Pioneers

George Pal

George Pal even though having a degree in Architecture went to work in Hunnia Films as an animator illustrator as an unpaid apprenticeship. He then worked at UFA studios in Berlin as head of cartoon production. Hes idea came from a dilemma of needing a cartoon camera, he realised that if he used puppets he could film his cartoons with any cameras. He then started animating cigarette adverts, he then moved to France were his advert was bought and became a huge success. In 1940 after moving to Hollywood he produced the Puppetoons series for Paramount. Making a new technique plaque he received and Academy Special Award in 1943. Later on his 'Destination Moon' received an Oscar for special effects.

Lumiere brothers

  

Auguste and Louis Lumiere come from France. They first saw the kinetoscope in 1984 and decided to re create their own. The created their own cine camera which they called cinematographe, this was not just a normal camera but it was also usable as a magic lantern to then project the things they had shot. These shots were normally up 50 seconds long all taken in one shot with a tripod; this made sure each frame were the same. They had the first showing with moving images being projected onto a screen. Their first public screening was late 1895, this was the beginning of cinema. They then started to promote and sell their inventions, after that, the age of cinema really begun. 



*Sources Google images, http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/movingpics/movingpics10.htm

Emily Reynard (Praxinoscope)

The praxinoscope comes from the zoetrope. It is a similar idea but made better and innovated. It was an invention made in France in 1877. Similary to the zeotrope it uses a strip of images put around the inside of the surface of a spinning cylinder. It is difference to the zeotrope as it has replaced the narrow slits with an inner circle of mirrors. They are placed to reflect the pictures appeared more or even less static in its position as the wheel is turned. So when someone looks in the mirrors they would see fast moving images creating that illusion of movement, therefore it is a brighter and clearer than the zeotrope.

This is an example of a Praxinoscope

*Sourcers Wikipedia

William Horner (zoetrope)

The zeotrope was invented in 1834 by and Englisman called William Horner. It ws firstly called the Daedalum which meant the wheel of the devil, it was then later changed to zeotrope by and American developer called William Lincoln.

It worked around the same principles as the phenakistiscope, the only difference was that there was a third part to it. The was a strip along the bottom that was set ariybd a metal drum. The strips were above this in the upper half. The drum was then put in a spindle, by looking through the slits it created an illusion of movement. To make the movement smoother all that you had to do was spin the wheel faster

This is an example of the zeotrope

*Source http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/animation/animation4.htm and YouTube

Joseph Plateau (phenakitoscope)

Where did it come from?

In 1832 a Belgian physicist called Joseph Plateau invented the phenakitoscope that is now known as the 'spindle viewer'. In the same year, Simon von Stempfer created the same idea but called it 'stroboscope'. Joseph was influence from the works of Michael Daraday and Peter Mark Roget.

How does it work?

The phenakitoscope uses persistant motion principle to create an illusion of movement. He was the one to firmly use this technique. It is made up of two discs on top of eachover on the same axis. The first discs has cuts around the edges whereas the secound one has drawing of continuous action drawn around the disc in circles. These two discs then spin in the same direction. It is then viewed in a mirror throught the first discs slots, the picture on the secound disc has an illusion of movement.

What happened?

After it had become avalible to buy it recieved other names such as Phantasmascope and Fantoscope. It was reaching success until a man called William George innovated to something similar called zeotrope, this was better as it didnt need a mirror to work and more than one person could see the moving pictures.

This is an example of a simple phenakitoscope

*source from http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit07.htm#history

 Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope was created by Eadward Muybridge Edison in 1888. He was well known for starting motion picture. One of his most famous and influential work was 'The Horse in Motion'. This was the very first animation to ever be created. The actual kinetoscope is seen by someone through a window of a cabinet with the different mechanics inside. It creates an illusion of movement by showing a strip of film bearing lots of pictures on top of a light source at a high shutter speed. 



All of these ideas have been build and innovated from each over. What started with the phenakitoscope and was they slightly improved by each of the new designs. The thing they all have in common is the principle of stop-motion animation. Each of these designs use the same principle of using still images and putting them together to get an illusion of image. This is where stop-motion animation came from. New ideas were bettered and improved from each of these pioneers. But if it wasn't for them maybe current animators such as Tim Burton wouldn't exist.