Artigenda
International Animation Day
When: Annually, October 28.
Every year on 28 October is International Animation Day. A day dedicated to animation since 2002. It does not matter whether it is digital animation or traditional animation.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Émile Reynaud and the Optical Theatre
It certainly does not matter what kind of animation is involved, as October 28, 1892 is the day the Optical Theatre (Théâtre Optique) by Émile Reynaud (December 8, 1844 – January 9, 1918) opened at the Musée Grévin in Paris. Over eight years, he gave as many as 12,000 performances which half a million visitors attended. They saw exactly what his improvement of the praxinoscope could do. This may be considered the forerunner of film as well as the first real form of animation. Analogue animation that is. So yes, not only digital animation is the focus on October 28.
Big Buck Bunny
Yet it is digital animation that dominates today. Take Big Buck Bunny. An animated film made in 2007 that premiered in 2008. Now this wasn’t that special. What was very special: the film was made with open-source software (Blender). Everything from the film was then put on the internet on May 30, 2008 under the Creative Common License. This means that you can use everything freely, for whatever purpose. Indeed, in theory, it would just be possible to offer this film via this website. Only, of course, it is much easier to just use the upload via YouTube, isn’t it?
The project’s website is still there and can be accessed via the code name Peach. Only not everything works anymore. For example, the downloads are no longer available. Through this link, the files of the video are still available for download.
Bron: Wikimedia Commons.
Which, by the way, is allowed: copy the image above. There are no restrictions on that. That is not always the case. In many cases, creators of animated films and series have set restrictions. Big Buck Bunny is fairly unique in this.
ASIFA
Enough about the big rabbit. The day itself is dedicated to the diversity of animation. More than 50 countries are marking the day. This is coordinated by Association Internationale du Film d’Animation (ASIFA). This organisation saw the light of day in the 1960s and represents individual animation artists. You can read more about this organisation here.
On this day
What will you do on this day? You can choose to delve into the world of individual animation artists. Instead of looking at the big animation studios you hear so much about anyway. A good starting point, for example, is the website VIMEO. There is a huge amount of material by independent animation artists on there. There is also a lot on YouTube. Live it up, today! Maybe it will inspire you to get started yourself. For example, with Blender.
