TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been
placed at the end of the chapter.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
ANIMATED CARTOONS
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING THE METHOD OF MAKING ANIMATED CARTOONS BY
CUT-OUTS.
_Above_: Background scene and the separate items.
_Below_: Completed scene showing one phase of the performance of
the little cardboard actors and stage property.
[_See page 90_]]
ANIMATED CARTOONS
HOW THEY ARE MADE
THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
BY
E. G. LUTZ
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1920
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Published February, 1920
[Illustration: (Colophon)]
INTRODUCTION
We learn through the functioning of our senses; sight the most
precious shows us the appearance of the exterior world. Before
the dawn of pictorial presentation, man was visually cognizant
only of his immediate or present surroundings. On the development
of realistic picturing it was possible, more or less truthfully,
to become acquainted with the aspect of things not proximately
perceivable. The cogency of the perceptive impression was dependent
upon the graphic faithfulness of the agency—a pictorial work—that
gave the visual representation of the distant thing.
It is by means of sight, too, that the mind since the beginning of
alphabets has been made familiar with the thoughts and the wisdom of
the past and put into relationship with the learning and reasoning of
the present. These two methods of imparting knowledge—delineatory
and by inscribed symbols—have been concurrent throughout the ages.
It was nearly a century ago that Joseph Nicéphore Niepce (1765-1833),
at Châlons-sur-Saône, in France, invented photography. Since that
time it has been possible to fix on a surface, by physicochemical
means, pictures of the exterior world. It was another way of
extending man’s horizon, but a way not dependent, in the matter of
literalness, upon the variations of any individual’s skill or intent,
but rather upon the accuracy of material means.
Thoughts and ideas once represented and preserved by picture-writing,
recorded by symbolical signs, and at last inscribed by alphabetical
marks were, in 1877, registered by mere tracings on a surface and
again reproduced by Mr. Edison with his phonograph. As in the
photograph, the procedure was purely mechanical, and man’s artificial
inventions of linear markings and arbitrary symbols were totally
disregarded.
Through photography we learn of the exterior nature of absent things
and the character of the views in distant places. Or it preserves
these pictorial matters in a material form for the future. The
phonograph communicates to us the uttered thoughts of others or
brings into our homes the melodies and songs of great artists that we
should not otherwise have the opportunity to hear.
And now a new physicochemical marvel has come that apprehends,
reproduces, and guards for the future another sensorial stimulus. It
is the motion-picture and the stimulus is movement.
Photography and the rendering of sounds by the phonograph have both
been adopted for instruction and amusement. The motion-picture
also is used for these purposes, but in the main the art has
been associated with our leisure hours as a means of diversion
or entertainment. During the period of its growth, however, its
adaptability to education has never been lost sight of. It is simply
that development along this line has not been as seriously considered
as it should be. Motion-pictures, it is true, that may be considered
as educational are frequently shown in theatres and halls. Such, for
instance, are views in strange lands, scenic wonders, and pictures
showing the manufacture of some useful article or the manner of
proceeding in some field of human activity. But these are effected
entirely by photography and the narration of their making does not
come within the scope of this book.
Our concern is the description of the processes of making “animated
cartoons,” or moving screen drawings. Related matters, of course,
including the inception and the development of motion-pictures in
general, will be referred to in our work. At present, of the two
divisions of our subject, the art of the animated comic cartoon has
been most developed. It is for this reason that so much of the book
is given to an account of their production.
But on the making of animated screen drawings for scientific and
educational themes little has been said. This is not to be taken as a
measure of their importance.
It is interesting to regard for a moment the vicissitudes of the
word cartoon. Etymologically it is related to words in certain
Latin tongues for paper, card, or pasteboard. Its best-accepted
employment—of bygone times—was that of designating an artist’s
working-size preliminary draft of a painting, a mural decoration,
or a design for tapestry. Raphael’s cartoons in the South Kensington
Museum, in London, are the best-known works of art coming under this
meaning of the term. (They are, too, the usual instances given in
dictionaries when this meaning is explained.) The most frequent use
of the word up to recently, however, has been to specify a printed
picture in which the composition bears upon some current event or
political topic and in which notabilities of the day are generally
caricatured. The word cartoon did not long particularize this kind
of pictorial work but was soon applied to any humorous or satirical
printed picture no matter whether the subject was on a topic of the
day or not.
When some of the comic graphic artists began to turn their attention
to the making of drawings for animated screen pictures, nothing
seemed more natural than that the word “animated” should be prefixed
to the term describing their products and so bringing into usage the
expression “animated cartoons.” But the term did not long remain
restricted to this application, as it soon was called into service
by the workers in the industry to describe any film made from
drawings without regard to whether the subject was of a humorous
or of an educational character. Its use in this sense is perhaps
justified as it forms a convenient designation in the trade to
distinguish between films made from drawings and those having as
their basic elements actuality, that is, people, scenes, and objects.
Teachers now are talking of “visual instruction.” They mean by
this phrase in the special sense that they have given to it the
use of motion-picture films for instructional purposes. Travel
pictures to be used in connection with teaching geography or
micro-cinematographic films for classes in biology are good examples
of such films. But not all educational subjects can be depicted
by the camera solely. For many themes the artist must be called
in to prepare a series of drawings made in a certain way and then
photographed and completed to form a film of moving diagrams or
drawings.
As it is readily understood that any school topic presented in
animated pictures will stimulate and hold the attention, and that
the properties of things when depicted in action are more quickly
grasped visually than by description or through motionless diagrams,
it is likely that visual instruction by films will soon play an
important part in any course of studies. Then the motion-picture
projector will become the pre-eminent school apparatus and such
subjects as do not lend themselves to photography will very generally
need to be drawn; thereupon the preponderance of the comic cartoon
will cease and the animated screen drawing of serious and worth-while
themes will prevail.
E. G. L.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. THE BEGINNING OF ANIMATED DRAWINGS 3
II. THE GENESIS OF MOTION-PICTURES 35
III. MAKING ANIMATED CARTOONS 57
IV. FURTHER DETAILS ON MAKING ANIMATED CARTOONS 83
V. ON MOVEMENT IN THE HUMAN FIGURE 99
VI. NOTES ON ANIMAL LOCOMOTION 131
VII. INANIMATE THINGS IN MOVEMENT 153
VIII. MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS IN MAKING ANIMATED
SCREEN PICTURES 171
IX. PHOTOGRAPHY AND OTHER TECHNICAL MATTERS 201
X. ON HUMOROUS EFFECTS AND ON PLOTS 223
XI. ANIMATED EDUCATIONAL FILMS AND THE FUTURE 245
ILLUSTRATIONS
Illustrating the method of making animated cartoons
by cut-outs _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Magic-lantern and motion-picture projector compared 7
Geneva movement 9
A motion-picture projector 11
Illustrating the proportions of light and dark periods during
projection in two types of shutters 12
Section of an animated cartoon film 15
The thaumatrope 17
Two instruments used in early investigations of optical phenomena 18
Apparatus on the order of Faraday’s wheel 19
An antecedent of the phenakistoscope 20
A phenakistoscope 21
Phenakistoscope combined with a magic-lantern 22
Phenakistoscope with a cycle of drawings to show a dog in movement 23
The zootrope 24
Zoetrope of William Lincoln 25
Reynaud’s praxinoscope 26
The theatre praxinoscope 28
Projection praxinoscope 29
Optical theatre of Reynaud 30
The kineograph 31
Plan of the apparatus of Coleman Sellers 36
The ostrich walking; from Muybridge _Facing page_ 40
Marey’s photographic gun 42
Plan of the kinora 43
Plan of Edison’s first kinetoscope 46
Projector and motion-picture camera compared 48
A negative and a positive print 49
Plan of a motion-picture camera 50
Types of camera and projector shutters 51
One foot of film passes through the projector in one second 53
“Animator’s” drawing-board 61
A sheet of perforated paper and the registering pegs 63
Illustrating the making of an animated scene 67
Illustrating the making of an animated scene with the help of
celluloid sheets 71
Arrangement of board, pegs, and hinged frame with glass 75
Balloons 78
Three elements that complete a scene 79
Phenakistoscope with cycle of drawings of a face to show a movement
of the mouth 80
Cardboard model of an airplane with separate cut-out propellers
_Facing page_ 84
The laws of perspective are to be considered in “animating” an
object 86
Perspective applied in the drawing of birds as well as in the
picturing of objects 87
Articulated cardboard figures 89
Illustrating the animation of a mouse as he runs around
the kitchen 95
Successive phases of movements of the legs in walking 101
Illustrating the action of the foot in rolling over the ground 103
Successive phases of movements in walking 105
Phases of movement of a quick walk 107
Contractions and expansions as characteristic of motion 109
Order in which an animator makes the sequence of positions
for a walk 112 and 113
Phases of movement of a walk. Six phases complete a step 115
A perspective walk 117
Four positions for a perspective run 118
Phases of movement for a perspective run 119
Running figure 121
Phases of movement for a quick walk 123
Walking movements, somewhat mechanical 124
Phases of movement for a lively walk 125
Phases of movement for a quick walk 127
Walking movements viewed from above 128
Trotting horse 134
Trotting horse (_continued_) 135
A panorama effect 138
Galloping horse for a panorama effect 139
The elephant in motion 140
The elephant in motion (_continued_) 141
Pigeon in flight; from Muybridge _Facing page_ 142
Comic walk of a duck 143
Cycle of phases of a walking dog arranged for the phenakistoscope 144
Phenakistoscope with a cycle of drawings to show a dog in
movement 145
Running cow 147
Phases of movement of a walking lion 148
Dog walking 149
Various kinds of wave motion 150
Cycle of drawings to produce a screen animation of a waving flag 157
Cycle of drawings for an effect of falling water 159
Cycle of drawings for a puff of vapor 161
An explosion 162
The finishing stroke of some farcical situation 163
Piano practice 164
Three drawings used in sequence and repeated as long as the
particular effect that they give is desired 165
A constellation 166
Simple elements used in animating a scene 167
Symbolical animation of snoring 172
Series of drawings used to show a baby crying 173
A “close-up” 175
Illustrating the use of little “model” hats to vivify a scene 176
“Cut-out” eyes 178
Illustrating the making of “in-between” drawings 179
Illustrating the number of drawings required for a movement 180
Illustrating a point in animating a moving limb 182
Making drawings in turning the head 183
Easily drawn circular forms and curves 186
Foreground details of a pictorial composition 190
Making an animated cartoon panorama 193
Illustrating the apparent slowness of a distant object compared to one
passing close to the eye 195
Distinguishing marks on wheels to give the illusion of turning 197
Elements used in giving a figure the effect of trembling 198
Typical arrangement of camera and lights 203
Part of a length of film for a title 208
Vignetter or iris dissolve 211
To explain the distribution of light in a cross dissolve 213
Illustrating the operation of one type of motion-picture printer 217
Another plan for an animator’s drawing-board 218
Canine thoughts 219
Plenty of movement demanded in screen pictures 224
The plaint of inanimate things 227
The pinwheel effect of two boys fighting, elements needed in
producing it 231
Cycle of drawings to give the illusion of a man spinning
like a top 235
A blurred impression like that of the spokes of a turning wheel is
regarded as funny 236
Hats 239
Radiating “dent” lines 240
A laugh-provoking incident in an animated cartoon 241
The Mad Hatter 246
Detail of a fresco by Michael Angelo 248
Mr. Frost’s spirited delineation of figures in action 249
The peep-show 250
Demeny’s phonoscope 251
Drawings used in making a film of a gasolene engine in operation 255
Character of drawings that would be prepared in producing moving
diagrams of the muscles in action 258
THE BEGINNING OF ANIMATED DRAWINGS
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNING OF ANIMATED DRAWINGS
The picture thrown on the wall by the magic-lantern, although an
illusion, and no more tangible than a shadow, has nevertheless a
certain tactile quality. If it is projected from a drawing on a glass
slide, its design is definite; and if from a photographic slide,
the tones are clearly discernible. It is—unless it is one of those
quaintly moving amusing subjects operated by a crude mechanism—a
quiescent picture. The spirited screen picture thrown by the lens
of a motion-picture projector is an illusion, too. It exemplifies,
however, two varieties of this class of sensory deceptions. First:
it is an illusion for the same reason that the image from the
magic-lantern is one; namely, a projected shadow of a more or less
opaque design on a transparent material intervening between the
illuminant and the lens. And secondly, it is an illusion in that it
synthesizes mere pictorial spectres into the appearance of life and
movement. This latter particular, the seeming activity of life,
is the fundamental dissimilarity between pictures projected by the
magic-lantern and those thrown on the screen by the motion-picture
apparatus.
And it is only the addition to the magic-lantern, of a mechanism
that makes possible this optical vibration of life and motion, that
constitutes the differing feature in the two types of projecting
machines.
In the magic-lantern and its improved form, the stereopticon,
separate views of different subjects are shown in succession. Each
picture is allowed to remain on the screen long enough to be readily
beheld and appreciated. But the picture is at rest and does not
move. With the motion-picture projector a series of slightly varying
pictures of the same subject are projected in quick succession. This
succession is at such a rapid rate that the interval of time during
which one picture moves out of place to make way for the next is so
short that it is nearly imperceptible. In consequence, the slightly
varying pictures blend on the screen and we have a phantasmagoria of
movement.
The phenomenon of this movement—this semblance to life—takes
place, not on the screen, but within the eye. Its consideration, a
subject proper for the science of physiology (and in some aspects
psychology), has weight for us more particularly as a matter of
physics.
Memory has been said to be an attribute of all organic matter. An
instance of this seems to be the property of the eye to retain on its
retina an after-image of anything just seen. That is to say, when an
object impresses its image upon the retina and then moves away, or
disappears, there still remains, for a measurable period, an image of
this object within the eye. This singularity of the visual sense is
spoken of as the persistence of vision or the formation of positive
after-images. And it is referred to as a positive after-image in
contradistinction to another visional phenomenon called the negative
after-image. This latter kind is instanced in the well-known
experiment of fixing the eyes for a few moments upon some design in
a brilliant color and quickly turning away to gaze at a blank space
of white where instantly the same design will be seen, but of a color
complementary to that of the particular hue first gazed at.
The art of the motion-picture began when physicists first noticed
this peculiarity of the organ of sight in retaining after-images. The
whole art is based on its verity. It is the special quality of the
visual sense that makes possible the appreciation of living screen
pictures.
An interesting matter to bear in mind is the circumstance that the
first attempt at giving to a screen image the effect of life was by
means of a progressive series of drawings. When photographs came
later, drawings were forgotten and only when the cinematographic art
had reached its great development and universality, were drawings
again brought into use to be synthesized on the screen.
To describe how these drawings are made, their use and application to
the making of animated cartoons, is the purpose of this book.
Before proceeding with a sketch of the development of the art
of making these cartoons, it will make the matter more readily
understood if we give, at first, in a few paragraphs, a brief
description of the present-day method of throwing a living picture on
the screen by the motion-picture projector.
[Illustration: MAGIC-LANTERN AND MOTION-PICTURE PROJECTOR COMPARED.]
The projector for motion-pictures, like the magic-lantern, consists
of an illuminant, reflector, condenser, and objective. This last part
is the combination of lenses that gather and focus the light rays
carrying the pencils of lights and shadows composing the picture
and throwing them on the screen. There is, in the magic-lantern,
immediately back of the objective, a narrow aperture through which
the glass slide holding a picture is thrust. In the motion-picture
apparatus, the transparent surface containing the picture also passes
back of the objective, but instead of the simple process of pushing
one slide through to make way for another, there is a complicated
mechanism to move a long ribbon containing the sequence of pictures
that produces the image on the screen. Now this ribbon consists of
a strip of transparent celluloid[1] each with a separate photograph
of some one general scene but each with slight changes in the moving
details—objects or figures. These changes record the movements
from the beginning to the end of the particular story, action, or
pantomime.
Along the edges of the ribbons are rows of perforations that are most
accurately equalized with respect to their size and of the distances
between them. It is by means of wheels with teeth that engage with
the perforations and the movement of another toothed part of the
mechanism that the ribbon or film is carried across the path of
light in the projecting machine. The device for moving the film,
although not of a very intricate character, is nevertheless of an
ingenious type. It is intermittent in action and operates so that one
section of film, containing a picture, is held in the path of light
for a fraction of a second, moved away and another section, with the
next picture, brought into place to be projected in its turn. This
way of working, in most of the projectors, is obtained by the use of
a mechanical construction known as the Geneva movement. The pattern
of its principal part is a wheel shaped somewhat like a Maltese
cross. The form shown in the illustration is given as a type; not all
are of this pattern, nor are they all four-parted.
[Illustration: FOUR PHASES OF THE ACTION OF THE INTERMITTENT GEARING
KNOWN AS THE GENEVA MOVEMENT.]
It is obvious that while one picture moves out of the way for the
next, there would be a blur on the screen during such a movement if
some means were not devised to prevent it. This is found by eclipsing
the light during the time of the change from one picture to another.
The detail of the projector that effects this is a revolving shutter
with a solid part and an open section. (This is the old type of
shutter. It is noticed here because the way in which the light rays
project the picture is easily explained by using it as an example.)
This shutter is so geared with the rest of the mechanism that (1) the
solid part passes across the path of light while another picture is
moving into place; and that (2) the open section passes across the
path of light while a rectangular area containing a picture is at
rest and its details are being projected on the screen.
It may be asked, at this point, why the eye is not aware on the
screen of the passing shadow of the opaque part of the shutter as
it eclipses the light. It would seem that there should be either a
blur or a darkened period on the screen. But the mechanism moves so
rapidly that the passing of the solid portion of the shutter is not
ordinarily perceptible.
[Illustration: A MOTION-PICTURE PROJECTOR.
_A._ Film. _B._ Upper magazine. _C._ Feed reel. _D._ Lower
magazine, containing the take-up reel. _E._ Crank to operate
mechanism by hand. _F._ Motor. _G._ Where the film stops
intermittently to be projected. _H._ Lamp-house. _I._ Port, or
window in the fireproof projection booth. _J._ Rotating shutter.
_K._ Lens. _L._ Condenser. _M._ Switches. _N._ Fire shutter;
automatically drops when the film stops or goes too slowly.]
One foot of celluloid film contains sixteen separate pictures, and
these pass in front of the light in one second. One single tiny
picture of the film takes up then one-sixteenth of a second. But
not all of this fraction of a second is given to the projection of
the picture as some of the time is taken up with moving it into
place immediately before projection. The relative apportionment of
this period of one-sixteenth of a second is so arranged that about
five-sixths of it (five ninety-sixths of a second) is given to the
holding of the film at rest and the projection of its picture, and
the remaining one-sixth (one ninety-sixth of a second) is given to
the movement of a section of the film and the shutting off of the
light by the opaque part of the shutter.
[Illustration:
ILLUSTRATING THE PROPORTIONS OF LIGHT AND DARK PERIODS DURING
PROJECTION IN TWO TYPES OF SHUTTERS.
1. Old single-blade type; caused a “flicker.”
2. Regular three-blade type; light evenly distributed. It is to be
noted that while the picture is on the screen two opaque sections
of the shutter eclipse the light.]
In the last few paragraphs we have referred to the old type of
shutter which caused a flicker, or unsteadiness of light on the
screen. Nowadays a three-bladed shutter that nearly does away with
an unsteady light is in general use. Its operation, approximately
for the purposes of description is like this: It turns once in
one-sixteenth of a second; one-sixth of this time is taken up with
the moving of the film and the eclipsing of the light by one blade
of the shutter. During the remainder of the time—five-sixths of it,
the following takes place: the film is stationary and ready for
projection, then two blades of the shutter and three of its open
sections pass across the path of the light.
From this it can be seen that when the picture is viewed on the
screen, there are actually two short moments when the light rays are
cut off. This is not perceived by the spectator on account of the
speed of the revolving shutter and the strong illuminant. Instead,
the use of a shutter of this pattern evens the screen lighting by
making an equal apportioning of light flashes and dark periods. With
the old shutter there was one long period of light and one short
period of darkness. It was this unequal distribution that gave rise
to the flicker. At times, under certain conditions, a two-bladed
shutter is used also.
A reel of film may vary in length for a short subject of fifty feet
(or even less), to a very long “feature” of a mile or so in length.
In width, the strip of celluloid measures one and three-eighths
inches. Between the two rows of perforations that engage with the
teeth on the sprocket-wheels and by which a certain part of the
intermittent mechanism pulls the film along, are little rectangular
panels, already alluded to, containing the photographs. Sometimes
these panels are called “frames,” generally though, in the parlance
of the trade, they are simply designated as “pictures.” They measure
one inch across and three-quarters of an inch in height.
As noted above, these frames contain photographs of scenes that
record, by changes in their action, the incidents and episodes of the
story of any particular reel. In the case of animated cartoons, the
frames on the film also contain photographs, but these photographs
are made from sets of progressive drawings depicting the action of
the characters of the animated cartoon.
[Illustration: SECTION OF AN ANIMATED CARTOON FILM.
Exact size.]
In concluding this brief account of the modern motion-picture, the
attention is directed, as the subject is studied, to a few details
of the mechanism and to the general procedure that are found to be
elementary features in nearly all apparatus used during the round
of years that the art was developing. They are as follows: (1) A
series of pictures—drawings or photographs—representing an action by
progressive changes in their delineation. (2) Their presentation,
one at a time, in rapid succession. (3) Their synthesis, directly
upon the retina of the eye, or projected on a screen and then viewed
by the eye. (4) Some means by which light—or the vision—is shut
off while the change from one picture to another is taking place.
(Projecting machines have been made, however, in which the film is
moved so rapidly, and in a particular way, that a shutter to eclipse
the light is not needed.)
Now, as stated before, the phenomenon of the persistence of vision is
the fundamental physiological fact upon which the whole possibility
of seeing screen pictures rests. One of the first devices made that
depended upon it, and that very simply demonstrated this faculty
of the retina for holding a visional image for a time, was an
optical toy called the thaumatrope. It dates from about 1826. It
was a cardboard disk with two holes close to the edge at opposite
points. Strings were passed through these holes and fastened and
the dangling ends held and rolled between the thumbs and fingers so
that the disk was made to twirl rapidly. Each side of the disk had
a picture printed or drawn upon it. These two pictures when viewed
together while the disk was twirled appeared as one complete picture.
A favorite design for depiction was an empty bird-cage on one side
and a bird on the other. The designs were placed with respect to each
other in the same way as the marks and insignia of the two sides of
most coins. (The coins of Great Britain are an exception, on them
the designs are placed differently. In reading their marks or looking
at the images of the two sides, we turn the coin over like the page
of a book.)
[Illustration: THE THAUMATROPE.
_Above_: How the designs of the two sides are placed with respect
to each other.
_Below_: The combined image when the thaumatrope is twirled.]
The thaumatrope illustrates the persistence of vision in a very
elementary way. Simply explained, the face of one side of the
disk with its design is before the eye, the design impresses its
true image upon the retina, the disk turns away and the picture
disappears, but its after-image remains on the retina. The disk
having turned, brings the other picture into view. Its true image is
impressed upon the retina to blend with the after-image of the first
picture. In rapid sequence this turning continues and the two images
commingle to give the fantasy of a perfect design.
A limited number of subjects only were suitable for demonstration
by a toy of this character. Two other subjects were those showing
designs to give the effect of a rider on a horse and a tight-rope
dancer balanced on a rope.
[Illustration: TWO INSTRUMENTS USED IN EARLY INVESTIGATIONS OF
OPTICAL PHENOMENA.
From _The Saturday Magazine_ of 1837 and 1841.]
Later when scientific investigators were busy inquiring into the
phenomena of visual distortions exhibited by the spokes and teeth
of turning wheels when seen in contrast with certain intervening
objects, a curious apparatus was contrived by Faraday the English
scientist (1791-1867). This apparatus was so constructed that two
disks were made to travel, by cogged gearing, in opposite directions,
but at the same speed. Around the circumferences of the disks were
cut narrow slots at equal distances apart and so making the solid
portions between them like teeth, or spokes of a wheel.
[Illustration: APPARATUS ON THE ORDER OF FARADAY’S WHEEL.
With the disks moving as marked, the disk _B_ will appear to be
motionless when viewed through the passing slots of disk _A_.]
When this machine was set in motion and the eye directed through the
moving and blurred teeth of the front disk toward the far disk, this
far disk appeared to be stationary. Its outline—the teeth, slots,
and circumference—were distinctly seen and not blurred.
Then it was found that the same effect could be obtained with the use
of one slotted disk by simply holding it in front of a mirror and
viewing the reflected image through the moving slots of the disk.
The reflection answered for the second disk of the instrument of the
first experiment.
[Illustration: AN ANTECEDENT OF THE PHENAKISTOSCOPE.
When the disk is twirled the reflections of its spokes appear
stationary when viewed through the moving slots.]
From this type of optical toy it was but a step to the contriving of
various types of instruments constructed on the pattern of a slotted
disk, or some sort of a turning mechanism with a series of apertures,
to use in giving the illusion of movement in connection with
drawings or photographs. The best-known was the phenakistoscope,
the invention of which has been credited to the Belgian physicist,
Plateau (1801-1883). This toy was a large cardboard disk with
pictures on one side that were to be viewed by their reflections
through slots in the disk while it was held before a mirror. The
pictures drawn in sequence represented some action, as a horse
running, an acrobat, a juggler, or some amusing subject that could
be drawn easily in a cycle of actions and that would lend itself to
repetition.
[Illustration: Holding a phenakistoscope before a mirror and ready to
twirl it around.]
The phenakistoscope has some rough resemblance in its plan to a
motion-picture projector—the cycle of slightly different drawings
represents the film with its sequence of tiny pictures; the slots in
the disk by which the drawings are viewed in the mirror correspond to
the open sections of the revolving shutter; while the solid portions
of the disk answer to the opaque parts of the shutter.
As it only was possible in the phenakistoscope that one person at a
time could view conveniently the reflected pictures, the attempt was
made to arrange it for projection. A lens was added with a light and
mirrors so that a number of people could see its operation at the
same time. In another form the pictures were placed on a glass disk
which was made to rotate back of a magic-lantern objective.
[Illustration: PHENAKISTOSCOPE COMBINED WITH A MAGIC-LANTERN.]
When the number of slots in a phenakistoscope correspond to the
number of drawings in the cycle, the different figures of the cycle
are in action but they do not move from the place where they are
depicted. Only their limbs, if it is an action in which these parts
are brought into play, are in movement. But if there is one slot more
and the disk turned in the proper direction, the row of drawings will
appear to be going around a circle. This is particularly adapted to
series of running animals.
[Illustration: PHENAKISTOSCOPE WITH A CYCLE OF DRAWINGS TO SHOW A DOG
IN MOVEMENT.]
Another method of giving the semblance of motion to a series of
progressive drawings, soon devised after the invention of the
phenakistoscope, was the zootrope, or wheel of life. It embodied the
idea, too, of a rapidly moving opaque flat portion with a row of
slots passing between the eye and the drawings.
In form the zootrope was like a cylindrical lidless box of cardboard.
It was pivoted and balanced on a vertical rod so that it could be
made to turn easily and very rapidly. The slots were cut around the
upper rim of the box. Long strips of paper holding pictures fitted
into the box. When one of these strips was put in place, it was so
adjusted that any particular drawing of the series could be viewed
through a slot of the opposite side. These drawings appeared to be in
motion when the zootrope was made to twirl.
[Illustration: THE ZOOTROPE.]
This type of optical curiosity, as a matter of priority, is
associated with the name of Desvignes, as he obtained a patent for
it in England in 1860. Later in 1867, a United States patent was
issued for a similar instrument to William Lincoln, of Providence, R.
I. He called his device the zoetrope.
[Illustration: ZOETROPE OF WILLIAM LINCOLN.]
This cylindrical synthesizing apparatus was sold as a toy for many
years. Bands of paper with cycles of drawings of a variety of
humorous and entertaining subjects thereon were prepared for use with
it.
But the busy inventors were not satisfied with the simple form in
which it was first fabricated. Very soon from the zootrope was
evolved another optical curiosity that preserved the general
cylindrical plan, but made use of the reflective property of a mirror
to aid the illusion. This was the praxinoscope of M. Reynaud, of
France. He perfected it and adapted its principles to create other
forms of rotating mechanisms harmonizing progressive drawings to show
movement.
[Illustration: _A._ REYNAUD’S PRAXINOSCOPE.
_B._ PLAN OF THE PRAXINOSCOPE.]
The praxinoscope held to the idea of a box, cylindrical and lidless,
and pivoted in the centre so that it turned. The strip of drawings,
and the plan of placing them inside of the box—two features of
the zootrope—were both retained. But instead of looking at the
drawings through apertures in the box rim, they were observed by
their reflections in mirrors placed on an inner section or drum.
The mirrors were the same in number as the drawings and turned with
the rest of the apparatus. The mirrors were placed on the drum—the
all-important point in the construction of the praxinoscope—half-way
between the centre and the inner side of the rim of the box. As the
drawings were placed here, the eye, looking over the rim of the box,
viewed their reflections in the mirrors. But the actual place of a
reflection was the same distance back of the surface of a mirror
that a drawing was in front of it; namely, at the dead centre of the
rotating cylinder. It was here, at this quiet point, that it was
possible to see the changing images of the succession of graduated
drawings blending to give the illusion of motion.
Reynaud next fixed his praxinoscope with improvements that made the
characters in his drawings appear to be going through a performance
on a miniature stage. He called his new contrivance the theatre
praxinoscope. This new mechanism, was fixed in a box before which
was placed a mask-like section to represent a proscenium. Another
addition in front of this had a rectangular peep-hole and small
cut-out units of stage scenery that were reflected on the surface of
a glass inserted into the proscenium opening.
[Illustration: THE THEATRE PRAXINOSCOPE.]
Not satisfied with this toy theatre, Reynaud’s next step was to
combine with the praxinoscope, condensers, lenses, and an illuminant
with which to project the images on a screen, so that spectators in
an auditorium could see the illusion. A more intricate mechanism,
again, was later devised by Reynaud. This was his optical theatre in
which there was used an endless band of graduated drawings depicting
a rather long pantomimic story. It, of course, was an enlargement
of the idea of the simple early form of praxinoscope with its strip
of paper containing the drawings. But this optical theatre had
such a complication of mirrors and lenses that the projected light
reached the screen somewhat diminished in illuminating power, and the
pictures were consequently dimmed.
[Illustration: PROJECTION PRAXINOSCOPE.
(After picture in _La Nature_, 1882.)]
From the time of the invention of the thaumatrope in 1826, and
throughout the period when the few typical machines noted above were
in use, drawings only in graduated and related series, were applied
in the production of the illusion of movement.
[Illustration: OPTICAL THEATRE OF REYNAUD.
(After picture in _La Nature_, 1892.)]
Drawings, too, were first employed for a little optical novelty in
book-form, introduced about 1868, called the kineograph. It consisted
of a number of leaves, with drawings on one side, firmly bound along
an edge. The manner of its manipulation was to cause the leaves to
flip from under the thumb while the book was held in the hands. The
pictures, all of a series depicting some action of an entertaining
subject, passed quickly before the vision as they slipped from under
the thumb and gave a continuous action of the particular subject of
the kineograph.
[Illustration: THE KINEOGRAPH.]
Now when the camera began to be employed in taking pictures of
figures in action, one of the first uses made of such pictures was
to put a series of them into the book-form so as to give, by this
simple method of allowing the leaves to flip from under the thumb,
the visional deception of animated photographs.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Celluloid is at this date the most serviceable material for these
ribbons. But as it is inflammable a substitute is sought—one that
has the advantages possessed by celluloid but of a non-combustible
material.
THE GENESIS OF MOTION-PICTURES