Pre-Film Animation processes

The Magic Lantern

While Animation is now, in the contemporary era, almost universally associated with film, early forms of the practice predate film by several centuries, dating back to the 1600s with 'The Magic Lantern', a precursor to the modern day projector consisting of a piece of limestone squirted with oxygen and hydrogen which once lit projected hand-coloured slides on a screen. Slides showcased a sequence of images that changed every 30 seconds, depicting illustrations set to a soundtrack performed live by musicians in concert halls and theatres.

While initially invented centuries before, Magic Lanterns saw a resurgence in popularity around the Victorian era, where they became a popular source of entertainment. One of the most popular shows during this era was E'tienne Gaspard Robert's 'Phantasmagoria', a forerunner to the Halloween Show, which was held in an old convent that was converted into a magic lantern theatre.

Phantasmagoria soon evolved into its own form of theatre designed to terrify audiences by projecting frightening images, onto walls and semi-transparent screens, of ghosts, demons and other frightening imagery. Robertson's first Phantasmagoria was shown at the Pavillion de L'Echquier in 1797 in Paris, which elicited a strong response, with many audience members being so convinced of the reality of what they were seeing, to the point that police had to temporarily halt the show.

Phenakistoscope

Also in the 1800s, Joseph Plateau's Phenakistoscope paved the way for more traditional forms of classical animation, consisting of a disk with a series of images drawn evenly spaced apart, which is placed in front of a mirror and spun to give the illusion of motion. The invention was popular with the Middle Class of society and was successful commercially.

Zoetrope

A Zoetrope, similar to a a Phenakistoscope, consists of a series of images that depict varies phases in a motion which are displayed in a cylinder with vertical slits cut in the sides which the user looks through as the cylinder spins to give the illusion of motion. A Zoetrope works much the same way as the Phenakistoscope, but is more suited to being viewable by several people at once. Instead of being displayed on a disc, images are displayed on a paper strip which is placed inside the lower half of the inside of the cylinder.

In 1980, Artist Bill Brand created a linear Zoetrope in an unused New York subway platform he deemed the 'Masstransiscope', popularising use of the techinque as a means of advertising, with works being installed on transit systems throughout the US and beyond from San Francisco to Kiev.