Animation Chronology part 1

The word 'Animation' is derived from the Latin 'animare' meaning 'to give life to'. I think this is an accurate way to describe animation as a whole, through how animators not only make imagery move, but tell stories in which bring this imagery to life.

Animation requires an individual to create a series of images that give an illusion of life, a perception. They tell stories and events that have been illustrated sequentially for thousands of years, evidence of which can be seen as early as cuneiform on cave walls and hieroglyphics in Egyptian burial chambers.

The animation can be argued to be seen to develop from the Magic Lantern invented by Christian Huygens in 1650 - The first projector that projected an image via candle light.

In my opinion the Thaumatrope can be seen as one of the first moving images through the illusion of both sides of the toy merging together. The Thaumatrope was invented in 1824 which was patented by John Paris.

The Phenakistoscope was invented in 1831 by Plateau and Von Stampfer create individually in different countries. The device uses a circular plate which has more than one image drawn on it, and when the device spins, the imagery merges and creates a moving image. This device relies on the 'Persistance of Vison' to create an illusion of movement, an interpretation of an optical illusion.

The Zoetrope was invented in 1834 in England by William Horner which he initially named the invention "Daedalum", however it did not become popular until the 1860's when it was patented by both England and America. William F. Lincoln developed this and named it the "Zoetrope", which means the 'Wheel of Life'.
(http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/animation/animation4.htm)

The Zoetrope images would be drawn on a strip and presented in a circular shape that would spin and have slits on the circular shape, which the viewer would look through to see the movement of the image.
The Praxinoscope projects images presented in a device similar to the Zoetrope, however it uses mirrors and a lever to rotate the circular drum.
(http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/animation/animation5.htm)


The Kineograph or Flipbook 1868 patented by Joh Barnes Linnett of London to sell. The images would move by the person flipping through the pages, causing the imagery to move. I believe that this was developed further into the device Kinetoscope, which was created by Thomas Edison with images recorded in wax cylinders of film, and the viewer would look into a box to view the film. A predessor of this was a form of entertainment, where a flipbook like process of images would move once you rotated the handle of the box, these would contain humourous scenarios and be found mainly at coast lines where mass amounts of tourists would visit, seaside.

"Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of the movements that are drawn."

Norman Mclaren 1914 - 1987

Georges Méliès was a famous and the most influential experimental film maker who merged animation with film. He was most famous for his film "A trip to the Moon" in 1902.
This film is referenced in "Hugo" which is very influential through the incorporation of the atmosphere of that era and the technology of that time.

Personally I find this film very inspiring through the lack of technology and the amount of time that this must have taken for completion. This film would have used numerous amounts of staging and props with heavy lighting equipment and cameras. I also found it interesting that the actual film reel was then painted to introduce colour to the video.

In 1908 Emile Cohl created the film Fantasmagorie which was regarded as one of the modern animations. The animation was primitive with the use of the line and composition however the movement and change into different shapes within the animation worked really well and flowed smoothly.

Windsor McCay created the animation Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914 which used the process of Pose to Pose, it was quite primitive in appearance however it was the first animation that used key framing and registration marks to keep each image flowing into the next. The animation is jagged in places however to say that the animation was created before the advancement in technology, this piece is a huge inspiration.