Gertie The Dinosaur - Winsor McCay

Gertie the dinosaur was created in 1915 by an american animator named Winsor McCay. Winsor McCay is known as an early pioneer of animation, and also one of the first animators to use cells. Gertie was one oh his first and most well known animations, where he used a mix of live action, allowing the character to appear to interact with the audience while demands were being ask of it by McCay himself. He also animated two films prior to this which were little nemo and the story of mosquito.

McCay self financed and animated 10 films between the years 1911 and 1921. The idea behind Gertie the dinosaur was to bring her to life, offering her an apple and making it appear asif thrown at her from the audience. At the time this was release it was seen as very advanced and clever animation techniques which captured its audiences. He also had the help of John Fitzsimmons, who helped in tracing each of the backgrounds onto rice paper and then mounting them on cardboard. Ten thousand frames were apparently used in the process. 

McCay pioneered the "McCay Split System" of inbetweening, in which the main poses or positions were drawn first, and the frames inbetween to create the smooth movement drawn after.