The History Of Animation
Early Animation
Animation has been around for a long time, early forms can be dated back to as far as still figures in motion drawings as cave paintings or even four thousand years ago when Egyptians used wall paintings to tell stories. Other forms of early animation existed on Asian vases.
Ancient Zoetrope – 180
Created in china by an Asian inventor, called Ting Huan, in 180 AD
Modern Zoetrope – 1834
This device creates the image of a moving picture. It is made up using a cylinder with vertical slits on the outside of the device. On the inside are a series of images, these are opposite to the slits. As the device is spun the image appears to move. The zoetrope was commonly used for personal viewing rather than a group of people. It was only used to make a very short animation, usually a repetitive loop of a galloping horse or waltzing couple. A single person at one time, not useful for a large audience, could only view this.
A British mathematician called William George Horner created the zoetrope in 1834.
Flipbook – 1868
The official design of the flipbook was created in 1868. Flipbooks were the next step towards modern animation. Sequential pages flipped at a high speed create the illusion of motion. This is still used for viewing by a single person, not a whole audience.
Mutoscope – 1894
The mutoscope is a developed version of the flipbook, but instead it uses a crank handle.
Théâtre Optique – 1892
Charles-Emile Reynaud further developed the advancement of animation by creating a device that was a lot similar to the zoetrope but it allowed the moving image to be projected outwards and onto a screen. This meant that animation could now be presented to a large audience.
Modern Animation
Stop Motion Animation – 1898
Stop Motion Animation is the technique in which models and inanimate objects appear to move on screen. The illusion creates the motion of movement using photographs presented in sequence. The first use of stop motion animation was in 1898. It was called The Humpty Dumpty Circus and was created by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton. Together these two created the concept of stop motion animation and it is still used today especially in clay animation.
Feature Length Films – 1917
Feature Length Films To Include Sound – 1931
CGI Computer-Generated Imagery – 1973
