Thaumatrope, Zoetrope and Phenakistoscope

Thaumatrope

A thaumatrope is a piece of card with picture or photo on both sides attached to rubber bands/string and when it is spun quickly the two images appear to combine and produce a single image. It was a popular toy in the Victorian times. They are widely thought of as inspiration to cinematography and in particular animation. It is generally agreed that an the Englishman John Ayrton Paris invented The Thaumatrope in 1826.

How to make a thaumatrope :

Step 1: Grab a firm bit of material, cardboard works best and cut out a circle.

Step 2: Now draw a picture on each side of the cardboard, the key to this is trying to keep both pictures central in the circle. The pictures must align for the image to appear correctly.

Step 3: Cut two holes in the at the top and bottom of the circle.

Step 4: Now insert a rubber band though the hole loop it over and pull tight, do this to both holes.

Step 5: Finally firmly hold both rubber bands and carefully twist/wing up the cardboard circle, then release. You have created a thaumatrope.




I also had go trying to create the illusion of movement it this was my result:

Zoetrope

A zoetrope create the illusion of motion by quickly spinning pictures. It is a cylinder with vertical slit cut into it which you user looks though, the images are on the inside and when spun at the right speed produces the illusion of motion, and the slit stops the images blurring together. The earliest record zoetrope was found in China around 180 AD. The zoetrope has many similarity to the modern day stop-motion animation that I will be creating, both uses picture/frame played sequence at a rapid speed to produce the illusion of motion, the processes/software that I will be using are much quicker, easier and produce a better finished result along with more option to experiment but the idea is basically the same.

Pixar produced a 3D zoetrope for its touring exhibition and features characters from it’s very popular movie Toy Story.

Phenakistoscope

The phenakistoscope was invented in 1832 by Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau a Belgian Physicist. A phenakistoscope is fundamentally two wheels that have picture/drawing on, and when placed in front of a mirror and a single user can look thought gaps in the wheel and when spun produces a basic animation reflecting the mirror.