Zoetrope - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

words "ζωή – zoe", "life" and τρόπος – tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life".

It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits on the inner surface of the cylinder is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

s. As the cylinder spins the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder's interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a motion picture

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

. Cylindrical zoetropes have the property of causing the images to appear thinner than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.

Invention

The earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

around 180 AD by the inventor Ding Huan (丁緩). Driven by convection

Convection

Convection is the movement of molecules within fluids and rheids. It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids....

Ding Huan's device hung over a lamp and was called "The Pipe Which Makes Fantasies Appear." The rising air turned vanes at the top from which were hung translucent paper or mica

Mica

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...

panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device is spun at the right speed.

The modern zoetrope was invented in 1834 by British mathematician William George Horner

William George Horner

William George Horner was a British mathematician and schoolmaster. The invention of the zoetrope, in 1834 and under a different name , has been attributed to him.-Life:...

. He called it the "Daedalum," popularly translated as "the wheel of the devil" though there is no evidence of this etymology. More likely it was a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus

Daedalus

In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...

. It failed to become popular until the 1860s, when it was patented by makers in both England and America, in the latter country one of whom was Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley , an American game pioneer, was credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company....

. The American developer, William F. Lincoln, named his toy the 'zoetrope', which means 'wheel of life.'

Almost simultaneously similar inventions were made independently in Belgium by Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (Phenakistoscope

Phenakistoscope

The phenakistoscope was an early animation device that used the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion.-History:...

) and Austria by Simon von Stampfer

Simon von Stampfer

Simon Ritter von Stampfer was an Austrian mathematician, surveyor and inventor. His most famous invention is that of the stroboscopic disk which has a claim to be the first device to show moving images...

(Stroboscope

Stroboscope

A stroboscope, also known as a strobe, is an instrument used to make a cyclically moving object appear to be slow-moving, or stationary. The principle is used for the study of rotating, reciprocating, oscillating or vibrating objects...

).

The zoetrope worked on the same principles as the phenakistiscope, but the pictures were drawn on a strip which could be set around the bottom third of a metal drum, with the slits now cut in the upper section of the drum. The drum was mounted on a spindle so that it could be spun, and viewers looking through the slits would see the cartoon strip form a moving image. The faster the drum is spun, the smoother the image that is produced.

Modern times

The praxinoscope

Praxinoscope

The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. It was invented in France in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud. Like the zoetrope, it used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder...

was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward the end of the 19th century.

The earliest projected moving images

Movie projector

A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...

were displayed by using a magic lantern

Magic lantern

The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...

zoetrope. This crude projection of moving images occurred as early as the 1860s. A magic lantern praxinoscope was demonstrated in the 1880s.

Zoetrope development continues into the 21st century, primarily with the "Linear zoetrope." A linear zoetrope consists of an opaque linear screen with thin vertical slits in it. Behind each slit is an image, often illuminated. One views the motion-picture by moving past the display.

Linear zoetropes have several differences compared to cylindrical zoetropes that derive from their different geometries. They can have arbitrarily long animations. They also cause images to appear wider than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.

Subway zoetropes

In September 1980, independent film-maker Bill Brand

Bill Brand (film artist)

Bill Brand is an experimental film and video artist, educator, activist and film preservationist.-Life and career:Brand's films and videos were first shown at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in 1973...

installed a type of linear zoetrope he called the "Masstransiscope" in an unused subway platform at Myrtle Avenue

Myrtle Avenue (BMT Fourth Avenue Line)

Myrtle Avenue is an abandoned local station on the Manhattan Bridge subway tracks south of the bridge in Brooklyn, New York City, United States...

in Brooklyn, New York. It consisted of a linear wall with 228 slits in the face. Behind each slit was a hand-painted panel. Riders in subways moving past the display saw a motion-picture within. After falling into a state of disrepair, the "Masstransiscope" was restored in late 2008. Since then, a variety of artists and advertisers have begun to use subway tunnel walls to produce a zoetrope effect when viewed from moving trains.

Joshua Spodek, as an astrophysics graduate student, conceived of and led the development of a class of linear zoetropes that saw the first commercial success of a zoetrope in over a century. A display of his design debuted in September 2001 in a tunnel of the Atlanta subway system

Marta

Marta may refer to:* Marta or Marta Vieira da Silva , a Brazilian women's football forward* Marta Estrella, a recurring fictional character from Arrested Development...

and showed an advertisement to riders moving past. That display is internally lit and nearly 300 meters long. Its motion-picture was about twenty seconds long. His design soon appeared in subway systems elsewhere in North America, Asia, and Europe. Joshua has also participated in a renaissance in zoetrope related art and other noncommercial expression.

Since Spodek's innovation, many zoetropes, both commercial and artistic, have appeared in subway systems around the world.

In April 2006, the Washington Metro

Washington Metro

The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...

installed advertising using the zoetrope system between the Metro Center

Metro Center (Washington Metro)

Metro Center is the central hub station of the Washington Metro rapid transit system in Washington, D.C. Metro Center was one of the original Metro stations, and has been in service since March 27, 1976....

and Gallery Place subway stations. A similar advertisement was installed on the PATH

Port Authority Trans-Hudson

PATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...

train in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, between the World Trade Center

World Trade Center

The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

and Exchange Place

Exchange Place (PATH station)

The Exchange Place PATH station, opened on July 19, 1909, is located at Exchange Place in Jersey City, New Jersey, adjacent to the Hudson River at Paulus Hook. The station serves the Goldman Sachs Tower and other buildings in this area, also sometimes referred to as "Wall Street West".The station...

stations.

A similar zoetrope-type advertisement appeared at about the same time on the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit

Bay Area Rapid Transit

Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...

(BART) system between the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations, which could be viewed by commuters traveling in either direction. The BART ads are still visible at the present time, however the ads are infrequently changed and often a particular ad may remain up for several months before being replaced.

New York City's MTA hosted two digital linear zoetrope art installations through its Arts for Transit program, both created by students working with Spodek. One was installed in 2010 in the Bryant Park subway station, called "Bryant Park in Motion," by Spodek and students at New York University's Tisch School of Arts' Interactive Telecommunications Program. The other was installed in 2011 by Spodek and students and alumni from Parsons the New School for Design's Art, Media, and Technology program in the Union Square station called "Union Square in Motion."

Other modern zoetropes

A Zoetrope was used in the filming of a music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

for "My Last Serenade

Alive or Just Breathing

Alive or Just Breathing is the second studio album by American metalcore band Killswitch Engage. It was released on May 21, 2002 through Roadrunner Records. It is the last album to feature vocalist Jesse Leach...

" by Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage is an American metalcore band from Westfield, Massachusetts, formed in 1999 after the disbandment of Overcast and Aftershock. Killswitch Engage's current lineup consists of vocalist Howard Jones, bassist Mike D'Antonio, guitarists Joel Stroetzel and Adam Dutkiewicz, and drummer...

. It features a woman looking through the slits on a Zoetrope while it moves, and as she looks closer, the camera moves through the slits into the Zoetrope where the band is playing the song.

The Ghibli Museum

Ghibli Museum

is a museum featuring the Japanese anime work of Studio Ghibli, and is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka, a western suburb of Tokyo, Japan.The museum is a fine arts museum, but does not take the concept of a usual fine arts museum. With many features that are child-oriented and a sprawling and...

hosts a zoetrope using 3D figures on a rotating disk. Rather than slits or mirrors, a strobing LED is used. The animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

on this zoetrope is inspired by My Neighbour Totoro. Pixar

Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...

created a 3D zoetrope inspired by Ghibli

Studio Ghibli

is a Japanese animation and film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro...

's for its touring exhibition which first showed at the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

, featuring characters from Toy Story

Toy Story

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...

. Two more 3D Zoetropes have been created by Pixar, both feature 360' viewing. One is installed at Disney's California Adventure

Disney's California Adventure

Disney California Adventure, or simply California Adventure, is a theme park in Anaheim, California, adjacent to Disneyland Park and part of the larger Disneyland Resort. It opened on February 8, 2001 as Disney's California Adventure Park. The park is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and...

, sister park to Disneyland

Disneyland Park (Anaheim)

Disneyland Park is a theme park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the Walt Disney Company. Known as Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955, and still almost universally referred to by that name, it is the only theme park to be...

and the other is installed at Hong Kong Disneyland. The original Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope still travels worldwide and has been shown in London England, Edinburgh Scotland, Melbourne Australia, Seoul Korea, Helsinki Finland, Monterrey Mexico, Taipei Tawain, Kaohsiung Taiwan, Singapore, and is currently displayed in the exhibition for the 25th Pixar

Pixar

Anniversary at Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea

Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea

Padiglione d'arte contemporanea is a contemporary art museum in Milan, Italy. It is located in via Palestro, near Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli.- References :* - External links :*...

(PAC) in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy.

In the early 1970s, Sega

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

used a mechanism similar to an ancient zoetrope in order to create electro-mechanical arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

s that would resemble later first-person

First person (video games)

In video games, first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight...

video games. In 2007 an image of a zoetrope, where a futuristic city with flying cars was viewed through the shape of a number two, was unveiled as one of BBC Two's new idents. In 2009 the E4 drama program Skins released silent preview clips of Series 4 to coincide with their Mash Up competition. One of the clips featured the character Emily Fitch, looking into a zoetrope. Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...

uses a zoetrope at the Las Vegas show as well as at the Sharp Aquos Theater at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL.

World record

In 2008 Artem Limited, a UK visual effects house, built for Sony a 10 meter wide, 10 tonne zoetrope, called the BRAVIA

BRAVIA

BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors and for the PlayStation 3 , along with its home cinema range under the sub-brand BRAVIA Theatre. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture"...

-drome, to promote their motion interpolation

Motion interpolation

Motion interpolation is a form of video processing in which intermediate animation frames are generated between existing ones, in an attempt to make animation more fluid.-HDTV:...

technology. Sixty-four images of the Brazilian footballer Kaká

Kaká

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite , commonly known as Kaká , is a Brazilian football attacking midfielder who currently plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and the Brazilian national team. Kaká started his footballing career at the age of eight, when he began playing for a local club...

were used to demonstrate that with increased frame rate (rotation rate of the zoetrope), there is increased smoothness of motion. This has been declared the largest zoetrope in the world by Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

External links

Zoetrope (information on the zoetrope from the V&A Museum of Childhood)
Further information and a picture can be found here.
Burns, Paul The History of the Discovery of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology
A demonstration of similar optical toys, including the phenakistoscope, praxinoscope and thaumatrope
Bill Brand's Masstransiscope can be found here.
Ghibli's museum page, including information about their zoetrope
http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/press_box/news/20051208-181679.htm Pixar's press release including info about the zoetrope.