Back in the Day ...

My Mom, cousin and I were talking about how animations have become so advanced and technical now and how simple but cool they were back in the day and I think we talked about this in art class but anyways. My cousin was telling me all about this and I thought I would Google it, because in todays world we rely on our technology and have forgotten about the good old days!

The praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned.

Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, with a brighter and less distorted picture than the zoetrope offered.

How it works:

A band of pictures is placed inside a shallow outer cylinder, so that each picture is reflected by the inner set of mirrors. The number of mirrors is equal to the number of pictures, and the images of the pictures are viewed in the mirrors. When the outer cylinder rotates, the quick succession of reflected pictures gives the illusion of a moving picture.

What became of it:

Using this principle, Reynaud found a way to project the series of pictures onto a screen. He called this the "Theatre Optique." A standard praxinoscope, like the one above, can only accomodate a second or two of animation because of the limited number of pictures it contains. Reynaud's "Theatre Optique" used a long roll of paper to increase the number of pictures, and was therefore able to create a much longer show for an audience.

So here's a thought stop and smell the flowers !