Graphic animation

Graphic animation is a variation of stop motion (and possibly more conceptually associated with traditional flat cel animation and paper drawing animation, but still technically qualifying as stop motion) consisting of the animation of photographs (in whole or in parts) and other non-drawn flat visual graphic material, such as newspaper and magazine clippings.

In its simpliest form, Graphic "animation" can take the form of the animation camera merely panning up and down and/or across individual photographs, one at a time, (filmed frame-by-frame, and hence, "animated") without changing the photographs from frame to frame, as on Ken Burns various historical documentary films for PBS. But once the photos (or "graphics") are also moved from frame to frame, more exciting montages of movement can be produced, such as on Los Angeles animator Mike Jittlov's 1977 short film, Animato, also seen his feature film, The Wizard of Speed and Time, released to theaters in 1987 and to video in 1989. Graphic animation can be (and often is) combined with other forms of animation including direct manipulation animation and traditional cel animation.

Examples are Frank Mouris' 1973 Oscar-winning short film Frank Film, and Charles Braverman's Condensed Cream of the Beatles (1973), originally produced for Geraldo Rivera's late night TV show of the time, Goodbye America. Graphic animation was also used as a History of Playboy Magazine piece used on Saturday Night Live when the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner, appeared on that show during the late 1970s or early 1980s.

See also