1885 in animation

Events in 1885 in animation.

Events

 * Until Autumn 1885: From spring 1884 to Autumn 1885, Eadweard Muybridge and his team produced over 100,000 images, mostly at an outdoor studio on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania's northeast corner of 36th and Pine, recording the motions of animals from the veterinary hospital, and from humans: University professors, students, athletes, Blockley Almshouse patients, and local residents. Thomas Eakins worked with him briefly, although the painter preferred working with multiple exposures on a single negative, whereas Muybridge preferred capturing motion through the use of multiple cameras. Since 1879, Muybridge was working on the zoöpraxiscope (animal action viewer), a projection device that created cyclical animations of animal movement, incorporating technologies from photography, the magic lantern and the zoetrope. The photographer created painted sequences on the glass zoöpraxiscope discs that were based on his motion-study photographs to produce an early form of animation. Muybridge used these to illustrate his lectures that were presented to audiences in the U.S. and Europe, marking his contribution to photography and film in relation to the "experience of time within modernity."

February

 * February 22: Pat Sullivan, Australian animator, cartoonist, and film producer (Felix the Cat), (d. 1933).

April

 * April 3: Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (creator of the comic strip Mutt and Jeff, credited as the writer, animator, and director of the strip's animated adaptations which were released by the Fox Film Corporation, although the majority of the animation was instead created by Raoul Barré and Charles Bowers), (d. 1954).

August

 * August 6: Harry O. Hoyt, American film director and screenwriter, pioneer in the use of stop-motion animation as special effects in film, (director of the film The Lost World, known primarily for its use of stop-motion animation), (d. 1961).

September

 * September 14: Ashton B. Collins Sr., American inventor and marketer (creator of the character Reddy Kilowatt, producer on the animated film Reddy Made Magic, produced and released by Walter Lantz Productions), (d. 1976).
 * September 27: Clarence Wheeler, American composer (wrote music for Walter Lantz's and George Pal's cartoons, as well as Crusader Rabbit and Gumby), (d. 1966).

December

 * December 22: Deems Taylor, American composer master of ceremonies in Fantasia, (d. 1966).