Lesson 1: Animation Station

We all know that children are fond of cartoon characters. They consider these characters their personal superheros and role models, but do they know what inspired the invention of animation and what tools were used back then?

Well, in this session, we will discuss the history of animation, what flipbooks are and how we’re able to see multiple still images as an object in motion. This lesson will also cover early animation inventions such as the Thaumotrope and Zoetrope.

Lesson Keywords

Animation: the technique of using multiple successive images in a sequence to create the illusion of movement

Flipbook: a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quickly, the images appear to animate

Thaumotrope: an early animation device from the 19th century consisting of a disc with an image on each side that combine into one image when the disc is spun rapidly

Zoetrope: an early animation device from the 19th century consisting of a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the cylinder rotating, give the illusion of continuous motion