During the mid to late 1800s a series of new inventions, predating the moving photographic image, were made which allowed the user to experience moving drawings for the fist time in history. In the past shadow puppetry and contraptions like magic lanterns and camera obscura were the nearest thing to a 2D moving image. The zoetrope and phenakistoscope came about in the 1830s, both using a similar concept to produce looping sequences of drawings, and were predominantly sold as toys for children. Previously sequential storytelling had been produced in the wall carvings of ancient Egyptian and Persian temples, on the painted pots and vases of Greece, and the magic lanterns of China and the middle east, but for the first time it was possible to play the separate images in sequence.
At the same time progress was being made in the world of photography and in particular capturing multiple photos per second. In 1872 Eadweard Muybridge took 12 frames of a racehorse in motion in order to settle a bet, and in doing so produced the first authentic film sequence using photographic rather than drawn images. Soon advances were made in movie cameras, and in 1892 Charles Reynaud produced Pauvre Pierrot (Poor Peter), 500 frames drawn directly onto a strip of transparent celluloid film. It was also the first film to be projected using perforations on the side of the film strip.
What I find interesting is the way that animation, photography, and live-action film developed symbiotically during this period. Muybridge was a photographer who made advances in the capture and display of multiple images, paving the way for animators and filmmakers alike. Later on the early movie cameras developed the use of transparent film, which Reynaud then used to animate on, in turn inventing the use of perforations along the side of the film strip, which improved the movie cameras and projection systems to come..
No comments:
Post a Comment