Zoetrope’s

After looking at Eadweard Muybridge’s phenakistoscope I came across an updated version that I like the look of, it is a zoetrope.
A zoetrope is a device that creates an illusion of movement from a rapid series of still images. Its made up of a cylinder with slits sliced vertically in the sides. Below the slits on the inside wall of the cylinder is a strip which has your series of images on it. As you spin the zoetrope and look through the slits at the images on the other side you see the illusion of movement. This is because the scanning of the slits keep the images from merely blurring together, giving the effect of motion.
This is simple and effective way to produce illusion in my work and I will be experimenting more with this style.


I have been experimenting with zoetrope’s and have come up with a few ideas that I want to use as my final outcome for this project. My first idea for the project was to work with hands, so I initially wanted to produce and design that will show a 3D view of a hand from all angles. I liked this idea however it wasn’t interesting enough it didn’t have and unique style or meaning.
Therefore I asked for some feedback from my class and they come up with some good advice and got me thinking. I was thinking about how I could incorporate the old and the new in my work, so I thought I could make a series of picture that change form something old to something new e.g. typing on a type writer to a keyboard to a keyboard on a phone.
I done a few sketches of this idea but it wasn’t looking very good to be honest, so I changed it a little. I kept the idea of using a keyboard and a phone and decided to use a hand texting as my design. You will be able to see the hand texting and the writing appear on the phone. I’m not sure what the text is going to say yet, but I think it is more important to get the designs of the hand first.

I really struggled trying to get my pictures to work, when I put my strip of images in my zoetrope and spun it, the images just blurred. I think I should have spent more time researching and making samples.
So I have gone back to the start and a looked into how to get my designs to work. I found out that you can’t use just liner lines for your images, you need to have them coloured in. This is because when you spin the zoetrope fast the image that is coloured stays the focused letting it easier to be seen.
Once I found this out I used it on my images to see if it would work. I didn’t want to use colours because on each picture it would be hard to get them the same; therefore I choose to use black and white.

Here are my pictures that I have produced to go into a strip for my zoetrope.


I now have my new improved designs and rightfully they should work, but they didn’t. I’m not sure why, I think it could have been that I over shaded my pictures making them to dark and they where not all in the same position. Consequently I had to produce another design, learning from these mistakes.
I gave it one more go at creating a design that will work. I decided to take one photo of my hands holding a phone texting. From this I only moved the thumbs of the picture the rest of the image stayed the same making it easy to see when spun.


I had trouble with this, same as the other design. It still wasn’t working how I wanted it to, it was hard to see what it was.
So I have decided to stop the idea of a zoetrope and change my final outcome to something else.

Phenakistoscope

A phenakistoscope is a way to produce moving images caused by illusion. It is made up from a disc with a series of pictures equally spaced out within the circle. Between each of the pictures you need to cut out slits that are big enough to look though. Once you have your disc with your pictures and slits on it, you need to hold it vertically in front of a mirror and spin it while looking though the slits and focusing on the reflection. Due to the slits and the reflection this device uses the phenakistoscope it keeps the pictures simply blurring together, giving rapid succession of images with the appearance of a motion.

I was influenced to look in to this way of animation when I came across Eadweard Muybridge’s photos. When researching animation and movement in art, Eadweard Muybridge name kept catching my eye. So I research Muybridge’s work and liked what he was doing. I found a picture of a phenakistoscope that he produced of man and women dancing the waltz. I liked the simplicity of this type of animation and the effect it had, so I thought I would have a go at producing one myself.

Here is a phenakistoscope created by Eadweard Mubridge


I have tried to use this method and produce a simple phenakistoscope of my own. I like the outcome I got from using this technique and I will be experimenting with different ways of getting motion with my work.

Movement ideas

I have been thinking of way I can produce and show movement in my work using drawings. I have came across things like flipbooks and zoetrope’s in my research and I like the idea of using theses.

-A flipbook is a small book containing a sequence of images that give the illusion of non-stop movement when you flick through the pages quickly.
-A zoetrope is a device that hold a series of images in a cylinder shape. The zoetrope has slits in the side where you look thought, these slits simply stop the images from blurring. So when you spin the zoetrope and look though the slits it give a picture that moves continuingly.
-Phenakistoscope are a lot like zoetrope’s. As they both work in the same way, you need to look though slits to stop the images from blurring. A phenakistoscope is a disk shape with your images on the front with the slits inbetween the images. To view the phenakistoscope you need to hold it up in front of a mirror and spin while looking though the slits to give the movement.
-Digital animation, photography sequences. These are snapshots of something happening for example a human walking, you would take a series of photos of a human walking. When you look at each different photo in a fast sequence it will give the impression of a film.

I think the my hand drawings came out looking good and I want to create work with hands but I want to produce something out of the ordinary for my finial work. I started thinking about the theme what is movement, this made me think that I want to produce work that moves.



This is a experiment to look at how I am going to put movement in my work.

When looking at skeletons I was looking at the different bones and the movement of them in the body. I was particularly interested in the look and the movement of hands. I looked the skeleton of the hand but decided I didn’t want to work with the skeleton. So I just started to look at normal hands and how we can manipulate them into many different shapes.

To get started I just started to practice by drawing my own hand in different positions.

Ideas based around the skeleton.

I have done a little research on humans to get me started on this project, I started looking at the human skeleton. When researching the skeleton I was thinking of styles to work in and trying to get some quick ideas that I could maybe develop into a final idea.

Skeleton

The human skeleton is made up of both fused and individual bones supported and supplemented by ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage. It serves as a structure which supports anchors muscles, organs and protects organs like the brain, lungs and heart

The joints between bones allow movement, some allowing a greater range of movement than others, for example the ball and socket joint allows a wider range of movement than the pivot joint of the neck. Movement is powered by skeletal muscles, which are attached to the skeleton at a combination of sites on bones. Muscles, bones, and joints provide the major mechanics for movement, all matched by the nervous system.