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Introduction

The bouncing ball animation above consists of these six frames repeated indefinitely.

Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets (cels) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry. Many animations are computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms.

Animation is contrasted with live-action film, although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of the two. As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery, filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). (Full article...)

Selected article

Tim Burton, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop motion fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton (pictured). It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town". Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page and Glenn Shadix. The genesis of The Nightmare Before Christmas started with a poem by Tim Burton as a Disney animator in the early-1980s. With the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short subject or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be "too dark and scary for kids". The Nightmare Before Christmas has been viewed with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2006.

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A Seattle 7-Eleven store transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart.
A Seattle 7-Eleven store transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart.
A 7-Eleven store in Seattle, July 1, 2007. The store was transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart as part of a promotion for The Simpsons Movie.

Selected quote

Steve Jobs at the Macworld in 2005
We believe it's the biggest advance in animation since Walt Disney started it all with the release of Snow White 50 years ago.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. and Pixar, 1995

Selected biography

Terry Gilliam

Terence Vance "Terry" Gilliam (born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 12 feature films, including Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). The only "Python" not born in Britain, he became a naturalised British citizen in 1968. In 2006, he formally renounced his American citizenship.

Selected list

The episodes of The Bellflower Bunnies, a children's animated series based on the Beechwood Bunny Tales books by Geneviève Huriet, Amélie Sarn and Loïc Jouannigot. It debuted on TF1, a French television network, on 24 December 2001. The series is written by Valérie Baranski, and produced by Patricia Robert. The show centres on the adventures and exploits of the Bellflower family, a clan of seven rabbits who live in Beechwood Grove. The two adults in the family, Papa Bramble and Aunt Zinnia, take care of their five children: Periwinkle, Poppy, Mistletoe, Dandelion and Violette. The series has also been broadcast on CBC Television and TFO in Canada, KI.KA in Germany, Portugal's RTP in the Azores, and in several other countries. The show has fifty-two episodes: four in the first season, twenty-two in the second, and twenty-six in the third. In the entire series, thirteen are based directly on installments in Beechwood Bunny Tales, published by Milan Presse of France and Gareth Stevens in the United States; the rest are based on scripts by Valérie Baranski. Distributors in Europe, North America, and South Korea have released DVDs of the first two seasons.

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