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Zoetrope Animation

The first animation undertaking would be viewed in the form of a zoetrope. The freedom to produce a depiction of any subject matter whatsoever was great, but sometimes too much choice is a bad thing. I can see myself encountering this problem alot, as the possibilities of animation are pretty much boundless. Eventually i decided on depicting a chain of stickmen holding hands. Their movement would be in the form of a Mexican wave, but with the slightly graphic twist of their heads popping up when the wave passed them. As we only had 12 frames to work with, I found it quite difficult to squeeze this movement in. With 12 frames being the tv equivelant of half a second (with there being 25 frames per second), I should have pre-empted this problem beforehand. When it came to spinning the zoetrope, the animation did appear a little fast, but i think you could just about tell what it was.

Looking through the gaps in the side of the zoetrope made me realise how animation is just an illusion that tricks the brain into thinking that a static image is moving; which is pretty crazy if you think about it, and quite mesmerising.