History of Animation Part 1

William Horner - The Zoetrope
Born 1786 - 22nd September 1837 Bristol, England.
William George Horner created the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is a device that makes static pictures look as if they are moving. The Zoetrope is a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder there is a set of images from a sequence. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The slits in the side of the cylinder stop the images blurring together this allows the user to see a rpid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion even though the images are still. Simular inventions to this at the time were the Phenakistoscope created by Joseph Plateau.

Auguste and Louis Lumiere - The Cinematograph

Auguste born on October 19th 1862

Louis born on October 5th 1864
The first ever footage taken was taken by them which was a 46 second documentary which was of workers leaving the Lumiere factory which was owned by their father.
The Cinematograph was a camera and projector the first of its kind, however there is a lot of dispute over who actually invented this machine many say it was infact Léon Bouly however Auguste and Louis take full credit for the invention. The brothers actually said that the cinema was a waste of time and that it wouldn't last and people would get bored of it. They also refused to sell any of the equiptment to people such as George Miles who accidentally created the first cut. They also patented the a colour scheme.

Emile Reynaud - The Praxinoscope
Charles-Emile Reynaud was born on December 8th 1844 and died on January 9th 1918. He was a french science teacher and he made the first projected animated cartoon films, he was also responsable for creating the Praxinoscope which was created in 1
877. The Praxinoscope simply uses the principle of William Horners idea of the Zoetrope but it has rectangular mirrors instead of slits. The mirrors were set around an inner drum to reflect the circling images. It was the first ever movie 'projector' and it gave the ability to put the images on a wall for people to view. The overall animation can be seen in low light by multiple people hence why it was so popular.

Joseph Plateau - The Phenakistoscope
Born 14th October 1801
Died 15th September 1883
Joseph was a Belgium physicist, he was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this he used counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits on the other. The device works by creating an image when you spin the disk around and look through the small slits whilst reflecting it in a mirror. As the images spin so quickly the images become blurred and this creates the animation, the Zoetrope came later and didn't require a mirror. The Zoetrope could also be used by more than one person.

Edward Muybridge and Edison - Kinetoscope
The machine operates on a film threaded rollers where a series of images are continually rolled over a tiny projector. The viewer can then look through the 'viewer' and see the images creating a short film. Edward created the horse in motion effect to prove a point he went to large scales to prove this using over 50 cameras to show that a horse was 'floating' in the air for a split second when it ran. Edison was actually given full credit for the creation of the Kinetoscope however it was actually his assistant that created it as he was a photographer. Muybridge and Edison met at Edison's laboratory in West Orange to discuss the possibility of a collaboration however no such partnership was agreed on. Edison and his company pursued the idea until it was eventually completed hence why Edison took full credit for the creation.