Persistence of Vision Edward Muybridge; Muybridge was an English photographer

important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in
motion-picture projection.
In this video it shows very clearly how each picture is put together to create what looks like
one continuous image. We start slow, and you see the images coming together a lot faster.
You see lots of bits of his work, but the picture in the bottom right hand corner is the first
piece of work that Edward created.
Persistence of Vision Emile Reynaud; Emile Reynaud was a French inventor, who created
the first ever animated cartoon. Reynaud was the creator of the Proxinoscope in 1877, and
on 28th October 1892 he projected the first animated film.
In his animated film, there is very little movement. Theres only ever one or two things
moving. The background doesnt change for 32 seconds, and the images are very basic. The
movements are very rigid, and the setting stays the same for long periods of time.
Developers Willis OBrien; www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2PjgxnyyQoWillis O'Brien was the
special effects artist who pioneered the technique of stop motion animation and the man
behind the 1933 movie classic King Kong. A former newspaper cartoonist and sculptor,
O'Brien began making short films in 1914. His animated dinosaurs for the film version
of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1925) and his work on King Kong are considered
classic examples of stop-motion photography. Despite the success of King Kong, O'Brien
spent most of his career trying to get various projects financed. Now a legend among horror,
dinosaur and animation fans, O'Brien did not enjoy great success while he was alive.
Developers Ray Harryhausen
Contemporary Work Tim Burton; 3

Article
Pioneers
Joseph Plateau was the first ever person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this
he used counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one
and regularly spaced slits in the other.
Edward Muybridge was the brains behind the motion picture projection. He had taken a position on
a popularly debated question of the day whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at
the same time while trotting. The same question had arisen about the actions of horses during a
gallop. The human eye could not break down the action at the quick gaits of the trot and gallop. Up
until this time, most artists painted horses at a trot with one foot always on the ground; and at a full
gallop with the front legs extended forward and the hind legs extended to the rear, and all feet off
the ground.
William Horner is not your average inventor. Having taught maths and whilst being the headmaster
at a school in Bath. In 1834, Horner made the Zoetrope. This is simply a cylinder toy with a series of
pictures inside. It gives the illusion of movement when it is spinning and is viewed through the slits
on the outside. He created the Zoetrope which is a 19th-century optical toy, consisting of a cylinder

with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the cylinder
rotating, give an impression of continuous motion.
Section 1
Stop frame is an animation technique used across many famous platforms. It starts with an object
that you would like to make it look like it moves from A to B. However, big names such as Aardman
take this to the next level. Creations such as Wallace &Gromit are some of the best examples of stop
motion. The actual use of this technique is to take thousands of photos, and put them in their own
individual frame. This then creates the effect, if done correctly, that the object is moving. Their
technique consists of using plasticine to create their models, whilst being placed in front of several
professionally made backgrounds/ sets. All their characters are smoothed off to make them look as
good as possible and are then edited for a final effect for their animation.
Persistence of vision is what youve seen, and what you are currently seeing. This is all to do with
what your eyes view now, and from hundredths of seconds previously. What they see makes up this
blurred vision effect, of past and present. A spinning image may seem blurred and you cant work
out what it is until the image has stopped moving. This is all to do with the persistence of vision.
Your eyes create a ghost effect of the image, as they see what 0.25 seconds previous was, and what
is currently happening.
Frame rates, also known as frame frequency is a name for how quick a camera produces images per
frame. It is the number of frames or images that are projected per second. They can be used in audio
and with pictures, and the usual frame rates per second varies between 24-30. The more pictures
you have per second, i.e. the higher the frame rate, the smoother the footage looks when you come
to watch it. A good example of this is the SlowMo guys. They create videos, but record them in
SlowMo. Their footage comes in at 1000 frames per second, which makes the slow footage very easy
to watch.
All of the three things above come together to make the movement of models. Depending on what
material you use, the final outcome of your footage can look good or bad. For instance, if you are to
use plasticine to create your animation, then this enables you to do more steady movements. You
can move pieces bit by bit, and place them were you want to. You can make emotions and gestures
because of the flexibility that plasticine allows you. However, say if you were to use wood for your
animation, then the steady movements can still happen, but the shape of your wood can not change
that easily.
Developers
Willis OBrien was a special effects artist who was the back bone in the creation of stop motion. His
first big role in this was with King Kong. OBrien was first recognised as a former newspaper
cartoonist and sculptor and then began making short films in 1914. Born in Oakland, California, he
began experimenting with his clay models and within a year had produced The Dinosaur and the
Missing Link, which was a popular success. Unfortunately, not all of OBriens work was a success.
Infact, a few of his projects were huge flops. In 1936, he was part of the animation team for The
Dancing Pirate. However, the complete lack of animation within the film by Willis made it a disaster.
Ray Harryhausen was an American visual effects creator, writer and producer between the years of
1932 and 1980. His work was known as Dynamation, and was the first of its kind. The most famous
piece of work the Harryhausen ever produced was Mighty Joe Young which he created with the

help of Willis OBrien. Rays technique was simple but effective. He projected a live action image onto
a rear screen in front of which was placed the animation table with the model. He would then place
a sheet of glass in front of both. In total, Harryhausen made 70 films and animations.
Contemporary Work
Aardman Animations have created some of the best animated work of all time. Theyve made family
favourites with Wallace & Gromit, child fantasies with Story Time, Morph and Shawn the Sheep. Not
only have they made programmes using full animation, but theyve created shows that use real life
characters. Shows everybody has watched, shows that we can relate too. The World Cup is a prime
example, this year marked the most expensive world cup of all time, and Aardman Animations were
in the thick of it creating the most successful advert for BBC. Telling a story is the key to keeping
viewers interested. The World Cup ad tells that story. Tbc
Creations like Morph, Change 4 Life, Shawn the Sheep, John Lewis ads, Wallace & Gromit, Arthur
Christmas and hundreds more are some of the more recognisable pieces created by Aardman. Every
piece of work is done with such priciest detail, that not even the best can notice that every single
seconds contains hundreds of photos.
The next person to talk about would have to be Tim Burton, Tim Burton is American film director,
producer, writer and poet, and a stop motion artist. He is known dark for quirky horror and fantasy
films such as the Nightmare before Christmas and Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice became a big success and
brought the bar even higher with animation in films by showing good techniques in both films. The
film makers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington
having around 400 heads, allowing the expression of every of possible emotion. Sallys mouth
movements were animated through replacements. Tim Burton made animation for TV and Film very
mainstream, this made people recognise there can be high level animation Films now and make it
seem also real, that animation in a whole very popular which we see hundreds of animation
productions every year. Tim Burtons main audience would be around 15-18 year olds. His work is
very Unique and quirky which makes it different to any other productions, this is one of the reasons
Tim Burton is very successful and well known in animation
Summary
Animation can be presented across a variety of platforms. Whether this be film, TV, adverts or
gaming, animation is used and viewed millions of times every single day. Animation you see in film
more than ever. Films such as Shrek, Despicable Me, Ice Age and Nemo are some of the most
popular films to ever be made, and every single bit of footage is done by animation. Although it is
more computerised nowadays, Wallace & Gromit are a great example of both a TV programme and
film that use plasticine throughout to make their show. As Ive explained, every single bit of footage
is taken by a photo, thousands of times.
In gaming, every single game is animated. No matter what platform, PS4, Wii, Nintendo, PSP, PS Vita,
they all use animation for their games. But these arent the creators. Companies such as EA, Ubisoft
and Activision and the developers of some of the greatest games in the world. These three alone
have made Fifa, Assassins Creed and Call of Duty.
Music videos can use animation as well. Some famous music videos like Strawberry Swing by
Coldplay, Feel in love with a girl by White Stripes and Miss Atomic Bomb by The Killers. All using
animation, but all in very different ways. The Killers seem to use a slow and gittery motion within
their video. However, you can see this is computerised, as the effect of each character is almost

perfect and very cartoon like. The White Stripes use Lego throughout their music video. This effect is
excellent as the audience can relate. Everyone knows how Lego works, and for them to take
thousands of photos of every single movement, and make hundreds of different Lego figures takes
time and effort, but the end result is fantastic. The final music video I mentioned is Strawberry
Swing. This video is part animation, part recorded. In this they use more effects on the background,
and the use slower movements like The Killers. You can tell that this is a stop motion music video
because of its stop and start and slight movement and positional changes.