Optical Toys and Inventions – a Precursor to the Moving Image and Cinema

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Optical toys and inventions – a precursor to the moving image and cinema A thaumatrope is a disk with a different but related picture on each side that is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to blend into one due to the persistence of vision. The retina of your eye sends visual information back to your brain. The nerve pulses from the eye to brain are not instantaneous. An image produced by the retina in response to stimulation lingers for one-tenth to one- twentieth of a second. Physiologists call this the principle of the persistence of vision. The thaumatrope fools your eye by switching images faster than the tenth-of-a-second limit, thus merging what are in fact two separate images into one visual impression. From 1833 the same principle was used in the Phenakistiscope where slightly different images of the same object were drawn around the edge of a disc, when the disc was spun and the images viewed through a slot in the cover, the images gave the impression of movement. But as there were multiple images a sequence of movement was created. Then in 1866 this was developed into the Zoetrope where the pictures were placed on a horizontal cylinder and viewed through slots on the cylinder itself. This allowed for even more images to be used in the moving sequence and more than one person could view it at once. There was a development of this by Eadweard Muybridge (Edward James Muggeridge) in 1878. He set up a series of 24 cameras and ran a horse in front of them and then played those images as photographic flipcards to show how it ran. But this soon developed into a version of the zoetrope which he called the Zoopraxiscope. This was the first time that there was conclusive evidence that, when galloping, a horse always kept one hoof on the ground. This was the first ever cinematic film shot and shown to audiences. Then in 1894 the Mutoscope came in with hundreds of sequential photographs on a rotating core, allowing a minute of moving pictures. These continued on into the 1950’s as amusement arcade machines. But by the 1890s proper cine cameras had been introduced and individual photographs no longer had to be spliced together and movies had been invented. Now of course replaced by magnetic tapes, cd discs and computer chip storage. But they all rely on your nervous system from the eye to brain having a built-in delay! .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Optical Machines, Pr
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA UMI800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. NOTE TO USERS Copyrighted materials in this document have not been filmed at the request of the author. They are available for consultation at the author’s university library.
[Show full text]
Animation: Types
Animation: Animation is a dynamic medium in which images or objects are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today most animations are made with computer generated (CGI). Commonly the effect of animation is achieved by a rapid succession of sequential images that minimally differ from each other. Apart from short films, feature films, animated gifs and other media dedicated to the display moving images, animation is also heavily used for video games, motion graphics and special effects. The history of animation started long before the development of cinematography. Humans have probably attempted to depict motion as far back as the Paleolithic period. Shadow play and the magic lantern offered popular shows with moving images as the result of manipulation by hand and/or some minor mechanics Computer animation has become popular since toy story (1995), the first feature-length animated film completely made using this technique. Types: Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation) was the process used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on the side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by rostrum camera onto motion picture film.
[Show full text]
Understanding Edward Muybridge: Historical Review of Behavioral
NEUROSURGICAL FOCUS Neurosurg Focus 39 (1):E4, 2015 Understanding Edward Muybridge: historical review of behavioral alterations after a 19th-century head injury and their multifactorial influence on human life and culture Sunil Manjila, MD,1 Gagandeep Singh, MD,2 Ayham M. Alkhachroum, MD,2 and Ciro Ramos-Estebanez, MD, PhD2,3 Departments of 1Neurosurgery and 2Neurology, and 3Divisions of Neurocritical Care and Stroke, Neurological Institute, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio Edward Muybridge was an Anglo-American photographer, well known for his pioneering contributions in photography and his invention of the “zoopraxiscope,” a forerunner of motion pictures. However, this 19th-century genius, with two original patents in photographic technology, made outstanding contributions in art and neurology alike, the latter being seldom acknowledged. A head injury that he sustained changed his behavior and artistic expression. The shift of his interests from animal motion photography to human locomotion and gait remains a pivotal milestone in our understand- ing of patterns in biomechanics and clinical neurology, while his own behavioral patterns, owing to an injury to the orbitofrontal cortex, remain a mystery even for cognitive neurologists. The behavioral changes he exhibited and the legal conundrum that followed, including a murder of which he was acquitted, all depict the complexities of his personality and impact of frontal lobe injuries. This article highlights the life journey of Muybridge, drawing parallels with Phineas Gage, whose penetrating head injury has been studied widely. The wide sojourn of Muybridge also illustrates the strong con- nections that he maintained with Stanford and Pennsylvania universities, which were later considered pinnacles of higher education on the two coasts of the United States.
[Show full text]
Introduction Examples of Early Animation
Sabine Fox, 21101363 Introduction Animation first started out as still drawings, such as in cave paintings, which depicted animals or humans with multiple sets of legs, giving the illusion of movement. There has also been an ancient bowl found in Iran which features sequential images of a goat leaping to a tree. When putting animation into context of portraying actual movement by using mechanisms and sequential images, the earliest known animation was created for devices of Chinese inventor Ting Huan in 180 AD. The device was an earlier version of the zoetrope, where it held a series of drawings that rotated when the device was suspended over a lamp. When rotated at the right speed, it created an illusion of movement. Examples of early animation Thaumatrope, 1826, created by English physician John Ayrton Paris. -- It consisted of a disc with two images on opposite sides that merged together when the disc was quickly spun using strings. An example is a bird on one side and a cage on the other. In 1831 Joseph Plateau created the phenakistiscope -- a wheel that had slits around the edge. Under each slit were images on a paper slip that are almost similar to one another, and when the wheel is spun facing the mirror, the images appear to move. The zoetrope, designed by William George Homer in 1834 but wasn’t widely used until 1867. The device was similar to how the phenakistiscope worked -- did not require a mirror to see the images and was moved by turning the cylinder around. It also allowed for the images to be changed, which wasn’t possible with the phenakistiscope.
[Show full text]
Slides: Animation-Sound-Storyboarding
Basics of Motion / Sound * Principles of Animation PrinciplesPrinciples of Animationof Animation In 1981, former ‘Nine Old Men’ animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas wrote the animation book “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.” In the book they laid out the 12 basic principles of animation. We are going to begin by adding two of the principles including “arcs” and “timing” Beginning of Animation Since the beginning of history humans have attempted to capture motion. From Grecian urns of people running to fun ‘parlor’ trick type machines that would recreate the concept of motion. Some of these devices include: 480 BC ● Thaumatrope (1825) ● Phénakisticope (1833) ● Zoetrope (1833) ● Flip book (1868) ● Praxinoscope (1877) ● Zoopraxiscope (1879) Phénakisticope 1833 Zoetrope 1833 KeyframeKeyframe Keyframe: A ‘key’ or important part of an animated action is referred to as a keyframe. This action usually occurs at the beginning and the end of an action. Keyframes are very important to creating animation, thus, someone whose job is it is to create keyframes is referred to as a keyframe animator. The role of keyframe animator was a very important job and typically given to a veteran. Keyframe Action Beginning Keyframe End Keyframe Keyframe action End keyframe Beginning keyframe Anticipation Anticipation Follow - Through Follow-Through Secondary Animation Secondary Action ArcsArcs Arcs in animation was the concept that most natural action tends to follow an arched trajectory, and animation should adhere to this principle by following implied "arcs" for greater realism. This can apply to a limb moving by rotating a joint, or a thrown object moving along a parabolic trajectory.
[Show full text]
The Historian's Toybox
THE HISTORIAN’S TOYBOX Children’s Toys from the Past you can Make Yourself. EUGENE F. PROVENZO, JR. ASTERIE BAKER PROVENZO Illustrations by Peter A. Zorn, Jr. EUGENE F. PROVENZO, JR., an associate professor in the School of Education and Allied Professions, University of Miami, is a specialist in the history of childhood and the history of education. Not only is he interested in toy design as a historian, but he has also designed award-winning toys. ASTERIE BAKER PROVENZO is currently working on a history of American school architecture at the University of Miami. Her interest in toys is an outgrowth of research she has conducted on the history of childhood and the history of education. PETER A. ZORN, JR., an assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Miami, has wide-ranging experience in the development and design of toys. INTRODUCTION Toys play an important part in the lives of children. They are vehicles for the imagination of children, as well as tools with which to instruct them about the world in which they live. Unfortunately, too many of the toys that are available to children today do not encourage them to discover or invent things for themselves. Historically, this has not always been the case. Many of the toys that were popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries required the imagination and inventiveness of the child. The Historian’s Toy-box: Children’s Toys from the Past You Can Make Yourself is about these toys and how to make them. Children have always made toys for themselves.
[Show full text]
Teachers Guide
Teachers Guide Exhibit partially funded by: and 2006 Cartoon Network. All rights reserved. TEACHERS GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE 3 EXHIBIT OVERVIEW 4 CORRELATION TO EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS 9 EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS CHARTS 11 EXHIBIT EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES 13 BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS 15 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 23 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES • BUILD YOUR OWN ZOETROPE 26 • PLAN OF ACTION 33 • SEEING SPOTS 36 • FOOLING THE BRAIN 43 ACTIVE LEARNING LOG • WITH ANSWERS 51 • WITHOUT ANSWERS 55 GLOSSARY 58 BIBLIOGRAPHY 59 This guide was developed at OMSI in conjunction with Animation, an OMSI exhibit. 2006 Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Animation was developed by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in collaboration with Cartoon Network and partially funded by The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. and 2006 Cartoon Network. All rights reserved. Animation Teachers Guide 2 © OMSI 2006 HOW TO USE THIS TEACHER’S GUIDE The Teacher’s Guide to Animation has been written for teachers bringing students to see the Animation exhibit. These materials have been developed as a resource for the educator to use in the classroom before and after the museum visit, and to enhance the visit itself. There is background information, several classroom activities, and the Active Learning Log – an open-ended worksheet students can fill out while exploring the exhibit. Animation web site: The exhibit website, www.omsi.edu/visit/featured/animationsite/index.cfm, features the Animation Teacher’s Guide, online activities, and additional resources. Animation Teachers Guide 3 © OMSI 2006 EXHIBIT OVERVIEW Animation is a 6,000 square-foot, highly interactive traveling exhibition that brings together art, math, science and technology by exploring the exciting world of animation.
[Show full text]
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge TEACHERS AND STUDENTS NOTES For use at Kingston Museum or in the classroom Suitable for teachers and students of Key Stage 2-5Stage 3-5 By Caroline Burt and Alexandra Reynolds Kingston Museum and Heritage Service This pack provides a brief introduction to the life and work of Eadweard Muybridge. The pack looks at a selection of works in detail, providing background information, discussion ideas and suggested activities. Cover Images (clockwise from top left) EM8132 Muybridge greets athlete EM0052 Woman dancing EM6880 Ox. Walk, gallop, trot, run EM7838 Fishing Boat coming ashore by moonlight, Guatemala/Panama All images in this pack are courtesy of Kingston Museum and Heritage Service unless otherwise stated www.kingston.gov.uk/museum 2 Introduction Eadweard Muybridge (Kingston upon Thames 1830 - 1904) was one of the world's most innovative and influential photographic pioneers. His extensive studies of humans and animals in motion played a critical role in the history of photography and moving image. Eadweard Muybridge was born Edward Muggeridge to a merchant family in Kingston upon Thames on April 9th 1830. Before his death in 1904, Muybridge would emigrate to America, change his name three times, come close to death and suffer brain damage in a carriage accident. As well as photographing the landscapes, people and cities of 19th Century America, Muybridge was also instrumental in the development of instantaneous photography. To accomplish his famous motion sequence photography, Muybridge designed his own high speed electronic shutter and electro-timer, to be used alongside a battery of up to 24 cameras. Muybridge used this technology to capture the movement of humans and animals in split-second detail, something that had never been seen before.
[Show full text]
Moving Pictures: the History of Early Cinema by Brian Manley
Discovery Guides Moving Pictures: The History of Early Cinema By Brian Manley Introduction The history of film cannot be credited to one individual as an oversimplification of any his- tory often tries to do. Each inventor added to the progress of other inventors, culminating in progress for the entire art and industry. Often masked in mystery and fable, the beginnings of film and the silent era of motion pictures are usually marked by a stigma of crudeness and naiveté, both on the audience's and filmmakers' parts. However, with the landmark depiction of a train hurtling toward and past the camera, the Lumière Brothers’ 1895 picture “La Sortie de l’Usine Lumière à Lyon” (“Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory”), was only one of a series of simultaneous artistic and technological breakthroughs that began to culminate at the end of the nineteenth century. These triumphs that began with the creation of a machine that captured moving images led to one of the most celebrated and distinctive art forms at the start of the 20th century. Audiences had already reveled in Magic Lantern, 1818, Musée des Arts et Métiers motion pictures through clever uses of slides http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Magic-lantern.jpg and mechanisms creating "moving photographs" with such 16th-century inventions as magic lanterns. These basic concepts, combined with trial and error and the desire of audiences across the world to see entertainment projected onto a large screen in front of them, birthed the movies. From the “actualities” of penny arcades, the idea of telling a story in order to draw larger crowds through the use of differing scenes began to formulate in the minds of early pioneers such as Georges Melies and Edwin S.
[Show full text]
The Plateau Exhibition in Ghent 2001
The Plateau Exhibition in Ghent 2001 By Ron Holloway Spring 2002 Issue of KINEMA THE PLATEAU EXHIBITION AT THE SCIENCE MUSEUM IN GHENT 2001 Film historians with a tick for the archaeology of the cinema are well advised to pay a visit to the Museum of Science in Ghent to view the exhibition honouring the 200th birthday of Belgian scientist Joseph Plateau. It was Plateau’s experiments on optical deception and the persistence of vision in the middle of the 19th century that led to the invention of the anorthoscope (distorted view) and the phenakistiscope (deceitful view), the direct precursors of the first moving picture inventions. The entire range of related optical inventions the stroboscope (whirling view), the thaumatrope (magical turning), and zoetrope (life turning), to name just the key scientific discoveries that led to cinematography were placed on mechanically driven display atthe opening of the 28th Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent (8-18 October 2001). Visitors to the Flanders festival were also presented with an invaluable catalogue to accompany the exhibition: ”Joseph Plateau, (1801-1883) Living Between Art and Science” (Gent: Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen, 2001) by Maurice Dorikens, with additional essays by David Robinson, Laurent Mannoni, and Giusy Pisno-Basile. Robinson’s contribution on ”Plateau, Faraday and Their Spinning Discs” focuses on the fruitful competition between Joseph Plateau in Belgium and Michael Faraday in England on experiments relating to optical deception. Plateau won that race by a few months to perfect the anorthoscope in 1936, a concession readily made by Faraday upon reading the Belgian scientist’s published papers.
[Show full text]
Persistence of Vision: the Value of Invention in Independent Art Animation
Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Kinetic Imaging Publications and Presentations Dept. of Kinetic Imaging 2006 Persistence of Vision: The alueV of Invention in Independent Art Animation Pamela Turner Virginia Commonwealth University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/kine_pubs Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, Fine Arts Commons, and the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons Copyright © The Author. Originally presented at Connectivity, The 10th ieB nnial Symposium on Arts and Technology at Connecticut College, March 31, 2006. Downloaded from http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/kine_pubs/3 This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dept. of Kinetic Imaging at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Kinetic Imaging Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Pamela Turner 2220 Newman Road, Richmond VA 23231 Virginia Commonwealth University – School of the Arts 804-222-1699 (home), 804-828-3757 (office) 804-828-1550 (fax) [email protected], www.people.vcu.edu/~ptturner/website Persistence of Vision: The Value of Invention in Independent Art Animation In the practice of art being postmodern has many advantages, the primary one being that the whole gamut of previous art and experience is available as influence and inspiration in a non-linear whole. Music and image can be formed through determined methods introduced and delightfully disseminated by John Cage. Medieval chants can weave their way through hip-hopped top hits or into sound compositions reverberating in an art gallery.
[Show full text]
Proto-Cinematic Narrative in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction
The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2016 Moving Words/Motion Pictures: Proto-Cinematic Narrative In Nineteenth-Century British Fiction Kara Marie Manning University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Manning, Kara Marie, "Moving Words/Motion Pictures: Proto-Cinematic Narrative In Nineteenth-Century British Fiction" (2016). Dissertations. 906. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/906 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MOVING WORDS/MOTION PICTURES: PROTO-CINEMATIC NARRATIVE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH FICTION by Kara Marie Manning A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of English at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: ________________________________________________ Dr. Eric L.Tribunella, Committee Chair Associate Professor, English ________________________________________________ Dr. Monika Gehlawat, Committee Member Associate Professor, English ________________________________________________ Dr. Phillip Gentile, Committee Member Assistant Professor,
[Show full text]