History Of The Zoetrope

Zoetrope is an animated toy that was originally developed in 1834 by William Horner who called it the “Wheel Of The Devil”. The zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion when it is spun at a fast pace to create a small animation piece. It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically around the sides that allows the observer to look through to see pictures moving around. The pictures are placed inside the inner surface and when they are spun at a fast pace, the images blur together to produce an illusion of motion. All the images relate to each other but slowly change different actions so that they are combined to create a short animation. The faster the rate of spin, the smoother the progression of image.

An Early Zoetrope Cylinder With An Image Inside

  William Horners invention became forgotten for 30years until 1867 when it became rediscovered in England by M.Bradley and in America by William.F.Lincoln. It was renamed to “Zoetrope” which means the “Wheel Of Life”.  In 1867 the first zoetrope film was created by Milton Bradley Company called “Zoetrope No.1”. By 1889, George Eastman invented flexible photographic film which allowed a large amount of film to be held on one reel. This was useful for filming Zoetrope’s because the images were limited to 15 pictures per strip and the flexible film could present longer animations to viewers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG6ywByMAyE -This Video presents 12 animations that M.Bradley company created in 1867

As technology developed, Zoetrope’s became unpopular but today artists create 3D Zoetrope’s which is making them more common in the industry. Instead of using a slits and a cylinder, 3D models and strobe lighting is used in substitute to create the same but also modern Zoetrope effect.

 

Toy Story Zoetrope Scene

I find this piece incredible because it brings a childhood movie alive which relates to the story of the movie .This wonderful piece brings both children and adults together as it is an iconic movie with characters who are loved by fans across the world. With the piece being a 3D Zoetrope, I questioned how it worked for the first time because the illusion makes the piece really realistic. When I am watching the zoetrope, I believe that I am just watching the movie because the simple characters are combined together to create a movie scene. I also find the piece engaging because a variety of simple colours and sculptures are used to create a wonderful piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjSxrVXsfVM- This video shows how the Toy Story Zoetrope Works

As a Zoetrope piece I find the work interesting because it combines both old and modern techniques that appeals to a wide audience and I believe that it will be developed further and taken into the future.

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/04/14/pixar_exhibition_review_feature.shtml

http://zoetrope.org/zoetrope-history
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.ht