28th October: International Animation Day

ASIFA created the International Animation Day (IAD) in 2002, honoring the birth of animation, recognized as the first public performance of projected moving images: Emile Reynaud’s Theatre Optique in Paris, on the 28th October 1892.

Animation is the art of creating the illusion of movement through a series of images that each show a separate stage of the animation, then displayed at a set rate through a projector. The original animation was known as ‘cel-animation’ or ‘hand-drawn animation’, and was quite literally drawn frame by frame into the animated characters that we’ve come to enjoy.

Every day we witness the importance and beauty of animation in a variety of media. It spreads in commercial theatres – featuring 3D animation and special effects, on TV, publicity, music industry, cross media, internet, but, and most specially, it develops and grows as an art form, through shorts, multimedia and feature films, created by independent authors, artists, students, and children from all over the world.

Animation has been used in everything from short commercials to full feature length films, and have served as a method of delivering everything from entertainment to information through an accessible medium.