Pause: High Phi
High PhiIt all began innocently enough, with toys. As far back as the 1830s, people played with such things as the phenakistoscope. This was a revolving disk with drawn figures arranged around the center. Folks also amused themselves with the zoetrope. This let them view figures on the inside of a revolving cylinder through slits in its circumference. As late as the 1960s, toy makers supplied similar mirrored cylinders. They made these to sit atop revolving phonograph records. Some record makers of the time printed the labels on their "45s" with cartoon characters in various phases of motion. What you saw when you looked into the revolving mirrored surface was what your great-grandparents saw in their zoetropes: figures that seemed to move. The first "motion pictures" were thus actually animations. Émile Reynaud of France took the process a step further when he projected sequences of drawn pictures onto a screen with his Praxinoscope. This applied revolving mirrors and an oil-lamp "magic lantern" to a zoetrope-like …
To View This Article
Start Your Free Trial Plus Membership
Why Become a Plus Member?
As a Plus Member, you'll enjoy:
- Exclusive access to 1,000s of articles, tips, and videos
- Unlimited access to Videomaker Tips & Tricks video series
- Special contests and monthly drawings
- Members only eLetters
- Early online access to the current issue of Videomaker Magazine
- Members only discounts on Videomaker merchandise and more
- Priority status at Videomaker events
- The Expert Hotline: direct email access to our editors. Get answers to questions about any video subject
