A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words ζωή zoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "live turning" or "animation".

The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. From the late 20th century, devices working on similar principles have been developed, named analogously as linear zoetropes and 3D zoetropes, with traditional zoetropes referred to as "cylindrical zoetropes" if distinction is needed.

Invention

The earliest known zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the inventor Ting Huan (丁緩). Ting Huan's device, driven by convection, hung over a lamp and was called chao hua chich kuan (the pipe which makes fantasies appear).^[1] The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which translucent paper or mica panels hung. When the device was spun at the right speed, pictures painted on the panels would appear to move.^[2][3]

The modern zoetrope was invented in 1833^[4] by British mathematician William George Horner. He called it the "daedalum", most likely as a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus, though it was popularly referred to as "the wheel of the devil". The daedalum failed to become popular until the 1860s, when it was patented by both English and American makers, including Milton Bradley. The American developer William F. Lincoln named his toy the "zoetrope", meaning "wheel of life".^[5] Almost simultaneously, similar inventions were made independently in Belgium by Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (the phenakistoscope) and in Austria by Simon von Stampfer (the stroboscope).

The zoetrope worked on the same principles as the phenakistoscope, but the pictures were drawn on a strip which could be set around the bottom third of a metal drum, with the slits now cut in the upper section of the drum.^{[clarification needed]} The drum was mounted on a spindle and spun; viewers looking through the slits would see the cartoon strip form a moving image. The faster the drum was spun, the smoother the animation appeared.

The earliest projected moving images were displayed using a magic lantern zoetrope. This crude projection of moving images occurred as early as the 1860s.

The praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward the end of the 19th century,^[6] displacing the zoetrope for practical uses; a magic lantern praxinoscope was demonstrated in the 1880s.

For displaying moving images, zoetropes were displaced by more advanced technology, notably film and later television. However, in the early 1970s, Sega used a mechanism similar to an ancient zoetrope in order to create electro-mechanical arcade games that would resemble later first-person video games.^[7]

Since the late 20th century, zoetropes have seen occasional use for artwork, entertainment, and other media use, notably as linear zoetropes on subway lines, and from the early 21st century some 3D zoetropes.

Linear zoetropes

A linear zoetrope consists of an opaque linear screen with thin vertical slits in it. Behind each slit is an image, often illuminated. A motion picture is seen by moving past the display.

Linear zoetropes have several differences compared to cylindrical zoetropes due to their different geometries. Linear zoetropes can have arbitrarily long animations and can cause images to appear wider than their actual sizes.

Subway zoetropes

In September 1980, independent filmmaker Bill Brand installed a type of linear zoetrope he called the "Masstransiscope" in an unused subway platform at the former Myrtle Avenue station on the New York City Subway. It consists of a wall with 228 slits; behind each slit is a hand-painted panel, and riders of passing trains see a motion picture. After falling into a state of disrepair, the "Masstransiscope" was restored in late 2008.^[8] Since then, a variety of artists and advertisers have begun to use subway tunnel walls to produce a zoetrope effect when viewed from moving trains.

Joshua Spodek, as an astrophysics graduate student, conceived of and led the development of a class of linear zoetropes that saw the zoetrope's first commercial success in over a century. A display of his design debuted in September 2001 in an Atlanta subway system tunnel and showed an advertisement to riders moving past. The display is internally lit and nearly 980 feet (300 m) long, with an animation lasting around 20 seconds. His design soon appeared, both commercially and artistically, in subway systems around North America, Asia, and Europe.^[9]

In April 2006, the Washington Metro installed advertisement zoetropes between the Metro Center and Gallery Place subway stations.^[10] A similar advertisement was installed on the PATH train in New Jersey, between the World Trade Center and Exchange Place stations.

At around the same time, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system installed a zoetrope-type advertisement between the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations which could be viewed by commuters traveling in either direction. The BART ads are still visible, though they are changed infrequently: a particular ad may remain up for several months before being replaced.

New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority hosted two digital linear zoetropes through its Arts for Transit program. One, "Bryant Park in Motion", was installed in 2010 at the Bryant Park subway station, and was created by Spodek and students at New York University's Tisch School of Arts' Interactive Telecommunications Program.^[11] The other, "Union Square in Motion", was installed in 2011 by Spodek and students and alumni from Parsons the New School for Design's Art, Media, and Technology program in the Union Square station.^[12]

The Metro in Kyiv (Kiev) Ukraine also featured an advertisement about 2008 for Life mobile telephone carrier in one of its subway tunnels that featured the zoetrope effect. It was quickly taken down.

In Mexico City, an advertisement for the Honda Civic featuring a zoetrope effect was placed in one of the Line 2 tunnels

3D zoetropes

3D zoetropes apply the same principle to three-dimensional models, using a stroboscope instead of a slit. The models are mounted on a rotating disk, and the light flashes in time with the rotation, illuminating each successive model as it passes the same spot – by the stroboscopic effect this appears to be a single animated object. As a mechanical system, in practice the rotation speed will not be in sync with the electronic strobe, and the object will thus appear to move forward or backwards slowly, according to how much faster or slower the rotation is than the strobe speed.

Ghibli

File:Toy Story Zoetrope, Disney California Adventure 2.jpg

The Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, Japan hosts a 3D zoetrope featuring characters from the animated movie My Neighbour Totoro. The zoetrope is accompanied by an explanatory display, and is part of an exhibit explaining the principles of animation and historical devices.

Toy Story

Pixar created a 3D zoetrope inspired by Ghibli's for its touring exhibition, which first showed at the Museum of Modern Art and features characters from Toy Story. Two more 3D zoetropes have been created by Pixar, both featuring 360-degree viewing. One is installed at Disney California Adventure Park, sister park to Disneyland, and the other is installed at Hong Kong Disneyland. The original Toy Story zoetrope still travels worldwide and has been shown in: London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Melbourne, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; Helsinki, Finland; Monterrey, Mexico; Taipei, Taiwan; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Singapore; Shanghai, China; Hamburg, Germany. It is currently on display at the exhibition for the Pixar's 25th anniversary at Amsterdam Expo in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Peter Hudson

Over the period 2002–2011, Peter Hudson and the crew of Hudzo Design, LLC have created five 3D zoetropes. This began with "Sisyphish" (2002),^[13] a large scale, 3D zoetrope that uses a strobe light to animate human figures swimming on a large rotating disk. This stroboscopic human powered zoetrope was originally unveiled at the arts and culture event, Burning Man,^[14] in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Peter created four more large scale stroboscopic zoetropes from 2004 to 2011: "Deeper"^[15] (2004), "Homouroboros"^[16] (2007), "Tantalus"^[17] (2008), and "Charon"^[18] (2011). The Charon zoetrope is built to resemble and rotate in the same kinetic fashion as a ferris wheel, stands at 32 feet high, weighs 8 tons and features twenty rowing skeleton figures representing the mythological character, Charon, who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx. Peter Hudson's zoetropes are exhibited at various festivals and special events internationally throughout the year. He is currently working on his newest piece "The Eternal Return," which is said will be his most impressive piece to date. It is an eagerly anticipated two year project that will be making its debut at Burningman 2014.

Timothy Adam Abad

In November 2009, Timothy Adam Abad, and his family created the "Weebatron", the first center perspective 3D zoetrope.^[19]

World record

In 2008, Artem Limited, a UK visual effects house, built a 10-meter wide, 10-metric ton zoetrope for Sony, called the BRAVIA-drome, to promote Sony's motion interpolation technology. It features 64 images of the Brazilian footballer Kaká. This has been declared the largest zoetrope in the world by Guinness World Records.^[20][21]

Media uses

Blue Man Group uses a zoetrope at their shows in Las Vegas and the Sharp Aquos Theater in Universal Studios (in Orlando, Florida).

A zoetrope was used in the filming the music video for "My Last Serenade" from Alive or Just Breathing (2002) by Killswitch Engage. It features a woman looking through the slits on a zoetrope while it moves; as she looks closer, the camera moves through the slits into the zoetrope, where the band is playing the song.

In 2007, an image of a zoetrope was unveiled as one of BBC Two's new idents: a futuristic city with flying cars seen through the shape of the number two.

In 2009 the E4 drama program Skins released silent preview clips of series four to coincide with their mash-up competition. One of the clips featured the character Emily Fitch looking into a zoetrope.

In 2011, Scott Blake created a "9/11 Zoetrope" allowing viewers to watch a continuous reenactment of United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.^[22]

Forza/Filmspeed

On Sept. 20, 2013, San Francisco based advertising agency twofifteenmccann with director Jeff Zwart of @radical.media revealed the world’s fastest Zoetrope. It was released as a two-minute film entitled “Forza/Filmspeed.” This production recreates the action of the Forza Motorsport 5 racing video game, using high resolution still images printed from the game onto panels and staged at key intervals around a race track. It was filmed using a mathematical formula to calculate the necessary speed in order to recreate the footage of the game. At its essence, Foza/Filmspeed takes the fundamental idea of a zoetrope one step further by reversing the traditional elements of a zoetrope; a static viewer and a moving set of elements. The film made motion picture history.

File:Forza motorsports 5 screen shot.jpg

In order to test the initial concept of the film, Zwart invited Academy-Award winning Ex-Pixar Animation Studios Scientist David DiFrancesco, to apply his science and math skills to determine the positioning, optimal speeds, shutter angle and camera specifications. DiFrancesco was accompanied by cameramen Richard Carlson and Pasquale Paolo, and production designer, Steve McHale who shot a test film in the high desert of Southern California.

For the final footage, 680 very high-resolution animation stills of the McLaren P1 from the Forza Motorsport 5 game were individually printed onto 64” x 36”, 46” x 26” and 40” x 20” aluminum panels representing 120 mph, 100 mph, and 80 mph animation respectively. The panels were positioned around the edge of the Barber Motorsports Park racetrack near Birmingham, Alabama at 6’, 5’ and 4’ on center spacing intervals on custom stands. A McLaren MP4-12C sports car was modified as a camera car by attaching a Phantom Flex camera and custom gyro stabilized platform designed by John Stabile. Professional driver Tanner Foust drove laps around the track at speeds up to 120mph with the camera pointed at the mounted stills while Zwart shot footage at 30 frames per second. When the resulting footage is played back, the action of the game plays as if it were coming directly from an XBox One gaming console, with the addition of live footage of the McLaren taken from a camera car and on-board video. Forza/Filmspeed is a remarkable reinterpretation of the traditional zoetrope concept, utilizing still images recorded at high speeds to recreate the illusion of movement known as the persistence of vision.

^{[23] [24] [25]}

See also

• Praxinoscope
• Strobe light
• Zoopraxiscope

References

External links

• Zoetrope (information on the zoetrope from the V&A Museum of Childhood)
• Further information and a picture can be found here.
• Burns, Paul The History of the Discovery of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology
• A demonstration of similar optical toys, including the phenakistoscope, praxinoscope and thaumatrope
• Bill Brand's Masstransiscope can be found here.
• "Joshua Spodek's contribution to linear zoetropes". spodek.net. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
• "A description of the technology used and photos of the subway linear zoetrope". spodek.net. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
• Ghibli's museum page, including information about their zoetrope
• [1] Pixar's press release including info about the zoetrope.^{[dead link]}