Explore the history of animation from the earliest cave drawing to simple computer animation. Includes making our own thaumatropes, flipbooks, zoetropes, and short animated fillms.

Lascaux Cave Art: multiple views of stationary objects, telling a story.

The brain retains an image for a fraction of a second longer than the eye actually sees it. That is why the world doesn't suddenly go black every time you blink. When you watch a movie, what you are seeing are individual still frames of film projected at 24 frames per second. Each of these frames is separated by darkness, so you are actually sitting in a dark theatre about half of the time. Because of persistence of vision, what you perceive is one image blending into the next, giving the illusion of movement and continuity.

Thaumatrope:

The thaumatrope was invented in the 1820s and it proved the phenomena of persistence of vision. The word "thaumatrope" has Greek roots. "Thauma" means magic in Greek and "trope" refers to something that turns. The thaumatrope is somewhat magical because it creates illusions dependent on persistence of vision.

Phenakistoscope:

In 1832, Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons introduced the phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer"). It consisted of a disc mounted on a spindle.  The disc had slots around the edge, with a series of drawings of successive action drawn around the inside in concentric circles. When spun and viewed in a mirror through the disc's slots, the pictures appeared to move.

Zoetrope:The zoetrope, or Wheel of Life, takes the Phenakistoscope's principle of using slits to view the image and folds it into a rotating drum. Invented in 1834 by William George Horner, the image was drawn on a removable strip of paper, so the animations were changeable. The slits were equally spaced around the drum, and the images were spaced along with them. The viewer spun the drum and watched the animation through the slits.

Flip Books: A series of pages depicting an image in sequential steps. When flipped through, it creates the illusion of motion.

Winsor McCay: animation legend

Winsor McCay, Canadian, (1867 - 1934)

Winsor McCay had made two animated films before "Gertie". The first, "Little Nemo” (using characters from his popular newspaper strip), debuted in 1911. "Little Nemo" used four thousand animation drawings. McCay then hand-colored the 35mm frames to achieve a very striking effect. There is no storyline to "Little Nemo," it is more an experiment in movement. The animation is quite precise and the effect very dreamlike.

McCay began to experiment with the idea of using animated pictures as part of a vaudeville act. His first attempt was made using the popular characters from the "Little Nemo" strip and was a huge success. In 1914 McCay developed "Gertie The Dinosaur." Rather then just showing the film as he had with his previous attempts, McCay actually interacted with Gertie, giving her life and charm.

THAT’S

THAT’S ALL

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!