Expert: Russell Calabrese - 1/11/2008

Question
Dear Mr. Russell,

Hello.  My name is Conor.  All of the kids in our class are writing to an expert on what we're learning.  I am learning about TV animation.  I have already learned that a thity minute progam has at least 30,000 frames in it.   I want to ask you a few things. First, do you know who made the very first animated cartoon?  Second, what was it called?  Have you ever made animation yourself?  What was that like?

That's everything, bye,
From,
Conor

Answer
Hi Conor,

Film runs at 24 frames per second. One minute is 1440 frames. Thirty minutes is 43,200 frames.

The very first concept of showing movement in a drawing goes back to prehistoric times in a cave in France. Since he was a cave man we don't know his name, but it probably was something like Ogg or Groo or Charlie.

Go to this website to see the images.

http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/_/viewer.aspx?path=hut&name=4889n016.jpg

Lascaux cave drawings in the Dordogne, France. From carbon dating, these prehistoric paintings, drawings, and engravings have been dated to about 15,000–13,000 BC.

Here's brief history for you in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation#Cave_paintings

I've made many animated cartoons. Some you probably have seen on TV. It can be one of the best jobs to have in the whole world!

Even though it's fun, it's very difficult and takes a lot of patience and time to make cartoons. When I was a kid I used to make flip books on pads of paper. You should try it it's fun!
Check out this web site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_book

Russell