Flip book

What is a Flip book?

The Flip book also known as Flick book is a book with a series of pictures that are drawn to vary gradually from one page to the next. These books can create an unlimited number of story's as they can be as long or as short as the creator wants. 

The first flip book appeared in September,1868. when it was patended by John Barnes Linnett under the name Kineograph ("moving picture"). In 1894 a man named Herman Casler invented a mechanical version of the Flip book called the Mutoscope which mounted the pages on a rotating cylinder rather than binding them in a book. 

The flip book is made from paper, a binder clip, pens pencils or any other drawing equipment.

Advantages - Not much material is needed to make a flip book, the materials are cost effective and you can always add on to the story.

Disadvantages - The material is hard to keep quality. There is a high degree of artistic ability required to create one of these books and it is also very time consuming.

Here is a video showing how the flip book works

Now for a video to show how to make a flip book

Zoetrope

What is a Zoetrope?


“A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. The name zoetrope was composed from the Greek root words ζωή zoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turning".” – Wikipedia.

In this video it is shown how the Zoetrope works.

The Zoetrope consists of a cylinder with vertical cuts down the side. On the inside of the cylinder is a series of images set to play in sequence when put in motion. 


How the Zoetrope works – The device works when it is spun around, this causes an optical illusion making it seem like the pictures are moving in sequence.

Advantages – It can be fairly easy to construct the Zoetrope and you can switch out the cartoon strips inside to provide variety within.

Disadvantages – It has many moving parts that could break or go wrong. A fair amount of artistic ability is involved.

The Zoetrope was first invented in 1834 by William George Horner as a Daedalum and later renamed in the 1860’s by American toy maker William F. Lincoln as the Zoetrope.

Here is a video of how to build a Zoetrope.

Thaumatrope

What is a Thaumatrope?

The Thaumatrope (also known as “wonder turner”) is a mechanical optical illusion created by London based Physicist John Ayrton Paris (1785 – 1856). It first appeared in the nineteenth century sometime in the 1820’s.

How the Thaumatrope works - The simple toy is made from a disk with a picture on each side, with strings attached to the disk. When you twirl the strings quickly between your fingers the pictures will then appear to blend into one, this causes an optical illusion due to a phenomenon called persistence of vision.

 

Advantages - The advantages of the Thaumatrope would be it is a simple design and also cheap to make.

Disadvantages - The disadvantage of the Thaumatrope is that you need a fair amount of artistic ability to draw the images on each side of the disk.

Here is an example of how the Thaumatrope works.

Here is a video that shows how to make a Thaumatrope.