Week 2_Research_Matthew

    Joseph Barbera was a very well known American animator that lived from 1911 to 2006. He became inspired by Walt Disney's "Skeleton Dance" animation, which became the key deciding factor in perusing animation. In the 1930's, Barbera attended The Art Students League of New York, along with Pratt University, which landed him a job as a storyboard artist at Van Beuren Studios. In 1947, Joseph Barbera moved to the newly-founded MGM studios, where he sat across from William Hanna. The duo joined forces and created many well known cartoons, such as Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Tom and Jerry, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and The Smurfs, along with several others. Interestingly enough, the majority of the cartoons the two produced revolved around two prominent "friend" characters, like Shaggy and Scooby, Fred and Barney, or Yogi and Boo-Boo. This is believed to be significant of the close friendship that the two had together. With the little amount of technology that was available at the time, the two were able to create part of the foundation for what we consider now to be western animation. At the time, animations like these required the artist to hand paint each and every frame, called "cels" and play them all together in sequence like a flipbook. However, storyboarding, which was Joseph Barbera's specialty, has remained very similar, with the medium of pencil and paper. Though our more specific techniques for creating storyboards have altered since Barbera's time, the fundamentals are still there, showing the character's main actions, camera angles, and dialogue.