Text Fig. 10 To get animation of drawn figures many different plans of flitting your pad may be resorted to. The one illustrated above allows of great rapidity of action if you get the eye close to the opening of pad and flit rapidly. By laying the pad on the table in a similar position larger sized drawings may be animated. Of course you will hit upon an individual method of your own after a little experimentation. For instance, you will find that you can get equally good results by holding the pad in the opposite position, so as to flit with the left hand.

"Flit and flitter pads" are McCay's name for flip and flipbooks.

Text Fig. 5 Local Action Backward Somersault in which the Figure returns to same location as on the start.

In his lesson, McCay stresses that the ability to time the progress of an action accurately is essential to good animation.

One aspect of his work that has always amused me is his flair for exaggeration and showmanship. He loved exaggerating how many drawings were in his films, so it was refreshing to read his discussion of repeating cycles of drawings as a labor saving method. He says there were over 15 repetitions of the cycle of Gertie breathing while she was lying on her side.

As for his love of exaggeration, he claims Gertie required him to make 10,000 drawings (mentioned in a title card in the live-action introduction to the film), yet the animated portion of the film is around 4 minutes long when it is run on a sound projector. (If I had measured the length of time title cards were on the screen the actual amount of animation might only be around 3 minutes long.) Gertie was made before cel animation had been invented so each frame of the film was one drawing that included both the star and the background. He had to redraw the background in each frame plus whatever his star was doing. Since his registration system wasn’t perfect the background shimmers somewhat. There are close to 5000 frames/images of film in a 4-minute sequence if the projector is run at sound speed (24 fps).

Patent Confusion
A touchy problem for McCay was created by our country’s patent laws. He mentions several times that he had created the art production methods he used, but has no desire to patent his techniques. What he doesn’t say is that others filed patents for similar approaches to the animation process. Earl Hurd filed a patent application for a process using transparent cels over an opaque background (granted June 15, 1915 and filled December 14, 1914). John R. Bray obtaining a copyright in 1914 for a registration system similar to the one McCay discusses (two round pegs or pins). Bray and Hurd formed a partnership and animators using cels with a pin registration system were supposed to pay a royalty fee for using the Bray-Hurd System until their patents expired.

Nowhere in his article does McCay talk about using transparent animation cels (perhaps to avoid infringing on Hurd’s patent?), yet he shows a background drawing of water from The Sinking of the Lusitania, 1918. There is a vague reference to using “transparent paper” (does such a paper exist?). In The Flying House, 1921 his last film, he calls himself the “inventor of animated drawing” in one title card and in the next card he announces the work was done “using the Winsor McCay Process of Animation.” I suspect he felt it necessary to defend his claim to be the inventor of drawn character animation and that he was troubled by Bray and Hurd patenting key elements of the process.