- Small stiff notepad
- Crayons or marker
Making Movies
Before the invention of the motion picture camera, many odd devices brought still pictures to life, creating the illusion of motion.One such device, the zoetrope, meant “wheel of life”. Other devices where mutoscope or flip book, phenkistoscope and kinetoscope.
The principle of these devices are the same. Separate sequential images flash by at high speeds, fooling the brain into seeing one continuous image in motion. Each separate image persists in the brain for 1/16 of a second. Images flashing by at speeds greater than this blend into a single moving picture.
Mutoscope
We’ll construct the simplest device, the mutoscope. Draw a simple design on every page of a small stiff notepad, starting at the back. Make each design relate to the one before it. If you begin with a square and gradually round off the square’s corners and want to turn it into a circle, for instance, gradually round off the corners of the square’s corners in the next few drawings. If you want your square to revolve, tilt the square a little more in each drawing, allowing drawings to naturally flow into one another. This ensures smooth images when you flip.
When you finish your drawings, flip through the pad like a deck of cards, from back to front. Your design comes to life.