One breakthrough made animation look natural. And it involved a clown dancing on a roof.
In this episode of Vox Almanac, I look into the beginning of rotoscoping, a technique animators can use to create realistic motion. Invented by Max Fleischer of Fleischer Studios (and echoed and practiced by many others), it involves taking filmed footage and using it as a traceable model for animation. The results are fluid and natural in a way animation had never been before.
Read The trick that made animation realistic via Vox
An interesting link found among my daily reading