Charles-Emile ReynaudInventor of the Praxinoscope

Biography

• Born 8 December1844 Charles-Emile Reynaud was a French science teacher who became responsible for the first projected animated cartoons.

• He projected his first animated film in public, Pauvre Pierrot at the Musssee Grevilin In Paris.

• He later opened his own theatre, The Theatre Optique from which he projected his animated moives.

• This theatre was a celebrated attraction between 1892 and 1900

The PraxinoscopeThe Praxinoscope is the successor to the zoetrope it was inventing in 1877, it replaced the narrow slits on the zoetrope with a inner circle of mirrors that made the picture brighter and smoother to watch.

Later editions of this could be projected (The two devices at the bottom of the page could both project an unchanging back ground as well as moving characters).

As well as this he advanced the mechanism to allow 15 minute films to be played which compromised of around 500 pictures.

The films / AnimationsPauvre pierrot! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKWNOeN5CQ as seen in the photo on the last slide. 1892

Un bon bock 1892

Le clown et ses chiens 1892

Reve au coin du deu 1894

Le premier cigare 1896

Guillaume Tell 1896

Downfall and Legacy • By 1910 however he had been commercially destroyed by the

Etiene-Jules Marey’s cinematograph and the Lemiere brothers films. In a fit of rage he destroyed most of his irreplaceable work and one of a kind machines by throwing them into the Seine

• He died completely penniless 7 years later.

• His technique was the first use of film spools and sprocket holes things that are still integral to analogue projection today.

• His remaining films are still recognised by scholars today as the first animated films (He even has an IMDB account)