Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at www.grand-illusions.com/
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Tim demonstrates a wonderful array of pre-cinema animation techniques.
Tim starts by showing how you can use two small pieces of paper to demonstrate the principle of animating a simple stick man, using just two images.
Next, a thaumatrope, an idea which dates originally from the 1830s. It consists normally of a disc that has a different picture on each side. So for example a cage on one side and a parrot on the other side - spin the disc and the bird appears to be in the cage.
Then a recent, mechanical version of a thaumatrope made out of wood. Turn the handle and the picture shows a frog beating a drum.
Then we see a magic lantern slide demonstrated, it is an animated slide. Two characters are turning a skipping rope, and a third character is hopping up and down. Back in the 19th Century, before television or even film had been invented, people must have been amazed at slides like this!
Next, a zoetrope, which is more advanced in that it uses a number of images to create the illusion of movement, not just two. In this case, a galloping horse.
Another version of the zoetrope, which involves a flat disc with slots cut out. You view the image in a mirror, looking through the slots. These were very popular in the 1890s.
Then an animation device that shows a sequence of still images, in this case photographs of a galloping horse taken by Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1880s. Then Tim demonstrates a flip book with Muybridge images of a cat running along.
Then another animation device, a little bit like the 'What The Butler Saw' machines, albeit on a smaller scale. It shows a boxer doing his exercises!
The we see the Praxinoscope, the successor to the zoetrope. Invented in France in 1877, this device uses a series of images that are viewed in a series of mirrors. It gives brighter and less distorted images than the zoetrope.
Then a modern version, where you spin a flat disc on the table, and illuminate it with a stroboscopic torch.
Finally, another modern version, with a series of little blue men that can be adjusted into different poses. Then you spin the whole wheel, and view the figures in the sequence of mirrors in the centre, and the little blue man animates in a delightful way!