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Original 1914 pen drawing of Gertie the Dinosaur standing on a rocky shore

Fantastic Cartoon

How Cartoons Came to Life

From spinning paper discs and chalk-line clowns to cels, clay and computers: the people, tricks and tools behind more than a century of animation.

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Photo: Gertie, drawn by hand in 1914: Winsor McCay, Public domain

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Free, original and fact-checked, with sources on every page.

TimelineAnimation History Timeline: 1832 to TodayFrom spinning discs and painted bands to cels, clay, computers and Oscars: the key dates in more than 190 years of animation history.DirectoryGreat Animators and Voices A to ZA directory of the animators, directors and voice actors who shaped cartoons, with their country, best known work and a link to our full guides.Free lessonsMake Your Own Animation: 5 Beginner LessonsFive free, step-by-step lessons: a flipbook, a bouncing ball, a phone stop-motion film, a walk cycle and simple lip sync. No experience needed.FestivalsAnimation Festivals and Awards GuideAnnecy, the Annie Awards, Ottawa, Zagreb, Stuttgart and the Oscars: when the major animation festivals and awards happen and what they honor.GlossaryAnimation GlossaryCels, in-betweens, keyframes, armatures, rigging, X-sheets and more: plain-English definitions of the words animators use every day.FAQCartoon and Animation FAQWhat was the first cartoon? How many drawings does a cartoon need? What is the difference between anime and cartoons? Short answers to common questions.QuizAnimation History QuizTen questions on animation pioneers, studios and techniques. Every answer is somewhere on Fantastic Cartoon. How many can you get right?

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30 deep dives

Fantastic Cartoon explores where animation came from and how it is made today. We cover the pioneers, the techniques, the studios and the craft behind every frame, in plain language and with facts you can check.

A praxinoscope with mirrors at the centre reflecting a strip of galloping horse pictures

Optical Toys Before Film

Spinning discs that made pictures move

White line drawing of a stick figure riding a horse on a black background, from Fantasmagorie

Fantasmagorie and Émile Cohl

The stick figure that started cartoons

Original 1914 ink drawing of Gertie the Dinosaur next to a round boulder

Gertie the Dinosaur

The first cartoon star with personality

A hand painting colour onto the back of a transparent animation cel

Cel Animation

Clear sheets, painted backs, one frame each

Stroboscopic photo of a basketball bouncing, showing its path in many positions

The 12 Principles of Animation

The rules that make drawings feel alive

Filmmaker Éva Balla-Falus posing small puppets on a table in a puppet animation studio in 1955

Stop-Motion Animation

Puppets and clay, moved frame by frame

The real white teapot used to create the Utah teapot 3D model, in a museum case

The Rise of CGI

From a teapot to the first CG feature

A frame from Seitaro Kitayama's 1917 animated film of the monkey and crab folk tale

Around the World

A Short History of Anime

From 1917 shorts to global hits

Low modern office building that once housed the Hanna-Barbera studio in Los Angeles

Saturday Morning Cartoons

When TV made weekends for kids

A hand-drawn storyboard page with six numbered panels and notes under each one

Behind the Scenes

How a Cartoon Episode Is Made

From script to screen, step by step

An 1892 poster by Jules Cheret advertising Emile Reynaud's Pantomimes Lumineuses at the Musee Grevin

Emile Reynaud and the Theatre Optique

Projected cartoons before cinema

J. Stuart Blackton seated in a large chair with two of his children, around 1910s

J. Stuart Blackton and Funny Faces

Chalk drawings that moved on film

Portrait photograph of cartoonist Winsor McCay in 1906

Winsor McCay

Comic strip genius and animation pioneer

Portrait of animator and inventor Max Fleischer

Max Fleischer and Fleischer Studios

Inkwells, bouncing balls and jazz

Drawing from Max Fleischer's 1917 rotoscope patent showing the projector and drawing table

Rotoscoping

Tracing real movement into animation

A tall Disney multiplane camera stand from 1937 on display in a museum

The Multiplane Camera

Giving flat drawings real depth

A vintage 35mm animation filming stand with a camera pointing down at a table

Frames, Ones and Twos

How timing makes animation move

The entrance of the original Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California

Disney's Golden Age of Animation

From Mickey to Snow White and Bambi

Animation director Chuck Jones sitting at his desk in his office in 1978

Animators and Voices

Chuck Jones

Master of the Warner Bros. cartoon

Lotte Reiniger at work with her silhouette figures in London in 1970

Animators and Voices

Lotte Reiniger

Silhouette artist and feature pioneer

The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum building in Takarazuka, Japan

Animators and Voices

Osamu Tezuka

The father of modern manga and TV anime

Hayao Miyazaki's small wooden personal studio building in Tokyo with a classic car parked outside

Animators and Voices

Hayao Miyazaki

Hand-drawn worlds from Studio Ghibli

The colorful, plant-covered buildings of the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo

Studio Ghibli

Japan's most loved animation studio

Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull speaking on stage at Web Summit in 2015

Pixar Animation Studios

From a lamp to Toy Story

A detailed miniature stop-motion film set from an Aardman production, with a camera and lights

Aardman Animations

Plasticine stars from Bristol

Animator Richard Williams drawing at a desk at Aardman Animations in 2015

Animators and Voices

Richard Williams

The animator's animator

Stop-motion models of an allosaurus and a bronze giant made by Ray Harryhausen, on display in a museum

Animators and Voices

Ray Harryhausen

Stop-motion creatures on the big screen

Voice actress June Foray at a microphone during an audition in 1965

Behind the Scenes

Voice Acting in Animation

The voices behind the characters

The atrium of the Bonlieu centre decorated for the Annecy animation festival

Festivals and Awards

Annecy International Animation Film Festival

The Cannes of animation

Guests on the red carpet at the 41st Annie Awards in Los Angeles

Festivals and Awards

The Annie Awards

Animation's own awards night

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