques that would later become standard in the animation industry. He used registration marks to keep the background aligned from frame to frame, so that it did not appear to "swim", as often happened in early cartoons. He avoided some repetitious work by re-using drawings, in what would later be called cycling. He devised what he called the "McCay Split System", the first occurrence of key-frame animation. Rather than draw each frame in sequence, he would start by drawing Gertie's key poses, and then go back and fill in the frames between. McCay was also very concerned with accurate timing and motion; he timed his own breathing to determine how to animate Gertie's breathing, and included subtle details such as the ground sagging beneath Gertie's great weight.
  Gertie the Dinosaur was produced before the introduction of later time-saving techniques such as cel-animation. To create the film, McCay himself drew thousands of frames of Gertie on individual 6.5 x 8.5 inch sheets of rice paper. He hired neighbour and art student John A. Fitzsimmons to draw the backgrounds. Fitzsimmons carefully re-traced the rocks, lake and tree from a master drawing onto each sheet of rice paper.’            (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertie_the_Dinosaur /)

 

 ( www.redstudio.moma.org )

  McCay clearly saw Gertie as ‘a woman with her own mind’, and sought her identity in its own right by conducting a dialogue with her when he showed his film during vaudeville act. McCay attempted to sustain the illusion that Gertie was corresponding to his commentary by synchronising his actions accordingly and concluded his film with Gertie apparently lifting McCay up while he, of course, exits stage left. McCay appears to discourse between animation and live-action film in the medium’s early years. It is as if the early animators wanted to constantly expose the limitations of representing ‘reality’ on film and insist upon the domain of ‘fantasy’ as: first, the most appropriate mode of expression for the cinematic form and, most specifically, the animated form; second, as the most versatile model by which to create amusement and illusion; and third, as the most expressive vocabulary by which to interrogate the complexities of the human conditions.    (‘Understanding Animation’ by Paul Wells)

My point of view:

  Fact that caught my eye was how McCay express all movements and expressions trough Gertie. The fact is - there were no technologies and possibilities to make characters move so smoothly but McCay achieved it with thousands of sketches.

  As far as I am concerned movement of animals, especially of dinosaur, is much more complicated than human is.

  Also, I want to add his brilliant idea, how to make this animation more eye catching with sound technique he used. Because of the fact, that in 1914 there was no sound to any film whatsoever. The way he talks with this dinosaur, gives greater impression to the viewer that Gertie is almost alive. That Gertie actually is in this cinema or theatre. What makes it more realistic are two moments. Firstly, when McCay throws an apple to Gertie and it becomes as a pumpkin in animation. Secondly, in the end author himself (his animated version) climbs on Gertie's head and she takes him out of the screen.          

  In the end I could just admire all the work that Winsor McCay invested to create this animation. Important fact to add is, he even has timed his own breathing to determine how to animate Gertie's breathing.

  Of course, all this could not be done without group of people who helped him, for example McManus, who helped him sketching this dinosaur and John A. Fitzsimmons who draw the backgrounds.