Techniques: Zoetrope

The Zoetrope is another device that uses still iamges and persistance of vision to create an animation.

The device consists of a cylinder with slits cut into the side. The inner part of the of the zoetrope as images drawn on in varying poses. These poses will be the movements of the character inside the zoetrope. The cylinder is designed to spin. When the user views the slits the "animation" will play. This is because the images are moving so fast and through such tiny vision space it creates the illusion of movement.

History
The Zoetrope was first designed in China by Ting Huan in 180AD. This was created by using convection which uses heat to move the cylinder. When it moved at the right speed the images appeared to move. It was known as "chao hua chich kuan" which means
"The pipe which makes fantasies appear"

The modern zoetrope however was created by William George Horner a British mathematician which he called a daedalum. The zoetrope is based on the phenakistoscope however it was viewed differently. It also hada third drum to allow the aniamtion to be smoother. The zoetrope was a lot bigger and allowed for more than one person to view the animation.

Now
A Zoetrope known as the Subway Zoetrope was designed in 1980 by an independent film maker called Bill Brand. It was mural painted onto the wall of a subway in New York and was designed to be a linear zoetrope so when passengers travlled along the subway line they would be treated by an animation. This has caused many other artists to create these linear zoetropes or "Masstransiscopes" within the subway tunnels of New York.