Post 11-History of the development of Animation

Magic Lantern
The magic lantern was mostly developed in the 17th century, and used for entertainment purposes. It is an early development of a projector, displaying pictures onto transparent plates using one or more lenses and a light source. It was widely used from the 18th century to the mid 20th century, when the slide projector took over. (En.wikipedia.org, 2019)

Christiaan Huygens
Was a Dutch scientist that invented the magic lantern. It consists of a source of light, a lantern slide and projection lens, in that particular order. The later magic lantern contains more components (Luikerwaal.com, 2019). Christiaan is a pioneer, as he is the only inventor to use a projection lens, whereas the others is use mirrors and a drum.   


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Christiaan's magic lantern

Phenakistiscope
This was the first widespread animation device that created a vivid illusion of movement. It works life a GIF animamtion, as it can only show a short continuous loop. It was invented around December 1832 by Joseph Plateau (a Belgian physicist) and Simon Stampfer ( an Austrian professor of practical geometry). (En.wikipedia.org, 2019)


Joseph Plateau
Was the inventor of the phenakistoscope. It was an early animation device that used the persistence of vision to create an illusion of motion. It used a spinning disc attached to a verticle handle, with a series of drawings showing phases of the animation around the discs centre. Unlike the zoetrope, the phenakistoscope could only practically be used by one person at a time. (Juxtapoz.com,2019). Joseph is a pioneer because if he hadn't of invented the phenakistoscope, then it couldn't have been developed into the stop motion animation technology we use today, or it could have been discovered later, which would have pushed all the development processes back. 

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An example of the what the phenakistoscope looks like/how it works

William Horner
Invented the Zoetrope in 1834, and was based on Plateau's Phenakistoscope. It was influenced by: the magic lantern, the thaumatrope and the phenakistoscope. Originally made of a simple drum and axis, a series of images contained on the inner side of the drum can be seen by several people through slits that are equally spaced from the surface of the drum. (Pioneer, 2019) He is seen as a pioneer, as it allowed for Joseph's phenakistoscope to be developed into a more convenient illusion of movement, which then continued to be developed more into the magic lantern.
(Pebble Studios, 2019)


 This is an example of how William's 'Zoetrope' works.

Lotte Reiniger
Lotte was a German film director, and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her first film 'The adventures of Prince Achmed' is thought to be one of the oldest surviving feature-length animated films. She is also moted for having devised a predecessor to the first multiplane camera, in which she made more than 40 films using. (En.wikipedia,2019). Lotte is the last pioneer, as she was the one to actually turn these inventions and develop it into a stop motion animation, feature length. (Danicapoonawalla.blogspot.com, 2019) 



This is an example of Reiniger's work. 1922's Cinderella

At moment 4.39mins, we've just seen Cinderella's stepmother and stepsister's been taken off to the ball, and Cinderella is now left to continue her chores, where she heads to the garden to water the plants. She then drops to her knees and begins to cry whilst praying. The leaves off of the tree above then fall off and wrap around Cinderella to create a dress, horse and carriage. This moment creates meaning, as from the start, Lotte had built up both the stepmother and stepsisters as evil characters, and made us the audience grow a hatred towards them, so therefore when they leave Cinderalla behind, it makes us feel sympathy for her. So, when the leaves fall off the tree to create a dress and carriage for her to go to the ball, it then makes us feel happy and relieved as she does get to end up going to the ball. This is a successful technique, as it has made us the audience feel several different emotions just from watching this short clip.

At moment 12mins once the prince has just discovered that there is a third sister in the cellar, and finds that the shoe finally fits; we again feel similar emotions to the moment before, as annoyance and impatience had built up from the prince going all over town and trying to get the shoe to fit every woman, when we know who the shoe actually fits. But, once the prince finds Cinderella, we are soon happy and relieved as he finally found her and we know they can live happily ever after. Although only black silhouettes are used, it is a successful technique because we develop feelings and emotions towards the characters, as if we were part of the story too.



This is a developed example of stop motion animation by Jan Svankmajer

In this stop motion animation, we can see three different stories: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. During lunch, we can see two men sitting down in a restaurant. They can't seem to get served by the waiter, and seems they must be hungry, because they then begin to eat inedible objects like flowers and their clothes. One man seems to be more upper class than the other, as he appears to eat more politely by using his knife and fork, whereas the other man tries to but cannot, and quickly gives up to use his hands and eats things whole. This is an effective technique, and a development from Lotte's stop motion, as Jan has made his characters look extremely realistic, and also made eating inedible objects realistic and if it were normal.
In the second moment, where both the men have finished eating all their clothes and the furniture, they finish with eating their cutlery, but the upper class man tricks the other man into eating it as he only pretends to eat it, so that he doesnt have any defense when he tries to eat him.  This makes the audience feel uncomfortable as this isn't normal, and shows that you can't trust anyone.




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