J. Stuart Blackton: Innovation in Animation

J. Stuart Blackton: Innovation in Animation

 In his twenties, Blackton was a cartoonist. He created several illustrations for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper. Blackton's focus switched to creating animated art instead when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison. Edison was presenting his new creation, the vitascope, and Blackton was intrigued. During the interview, Blackton sketched Edison, and this caught Edison's interest. He began to think of ways to use sketches to create short silent films.

This encounter began Blackton's revolutionary   work in animation. Blackton collaborated with Edison in 1900 on The Enchanted Drawing, a trick film including Blackton, the animated sketch of a man's face, and a wine glass and bottle. Edison filmed as Blackton sketched on a canvas, created changing expressions in his art, and incorporated real life objects into his 2 dimensional drawing. For instance, after drawing the wine glass and bottle, Blackton  "grabs" those objects from his drawing and   proceeds to pour himself a drink. Additionally,   the face he draws changes expression from sad   to happy as Blackton gives him some of his   wine. This was the first animation of its kind   and it developed the concept of stop motion animation and the connection between art and reality.

5 years later, the duo developed The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, another animation produced by Blackton and filmed by Edison that emphasized changing facial features and emotions in sketched characters. This short animation was well received by the general public, especially in Blackton's home country of England. The public found the idea to be funny and witty, in particular because of the scene where the man puffs smoke and the lady rolls her eyes.

In these short films, Blackton uses several techniques that are still prominent today including stop motion and cutout animation. Stop motion is a technique wherein each frame is photographed then slightly adjusted and then put together to create moving objects. Blackton uses this technique in both of the films above. In addition, cutout animation is the process of moving a foreground object and keeping the background still. Blackton uses this in The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces.

 After the production of these two animations, Blackton continued to work on typical films instead and to support his company Vitagraph. He did not seem to think that his steps in animation were going to be significant, but countless artists followed and continue to follow his techniques and ideas. Blackton introduced stop motion, connecting art to reality, and presenting changing emotions with drawings into the world of art. Artists from Winsor McCay to Emile Cohl used techniques similar to Blackton's to develop the art of animation even further. Overall, Blackton's contributions to animation heavily influenced the industry in its early days.