Timeline Description: Today the use of television and movies is as common as breathing, but it wasn't always that way. The animation industry began less than 150 years ago, but it has grown into a hugely popular pastime.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1887 | The start of it all A man named H.W. Goodwin invented a celluloid film which could hold images. It was made of gum cotton and gum camphor. |
| 1892 | An early moving-picture production A man in France named Emil Reynaud opened a theatre using an invention called the Praxinoscope. It used turning mirrors to reflect images and produce a 10 to 15 minute "moving picture." |
| 1893 | Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope Using the celluloid film developed by H.W. Goodwin, Edison was able to produce moving film pictures on the wall. The film moved over a series of wheels to produce the pictures. |
| 1899 | Sound is captured Using a magnetic recording device, sound was recorded for the first time. Animation enthusiasts would latch onto the technology. |
| 1900 | The Enchanted Drawing A man named James Stuart Blackton used animation techniques to produce a short film. It documented the drawing process of characters, without ever showing the artist; this made it seem that the drawings simply appeared. |
| 1908 | The first official animated film A Frenchman name Emile Cohl produced a film called "Fantasmagorie." It was a hit, and is known today as the first true animated film. |
| 1914 | Gertie the Dinosaur This short animation film became popular quickly. It was created by Windsor McCay. |
| 1915 | A patent on the process A man named John Bray developed and patented a streamlined process for creating animated films. He tried, unsuccessfully, to force other companies to use his designs. |
| 1920 | Felix the Cat A man named Otto Messmer, who had been working in animation for a few years, created a character named Felix the Cat. Felix was very successful and even ended up including dolls and watches. |
| 1922 | Laugh-O-Grams Twenty-year-old Walt Disney began his first animation film studio called Laugh-O-Grams. It failed after only a short time. |
| 1928 | Steamboat Willie Walt Disney didn't give up on making animated films. In 1928 he released a short film called Steamboat Willie featuring Mickey Mouse and using sound for the first time, and it was an instant hit. |
| 1930 | Warner Bros. Studio is born Looney Tunes was supposed to be a spin off on the Silly Symphonies produced by Disney. It soon took on a life of its own and became very popular. |
| 1930 | Other popular charters Throughout the 1930's, several now-iconic characters were created. This included Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor, and Daffy Duck. |
| 1932 | New technologies Walt Disney developed the use of 3-strip Technicolor animation. In 1935, Len Lye created a method of painting directly on film strips; he used it in his animated film "Color Box." |
| 1937 | The first full-length film Walt Disney produced the first ever full-length animated film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a major hit. |
| 1940 | Iconic characters grow The next decade brought several new popular characters to life. This included Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse, and Tom and Jerry. |
| 1972 | Computer generated movies At the University of Utah, and man named Ed Catmull developed a method of creating computer generated movies. It used scripting language. |
| 1993 | 3-D and beyond Apple computer company produced a method for creating 3-D films, and in 1995 Toy Story was released as the first full-length 3-D film. The animation industry would never be the same. |