The Techniques And Development Of Stop Motion Animation (Part 1)

Part 1 Pioneers

Lumiere Brothers - The Lumiere brothers were the pioneers of film. They were known to be the first ever filmmakers in history. They were the inventors of the cinematograph which was the first ever camera to be made. The way in which it works is through a hand crank that uses 15 frames per second of film. This is uses much less film than the kinetic scope which the Lumiere brothers were trying to improve through the invention. There first film that was made was Workers Leaving The Lumiere Factory In Lyon (1894). They then went on to research colour photography and made the first film that was colored in.

Edison - Thomas Edison born on February 11th 1847 is the creditor and inventor of the kinetoscope in 1888. The way in which it works is when the viewer must look into a peep hole in which he can see images moving.It would be mean't for only one person to view the image at a time and the kinetoscope would make an illusion of a moving image. This is done through the manipulation of the persistence of vision in humans. When frames are put together at a fast speed  .He was inspired to make a motion picture system when he met up with Edward Muybridge another famous film maker. He also made the kinetic graph that allowed him to record in house experiments and later on movies from the kinetic scope

Plateau - Joseph Plateau born on October 14th 1801 was the first man to ever produce a moving image. He did this with his own phenkistoscope which created the illusion of a moving image. He did this by using a circular disc that had pictures of something in different frames around the outside. A vertical handle was then placed on the disc and there would be slits on the outsides of the disc. The user would then look at the slits in a mirror and images would morph into a single image when being spun by the user. This also manipulates the persistence of vision in humans because the way in which we see slight changes in the images our minds put the images together. This is same process in which we watch modern films today. When we see a plot we our minds will try to piece the plot together.

Melies - George Melies born on December 8th 1861 was the creditor of the stop trick effect. When Melies discovered the stop trick effect it was not on purpose. What happened was that his camera jammed while he was filming and he realized that objects that he filmed were jumping,moving and transforming. When he came of age he went into the shoe business with his three brothers and his father. He sold his share of the business to buy a theatre. This theatre hadn't been successful however Melies used many new illusions to dazzle its audiences. The way stop trick works is when you film for a period of time you stop filming and then you film the same thing but you include the differences you want into it. You would then place the film reel immediately after when the previous film stops. George Melies received a legion of honour for his contribution to the film industry in his later life.

Horner - William Horner born in 1786 was the creditor of the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is one of the devices that helped progress moving image. The way in which it worked was through a drum like device with slits around the edges of the drum. Images were then drawn on paper and put into the Zoetrope. The user would then look through the slits and would see a moving image. This device was used a lot pre-cinema. The reason why the images moved is through the persistence of vision. While looking through the slits the images would be different so the user would piece the images together because their minds force them to think the image is moving. The reason that this device was more modern than the other is because it allowed more than one person to view the animation at one time.


Reynaud - Charles Reynaud born on 8th December 1944 was the creditor of the Praxinoscope. This device was similar to the Zoescope however this device is the more modernized version. Similar to the Zoetrope the device was a large drum like cylinder that contained 12 frames with images drawn onto the frames. These frames were placed on the outside of the drum were mirrors would be placed in the middle of the drum. The viewer would then look at the mirror in the middle of the Praxinoscope. As this device was more modern it allowed the image to be seen more clearly.However this was only the original models features. Reynaud had gone onto make improvements to his invention. He went on to add an oil lamp to make the images even more clearer and allowed the images to appear on a screen.


Muybridge - Edward Muybridge born on April 1830 was the creditor of the zoopraxiscope. Muybridge was also the creditor of the first flexible film strip that many people used. Like the praxinoscope the zoopaxiscope is the device that allows you to project images onto a screen and the image would move. However this is only some of his exploits. One day he was debating with a friend on whether horses hover in the air for a short period of time when they run. He believed that they did and he proved it by setting up camera's around a race course while a horse made a lap. The results showed that indeed they did.