THE HISTORY OF ANIMATION

Andrew Hollands

Phenakistoscope – History

The phenakistoscope was created in 1829 by, Belgian physicist, Joseph Plateau.

Simon von Stampfer of Vienna, Austria, created the same device independently in the same year. He called his invention a stroboscope.

Plateau's motivation came mainly from Michael Faraday’s wheel. It consisted of two discs that spun in opposite directions from each other.

Plateau adapted Faraday's wheel into a device now known as the Phenakistoscope.

Phenakistoscope – How it works

The phenakistoscope uses the persistence of motion principle to create an illusion of motion.

The Greek mathematician Euclid acknowledged this principle first, although Plateau put it into practice.

The phenakistoscope was made up of two discs fixed on the same axis.  The first disc had slots around the edge, and the second contained drawings of consecutive action.

When spun, the illusion of motion is created.

Zoetrope - History

The zoetrope was invented in the 1830s, not long after the release of the phenakistoscope by a British mathematician named William George Horner.

Horner originally named the device the “daedaleum” which was he claimed to mean “the wheel of the devil”.

The name zoetrope was composed from the Greek root words “life” and “turning” which meant “the wheel of life”, a fairly big contrast to it’s previous name.

Zoetrope – How it works

The zoetrope is the wheel of life. When you place a strip of drawings inside the zoetrope's drum, spin it and look through the slots, you will see the images come to life.

When you spin the zoetrope, if you look over the top of the drum at the drawings instead of looking through the slots all you will see is a blur. The illusion of motion is gone. The slots of the zoetrope simulate flashes of light, creating a strobe.

Persistence of vision is a stroboscopic effect. The images you see must be interrupted by moments of darkness in order for the illusion to work.

TECHNIQUES AND DEVELOPMENT OF 2D ANIMATION

Andrew Hollands

Flipbooks

A flip book is a collection of combined pictures intended to be flipped over to give the illusion of movement and create an animated sequence from a simple small book or pad.

The first flip book was created in September, 1868, when it was presented by John Barnes Linnett under the name kineograph.

They were the first form of animation to employ a linear sequence of images rather than circular like the phenakistoscope.

Flip Book Animations

Flip Book Animations

Cel Animation

A cel is a translucent page on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation.

Generally, the characters are drawn on cels and laid over a static background drawing. This reduces the number of times an image has to be redrawn and enables studios to split up the production process to different specialised teams.

The invention of the technique is generally credited to Earl Hurd, who presented the process in 1914.

Famous Cel Animations

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Bambi (1942)

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films.

Max Fleischer, a writer and illustrator, invented this method in 1917.

Drawn On Film

Drawn On Film Animation is when images are drawn directly onto film.

There are two basic methods to produce animation directly on film. One starts with blank film stock, the other one with black film.

On blank film the artist can draw, paint, stamp, or even glue or tape objects. Black film can be scratched, etched, sanded, or punched.

Drawn On Film