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Di Huang. Hyojin Hwang.Pian Pian Zheng. Simeng Zhao.

Yurika Kono. about our interests in arts.

FROM A STORY TO...C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E SC O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S

C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E SC O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S

C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E SC O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S

C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E SC O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S

C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S C O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E SC O N T E X T U A L S T U D I E S

Hello, illustration

The illustration that we are having now, has been changing a lot

through the ages. I want to introduce to you guys about a short history of the illustration. The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric cave painting.Books were hand-illustrated until before the invention of the printing press. During the 15th century, books illustrated with woodcut illustrations became available. The main processes used for reproduction of illustrations during the 16th and 17th centuries were engraving and etching. At the end of the 18th century, lithography al-lowed even better illustrations to be reproduced. In the early 19th cen-tury the proliferation of popular journals, which often serialised novels for mass-circulation, produced a boom in popular illustration.

In this time, the medium moved away from steel engraving which was thestandard in the early century towards wood-engraving which could more easily be incorporated into pages of text. Through these kinds of technique development, the illustration has bacame more tense.

Today, many illustration stu-dents are made aware of the technology available, with equal emphasis placed upon more traditional illustration tech-niques. As a result, traditional and digital techniques are often used in conjunction with each other. One form of this is fusion illustration[citation needed] which crosses the boundaries of fine art and commercial art in a world where illustration, graphic design, typography, and photog-raphy work together.

While illustrations have been previously been considered just a small part of the creative and entertainment industries, they are becoming a new and signifi-cant factor in industries such as movies, video games, animations, advertising and publishing.

From A story

To A film_

There is an interesting relationship between illustration and film. That is, both of them made from a story. To became illustration, it needs a story and with illustration, the story gives specific character faces with describe. It means people who read the book with illustra-tion, could get higer understanding. It is same situation with film. There are many kinds of films that based on some books and most people get concentration and understanding when they are watch-ing, the film compare with when they are reading the book. There-fore, it is a good thing to play with them!

Here is a story to show you. This story is written by Roald Dahl.

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

“...Charlie Bucket opens his birthday present from his mum, dad and grandparents. It’s a bar of Willy

Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudge-Mallow Delight. The Buckets are very poor so a chocolate bar is a real

treat for Charlie. Little does he know that even an even bigger treat is in store ...”

The Original StoryResponding to criticisms from the NAACP, Canadian children’s author Eleanor Cameron, and others for the book’s portrayal of the Oompa Loompas as dark skinned and skinny African pyg-mies working in Wonka’s factory for cacao beans, Dahl changed some of the text, and Schindel-man replaced some illustrations (the illustrations for the British version were also changed). That new version was released in 1973 in the USA. In the revised version the Oompa Loompas are described as having funny long golden-brown hair and rosy-white skin. Their origins were also changed from Africa to fictional Loompaland.

The director :Tim burton

Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, the highly imaginative but disturbing and antiso-cial chocolatier who invites five children to a tour of his factory. Throughout the film, he has flashbacks recalling his damaged relationship with his dentist father. During these flash-backs, he is played by Blair Dunlop.

Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket, a soft-spoken and optimistic child who lives in poverty with his parents and two sets of grandparents, who share the same bed. He idolizes Willy Wonka and his factory enough to create an elaborate model of both made en-tirely out of deformed toothpaste caps. Despite Wonka’s offer to have Charlie abandon his family in favor of becoming Wonka’s heir, Charlie declines out of his love for his own family, but later accepts when Wonka changes the offer in allowing them to come.

Charlie in the novelIn the original novel, Charlie is particularly quiet throughout the novel, only usu-ally speaking to his Grandpa Joe or to Wonka, and is very concerned about the other children, both before and after they are removed from the factory. He is wise in a small way, albeit excitable and good-humoured.

David Kelly as Grandpa Joe, Charlie’s lively grand-father. He once worked for Wonka in his small corner store, and now accompanies Charlie in his tour of the factory.

Noah Taylor as Mr. Bucket, the father of Charlie Bucket. He works for the Smilex Toothpaste factory until he is laid off to make way for a new machine.

James Fox as Mr. Salt, Veruca’s father and chaper-one during the tour of the factory who runs a profitable nut business. Julia Winter as Veruca Salt, a rich child who is spoiled by her equally rich parents. Francesca Hunt as Mrs. Salt, the wealthy mother of Veruca Salt who deals with the pressures of her child by downing martinis

Julia Winter as Veruca Salt, a rich child who is spoiled by her equally rich parents.

AnnaSophia Robb as Vio-let Beauregarde, a competitive girl who has an obsession with bubble gum.

Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee, a brash and hyperactive, but gifted, child who is addicted to television and video games, but who hates chocolate. He used a very complex mathematical formula which resulted in his being required to buy only one Wonka bar to win his Golden Ticket.

Philip Wiegratz as Augustus Gloop, a glutton-ous German child who is al-ways seen eating something.

The Willy wonka in the old vision.

Actor RolePeter Ostrum Charlie BucketJack Albertson Grandpa JoeGene Wilder Mr. Willy WonkaJulie Dawn Cole Veruca SaltParis Themmen Mike TeeveeDenise Nickerson Violet BeauregardeDiana Sowle Mrs. BucketDodo Denney Mrs. TeeveeMichael Bollner Augustus GloopLeonard Stone Mr. BeauregardeRoy Kinnear Mr. SaltUrsula Reit Mrs. GloopGunter Meisner Arthur Slugworth/Mr. WilkinsonAubrey Woods BillDavid Battley Mr. TurkentinePeter Capell Tinker

Music

The original music score was written by Danny Elfman, a frequent collaborator with director Tim Burton. Elfman’s score is based around three primary themes: a gentle family theme for the Buckets, generally set in upper woodwinds; a mystical, string-driven waltz for Willy Wonka; and a hyper-upbeat factory theme for full orchestra, Elfman’s homemade synthesizer samples and the diminutive chanting voices of the Oompa-Loompas.Elfman also wrote and performed the vocals for four songs. The lyrics to the Oompa-Loompa songs are adapted from the original book, and are thus credited to Roald Dahl. Each song in the score is designed to reflect a different archetype. “Wonka’s Welcome Song” is a maddeningly cheerful theme park ditty, “Augustus Gloop” a Bollywood spectacle (per Deep Roy’s suggestion); “Violet Beaure-garde” is 1970s funk, “Veruca Salt” is 1960s bubble-gum pop / psychedelia; and “Mike Teavee” is a tribute to late 1970s British pop (such as Queen) / early 1980s hair bands.The original motion picture soundtrack was released on July 12, 2005 on Warner Home Video Re-cords. The following songs appear on the album:Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryFilm score by Danny ElfmanReleased June 12, 2005Label Warner Bros.Producer Danny ElfmanDanny Elfman chronologySpider-Man(2002) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(2005) Corpse Bride(2006)“Wonka’s Welcome Song”“Augustus Gloop”“Violet Beauregarde”“Veruca Salt”“Mike Teavee”“Main Titles”“Wonka’s First Shop”“The Indian Palace”“Wheels in Motion”“Charlie’s Birthday Bar”“The Golden Ticket/Factory”“Chocolate Explorers”“Loompa Land”“The Boat Arrives”“The River Cruise”“First Candy”“Up and Out”“The River Cruise - Part 2”

!

The Short History of

Film

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Film has appeared in 19th century and made rapid prog-ress in 20th century, so it is kind of new art form. However, between 20th and 21th, today’s film is totally different from film when Lumière Brothers invented was because it has effected by development of technology and industry and change of society.

Besides, it was important chapters in the history of film that “talkie” was appeared in 1920s, and Technicolor films were appeared following it.

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The progress in the latter half of 21th century was dif-ferent from 20th, and it operated to gather the variety of film expressions. For example, after the wars, SFX , ani-mation, and computer graphics were prevailed. Although VTR was prevailed from 1970s, it was com-mon to shoot with 35mm film because the difference of display system between film and video. Then from 21th, it was started to shoot with digital video camera and edit with computers instead of films.

History

Main article: History of film

A clip from the Charlie Chaplin silent film, The Bond (1918)Preceding film by thousands of years, plays and dances had elements common to film: scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, and scores. Much terminology later used in film theory and criticism applied, such as mise en scene (roughly, the entire visual picture at any one time). Moving visual and aural images were not recorded for replaying as in film.Near the year 1600, the camera obscura was perfected by della Porta. Light is inverted through a small hole or lens from outside, and projected onto a surface or screen, creating a moving image, but it is not preserved in a recording.In the 1860s, mechanisms for producing artificially created, two-dimensional images in motion were dem-onstrated with devices such as the zoetrope, mutoscope and praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as magic lanterns) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Natu-rally the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

A frame from Roundhay Garden Scene, the world’s earliest film, by Louis Le Prince, 1888With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. Early versions of the technology sometimes required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second, depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Some of these machines were coin operated. By the 1880s the development of the motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these “moving picture shows” onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as “motion pictures”. Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques.Ignoring Dickson’s early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely visual art through the late 19th century, but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the twentieth century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes to-gether to tell narratives. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience in silence, theater owners would hire a pianist or organist or a full orchestra to play music fitting the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I when the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood, typified most prominently by the great innovative work of D.W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1914) and Intolerance (1916) . However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang,in many ways inspired by the meteoric war-time progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them “talking pictures”, or talkies.The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called “natural” color. While the addition of sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color was adopted more gradually as methods evolved making it more practical and cost effective to produce “natural color” films. The public was relatively indifferent to color photography as opposed to black-and-white,[citation needed] but as color processes improved and became as affordable as black-and-white film, more and more movies were filmed in color after the end of World War II, as the industry in America came to view color as essential to attracting audiences in its competition with television, which remained a black-and-white medium until the mid-1960s. By the end of the 1960s, color had become the norm for film makers.Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. New Hollywood, French New Wave and the rise of film school educated independent film-makers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.

From A Film to Toys

Today, it is usual to produce other media basedonfilms.Whatdoyouthinkwhich filmisthefirsttoproducetoysfromafilm? ----- that is StarWars.

Hereisshorthistoryaboutfilmandtoys.

Drector ; George LucasWriter; George LucasRelease Date; 27 December 1977(UK)Genre; SF / Action / Adventure / Family

- Plot - Once upon a time, in the Galaxy, there wasa Galactic Republic which was composed by several thousand stars which are each republics.However, as past time, politics was rotten, and establishment of reign was unraveled. Then the republic faced a crisis of disruption. Jedi, who has supported establishment of the Galactic Republic from ancient times, began to struggle to restore order in the republic. Yet, Sith, who adhere evil appeared in front of Jedi even though people thought that Sith already perished several thousand ago. Their ideals were to exclude Jedi and to control the Galaxy as a form of an empire. During such events, one boy was led as one of Jedi, and this boy became involve with fateful things about the Galaxy, Jedi, and Sith. This story is about this boy and his descendants, battles between Jedi and Sith, a change from the Galactic Republic to the Galactic Empire, and a new republic which was restored from revolts against tyranny by the empire.

- Award - 35 wins & 18 nominations

Won1978 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America - Special Award People’s Choice Awards, USA - Favorite Motion Picture Hugo Awards - Best Dramatic Presentation Hochi Film Award - Best foreign Language Film(George Lucas) Grammy Awards - Best Album of Original Score written for a Motion Picture or Television Specail(John Williams) Golden Screen, Germany Golden Globes, USA - Best Original Score - Motion Picure(John Williams) Best Director - Motion Picture(George Lucas), Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Motion Picture Actor in a Supporting Role(Alec Guinness) Academy of Science Fiction, Fantacy & Horror Films, USA, Saturn Award - Best Actor - Science Fiction(Mark Hamill), Best Actress- Science Fiction(Carrie Fisher), Best Costumes(John Mollo), Best Direcor(George Lucas), Best Make-Up(Rick Baker, Stuart Freebom), Best Music(John Williams), Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects(John Dykstra, John Stears), Best Supporting Actor(Alec Guinness), Best Wrtiting(George Lucas), Oustanding Editing (Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas, Ricahrd Chew) Academy Awards, USA, Oscar - Besr Art Direction-Set Decoration(John Barry, Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian), Best Costume Design(John Mollo), Best Effects, Visual Effects(John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, Robert Blalack), Best Film Editing(Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas, Richard Chew), Best Music, Original Score(John Williams), Best Sound(Don MacDogall, Ray West, Bob Minkler, Derek Ball) Specail Achievement Award - Ben Burtt1979 Kinema Junpo Awards, Reader’s Choice Award - Best Foreign Language Film Director(George Lucas) Evening Standard British Film Awards - Best Actor(Alec Guinness), Best Film(George Lucas) BAFTA Awards, Anthohy Asquith Award for Film Music - John Williams BAFTA Film Award - Best Sound(Sam Shaw, Robert R. Rutledge, Gordon Davidson, Gene Corso, derek Vall, Don MacDougall, Bob Minkler, Les Fresholtz, Richars Portman, Ben Burtt)1997 Los Angels Film Critics Association Awards - Best Music(John Williams), Best Picture Academy of Science Fiction, Fantacy & Horror Films, USA, Special Award

Nominated1977 British Society of Cinematographers, Best Cinrmatograhy Award - Gil Taylor1978 Writers Guild of America, USA - Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen(George Lucas) Directors Guild of America, USA - Outsranding Directorial Achivement in Motion Pictures(George Lucas) American Cinema Editors, USA, Eddie - Best Edited Feature Film (Richard Chew, Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas) Academy Awards, USA, Oscar - Best Actor in a Supporting Role(Alec Guinness), Best Director(George Lucas), Best Picture(Gary Kurtz), Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen(George Lucas)1979 BAFTA Film Award - Best Costume Design(John Mollo), Best Film, Best Film Editing(Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas, Richard Chew), Best Production Design/ Art Direction(John Barry) Awards of the Japanese Academy - Best Foreign Language Film2005 Golden Satellite Award - Best Classic DVD, Best Overall DVD

- Development - 1973 Apr. George Lucas started to think about a world view of Star Wars. May He submit the design to Warner Brothers and Universl Pictures, but it was thrown out. Therefore, he negotiated with Twentieth Century Fox Film.1975 Mar. Scenario of Star Wars was completed. Dec. He contracted with Twentieth Century Fox Film officially.1976 Mar. Shooting was started.1977 May Star Wars Episode 4 was released.1978 The fisrt spin-off book, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, was released. TV drama, The Star Wars Holiday Special, was broadcasted.1980 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released.1983 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was released. Yet, George Lucas stopped to produce because he thought the then SFX technology could not make his imagination properly.1991 The spin-off novel, Heir to the Empire, wich was about events 5 years later from old three series.1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released.2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was released.2003 TV animation, Star Wars: Clone Wars, was broadcasted.2004 Documentary, Empire of Dream: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, which was about production process of old three series, was produced.2005 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released.2008 Film, Star Wars: Clone Wars, was released.

Future 3D version of all six will be released, and a new TV series will be broadcasted.

- to other media- American films in mid 1970s, when the first Star Wars, were received social climates like ended the Vietnam War, so almost of them were introspective American New Cinema. George Lucas successed in American Graffiti, which showed good old America before the Vietnam War, and he designed for filming a comic, Flash Gordon. However, this design could not be realised, and he wrote a Star Wars’ scripit which contained the setting of Flash Gordon. As a result of this, Star Was became a epoch-making series as films which does not have the original.Accordingly, Star Wars turned face about the tide of filming from other literary pieces and became the first film which was developed from original film to other medias and susucceeded commerciallyall over the world.

George Lucas got all rights about Star Wars instead of getting lower pay as a director when he negotiated with Twentieth Century Fox Film. Consequently, Star Was became the first film which produced goods of characters or mechanics in the film, and Lucas got enormous profits and free as a film writer. PArticularly, he invested in latest three episodes’ production and assumed control of theproduction, so Star Wars is called as “the most luxurious indie film in the world.” This is a difficult thing at the present day when bussiness rights were fixed by mixed media.

ToyA toy is an object used in play. Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult humans and some non-domesticated animals to play with toys. Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but items produced for other purposes can also be used as toys. A child may pick up a household item and ‘fly’ it around pretending that it is an airplane, or an animal might play with a pinecone by batting at it, biting it, chasing it, or by throwing it up in the air. Some toys are produced primarily as collector’s items and are not intended to be played with.The origin of toys is prehistoric; dolls representing infants, animals, and soldiers, as well as representations of tools used by adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word “toy” is unknown, but it is believed that it was first used in the 14th century.Toys, and play in general, are important when it comes to growing up and learning about the world around us. The young use toys and play to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults use toys and play to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, remember and reinforce lessons from their youth, discover their identity, exercise their minds and bodies, explore relationships, practice skills, and decorate their living spaces.Toys are more than simple amusement, they and the ways that they are used profoundly influence many aspects of life.

HistoryMost young mammals have been observed to play with whatever they can find, turning such things as pine-cones, rocks, and food into toys. It simply makes sense then that toys have a history as old as human civi-lization itself. Toys and games have been unearthed from the sites of ancient civilizations. They have been written about in some of our oldest literature. Toys excavated from the Indus valley civilization (3000-1500 BCE) include small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys which could slide down a string.The earliest toys were made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, and wood.In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terra cotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.

A display of Roman toys, including several that would be fa-miliar to children today: a doll, dice, rattles, and toy dishes for playing house

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswom-an Ruth Handler (1916-2002) is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for nearly fifty years, and has been the sub-ject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle. In recent years, Barbie has faced increasing competition from the Bratz range of dolls.

The original Barbie was launched in March 1959

LegoLego, officially trademarked LEGO, is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company’s flagship product, “Lego”, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects. The toys were originally designed in the 1940s in Europe and have achieved an international appeal, with an extensive subculture that supports Lego movies, games, competitions, and four Lego-themed amusement parks.

If you go into any toy store today you will notice that Star Wars action figures are wildly popular. As many know, Star Wars action figures have sold very well since the the release of the first movie in 1977. There’s an interesting story behind the his-tory of these little collectible figures, going back before Star Wars was in production.

Star Wars action figures have always been set in a 3.75 inch scale, however, traditionally, action figures were set in a much larger scale, about 12 inches. To understand this smaller scale, we must travel back in time to 1964, with the release of the first toys to be made under the title “action figure”: GI Joe. The early GI Joe action figures, like the one above were 11.5 inches tall. However, during the oil crisis of the 1970s, toy companies were forced to down-size their action figures.

The first of these was Micro Man, produced by Mego. Micro Man was 3.75 inches tall. This new scale succeeded in being very prac-tical as far as economics are concerned. Toy company Kenner bought the rights to produce toys based on George Lucas’ upcoming space fantasy film, Star Wars. Kenner created the Early Bird Certificate, better known as the empty box. (The picture below is of the 2005 re-release of this promotion, which looks mostly the same as the 1977 version, but with dif-ferent dates on the expiration of the date and so on, there are no pictures of the real early bird big enough)

A History of Star Wars Figures

Children would receive the box in the holiday season of 1977 to open it and only find a certificate to mail away for four exclusive Star Wars action figures (in the new, previously mentioned 3.75 inch scale) as well as some other assorted Star Wars action figure accessories.

Star Wars action figures were finally released in 1978, selling for just $1.49, along with a select few 12 inch scale figures (which came with a bit of a greater price and were nowhere near as popular as their smaller counterparts.). Below is a picture of a carded 1978 Stormtrooper, one of the first 12 Star Wars (3.75 inch) Action Figures.

These action figures had very little in the way of articula-tion: they could only move at the hips and shoulders, and neck, and in some cases like the Stormtrooper, not even at the neck.

Another interesting feature of Star Wars action figures from 1978-1985 was the telescoping lightsaber. Instead of including a lightsaber accessory that an action fig-ure could hold in its hand, Star Wars action figures had lightsabers built into the character’s right arm, and could extend out of the arm, and be retracted back into the arm. Next is a loose 1978 Darth Vader action figure with tele-scoping lightsaber.

Executive Summary about History Lego Star Wars by Amy Nutt

Lego Star Wars has quite the interesting history when it comes to the fact that the game entertains chil-dren everywhere. It was in 1934 that Kristiansen created the name Lego, which is derived from “leg godt,” which are the Danish words for “play well.” Our children are playing with Lego theme parks, there are Lego themed movies, and there are even Lego themed video games that are based off of particular toy lines cre-ated by Lego. One of those toy lines is Lego Star Wars, which later led to the Lego Star Wars video game.

It was also developed for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. In August 2005, A Mac port was developed for the game to be played on Mac computers and in October 2005, a version was released for the Nintendo GameCube.

Lego Star Wars received the Kidsworld.com award of Game of the Year and received very good reviews. In September 2006, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was released and a year later was followed by a prequel game released in November 2007 called, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Some deem the Lego Star Wars video games as the coolest games in history and they consistently receive ratings between 4 and 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars on many gaming websites.

starwars figures toys

History of Lego Star Wars

Star Wars Toys in Hollytrees Museum

These toys saw the start of the trend to maximise the profit of a blockbuster film through spin-off merchandising campaign. They are models based on the original trilogy of Star Wars films from the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The social his-tory department seeks to collect toys from the recent past and these are a good example.

A new Lego “Star Wars” toy, exclusive to Toys “R” Us. The “Star Wars” toys will occupy their own boutique within stores.

Lego Star Wars Toys - A Successful Partnership

Executive Summary about Lego Star Wars toys by John Mowatt

The Lego line of Star Wars toys started with figures and vehicles from the trilogy(Episodes IV-VI). Star Wars characters have a wide variation in the head type, size and shape. Lego has produced a huge variety of Star Wars paraphernalia. The Ultimate collector series has large and very complex designs in Star Wars material.

This series of video games is definitely the best selling Lego product ever made. These video games were hugely popular and were a hit with both Star Wars devotees and video gamers. Lego Star Wars toys, figures and other items are extremely popular with both adults and children.

Animation

Cave paintings

Pottery of Persia

Pottery of Persia

Zoetrope

Leonardo shoulder

The magic lantern

The earliest examples derive from still drawings, which can be found in Palaeolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple sets of legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion

A 5,200-year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images painted along the sides. It shows phases of a goat leaping up to a tree to take a pear. This, however, does not prove that the goat could have been seen in motion

An Egyptian mural, approximately 4000 years old, shows wrestlers in action. Even though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate the artist’s intention of depicting motion.

A zoetrope is a device which creates the image of a moving picture. The earliest elementary zo-etrope was created in China around 180 AD by the prolific inventor Ting Huan. Driven by con-vection Ting Huan’s device hung over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top from which were hung translucent paper or mica panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device is spun at the right speed. As a matter a fact, in present day beginning animation.

Seven drawings by Leonardo da Vinci extending over two folios in the Windsor Collection, Ana-tomical Studies of the Muscles of the Neck, Shoulder, Chest, and Arm, show detailed drawings of the upper body (with a less-detailed facial image), illustrating the changes as the torso turns from profile to frontal position and the forearm extends.

The magic lantern is the predecessor of the modern day projector. It consisted of a translucent oil painting and a simple lamp. When put together in a darkened room, the image would appear larger on a flat surface. Athanasius Kircher spoke about this originating from China in the 16th century.

Thaumatrope (1824)

Phenakistoscope

Praxinoscope

Flip book

Stop motion

CGI animation

A thaumatrope was a toy used in the Victorian era. It was a disk or card with two different pictures on each side that was attached to two pieces of string. When the strings were twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. The creator of this invention may have been either John Ayrton Paris or Charles Babbage.

The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope. It was invented in 1831 simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer.

The praxinoscope, invented by French scientist Charles-Émile Reynaud, was a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope. It used the same basic mechanism of a strip of images placed on the inside of a spinning cylinder, but instead of viewing it through slits, it was viewed in a series of stationary mirrors around the inside of the cylinder, so that the animation would stay in place, and also provided a clearer image. Reynaud also developed a larger version of the praxinoscope that could be projected onto a screen, called the Théâtre Optique.

The first flip book was patented in 1868 by a John Barns Linnet. This was another step closer to the development of animation. Like the Zoetrope, the Flip Book creates the illusion of motion. A set of sequential pictures seen at a high speed creates this effect. The Mutoscope (1894) is essentially a flip book in a box with a crank handle to flip the pages.

Stop motion is used for many animation productions using physical objects rather than images of people, as with traditional animation. An object will be photographed, moved slightly, and then pho-tographed again. When the pictures are played back in normal speed the object will appear to move by itself. This process is used for many productions, for example, clay animations such as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, as well as animated movies which use poseable figures, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Sometimes even objects are used, such as with the films of Jan Švankmajer.

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Computer animation (or CGI animation) is the art of creating mov-ing images with the use of computers. It is a subfield of computer graphics and animation. Increasingly it is cre-ated by means of 3D computer graph-ics, though 2D computer graphics are still widely used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-time render-ing needs. Sometimes the target of the animation is the computer itself, but sometimes the target is another me-dium, such as film. It is also referred to as CGI (c http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glui.png omputer-generated im-agery or computer-generated imaging),

To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer, screen and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to the previous image, but ad-vanced slightly in the time domain (usually at a rate of 24 or 30 frames/second). This tech-nique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion pictures. Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to the art of stop motion animation of 3D models and frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. For 3D anima-tions, objects (models) are built on the computer monitor (modeled) and 3D figures are rigged with a virtual skeleton. For 2D figure animations, separate objects (illustrations) and separate transparent layers are used, with or without a virtual skeleton. Then the limbs, eyes, mouth, clothes, etc. of the figure are moved by the animator on key frames. The dif-ferences in appearance between key frames are automatically calculated by the computer in a process known as tweening or morphing. Finally, the animation is rendered.

For 3D animations, all frames must be rendered after modeling is complete. For 2D vector animations, the rendering process is the key frame illustration process, while tweened frames are rendered as needed. For pre-recorded presentations, the rendered frames are transferred to a differ-ent format or medium such as film or digital video. The frames may also be rendered in real time as they are presented to the end-user audience. Low bandwidth animations transmitted via the internet (e.g. 2D Flash, X3D) often use software on the end-users computer to render in real time as an alternative to streaming or pre-loaded high bandwidth animations.