Animation is a very recent art to come into the mainstream. While it has existed in its most primitive forms since ancient times, the first motion picture was created in 1878 by Edweard Muybridge, titled ‘The Horse In Motion’. This piece of film is quite literally just a video loop of a race horse galloping, developed by Muybridge so that he could see if at any point during a horse’s gallop, all four hooves came off the ground.

While a simple video of a galloping horse may not seem like much today, it soon caused the medium of film to explode in popularity. This would result in the creation of the first film-based animation, titled ‘Humorous Phases of Funny Faces’ in 1906 by J. Stuart Blackton. This film was composed by displaying images of people with progressively shifting facial expressions in rapid succession, giving the illusion of movement.

Twenty-two years later on November 18th, 1928, the animation industry was revolutionized by the release of ‘Steamboat Willie’, the first film produced under Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is widely regarded as the first successful attempt at synchronizing sound with animation, and introduced the character of Mickey Mouse, who would go on to become the face of the animation industry.