What is Animation?

An Illusion of Motion
An animation is the illusion of movement created by showing a series of still pictures (frames) in rapid succession. 

wisegeek.org

Animate by making a series of drawings, photographs, objects, clay figures or other models that are slightly different or change position slightly from one another. When these are photographed & then sequenced & viewed quickly, one after another, the appearance of movement is created. All cartoons, movies, TV, and videos work this way.

Persistence of vision
We see motion because of the persistence of vision.
This is an optical illusion that is based in the principle that the human eye can keep an image, for one brief instant of time, on the retina (in your eye). This allows us relate that previous image to the next image. If these images are slightly different, they appear to be moving.

Each still image is called a frame

imageck.com

A group of still images or frames, seen at a certain speed (frames per second or fps), will appear as constant movement

At a speed of 12 images per second (fps), we perceive motion. (called the phi phenomenon)

History - The Creation & Discovery of the Moving Image

History of Animation and Moving Imagery - discovered by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878

These still frames were shot with a camera using a trip wire to release the camera's shutter as the horse ran by

Video 1 - The first motion picture/animation: The Horse in Motion

Video 2 - Eadweard Muybridge still frames sequenced to create motion

History - Early Animation Devices

Zoetropes  - A device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures as a cylinder spins & the viewer looks through a slot.

By Bre Pettis   brepettis.com/blog

Video 1 - Zoetrope

Video 2 - Zoetrope 

Phenakistoscope/Praxinoscope 

An early animation device that used the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion. It's the predecessor of the zoetrope.

 

Video 1 - Uses Mybridge's horses
Video 2 - Praxinoscope with music box - first half shows the music box & the second half shows the praxiniscope

Fenakitiscopio
Disks spin in some type of device

Video 1 

Video 2 

Video 3
Video 4 -1833 McLean's Optical Illusions of Magic Panorama

Thaumatroupe
A two sided disk that spins on a string. These are contemporary versions 

Bird in a Cage by Robin Nunnally

Video 1 - by dahoota

Video 2 - by esaoa's channel 

Video 3 - Bird in a Cage by Robin Nunnally

Fun Contemporary Variations

By artist Gregory Barsamian

Video 1 - Artist Gregory Barsamian
Video 2 - The Cyclotrope

Flipbooks: Getting Ready + Preliminary Work

Make drawings that move! Bring Your Drawing to Life with Flipbooks! 
No prior experience required!

  
1. Story Idea
Get an idea and decide what will happen in your flipbook story.
To begin, think of something — an object or a person, that you would like to see move. 
For example, draw a dog or a man running, a car or a train moving, a bird or a bee flying…  


2. Sketch out the events in your story
Plan how you want to draw your idea, including how to make the object move. Think about where on the paper, and how, the object’s motion will start and end.  (Perhaps you want your object to “morph” or change into another object.)  

One way to get started is to draw the “start” picture on one piece of paper and the “end” picture on another piece of paper. Each additional drawing (to go in between and make the motion happen) should go on a separate sheet of paper. Each “in between” drawing should move the object from where it starts to a little bit closer to where it ends.  

You may want to use thin pieces of paper so you are able to see through it. Put a finished drawing under a new paper. Use the drawing below as a guide for the drawing you are working on. To see through paper, you can also hold it up to a window while you draw.
 
You may need many pages or just a few. (note: the faster the motion, the fewer the pages of drawings you will need and for slower motion, you will need more drawings.) 

You might even decide to color your drawings! 

3. Gather all Materials & Create!
You will need:
- 6” x 4” pad of white paper. Paper will be provided at the workshop, but if you want to sketch out your story or get started, that's great. Just make sure you use 4" x 6" paper.
- pencil or pen
- markers, crayons, or colored pencils 


4. Make the Flipbook! Watch Your Drawings Move!
- It will take about 50-60 individual pictures to create a 10-second movie.  
- Simple, uncomplicated drawings sometimes work best.
- Drawing in black pen first, and then color the pictures to really make them come alive on the screen.

- When you are finished and ready to view the flipbook, place your starting drawing on the bottom of the stack of pages and your ending drawing on the top. Hold the pages together on one side and flip through the pages of drawings from the other side, moving from the bottom (start) to the top (end). When you flip through the pages of drawings, the object comes to life—it seems to move!


5.  Photograph Your Flipbook to Create an Animation
The day of the flipbook workshop, we will photograph each drawing to create an animation that will play like a cartoon or movie.

Russ Johnson & student filming a flipbook animation

Extra! Extra!
Make Digital Flipbooks
To get the hang of frame by frame animation, try these web sites to animate digitally.

abcya
First, watch the ? Tutorial. Then, select GO 

 













Benettonplay 
Select Make from the top menu items.  Then select "Proceed Anyway" You don't have to create an account.

Flipbook HD - an app for iphone & ipad
Watch the video tour


Find!
You can find many other online & app animation programs by searching online or in app stores.

Flipbook Inspirations

The Flippist  
















A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything  

Rebecca Ross - Experiment

 





Matthew Shlian