This was my final exam project. This project was about making your own animation with your own rules, as long as
it was do-able in 10 weeks.
I choose to get out of my comfort zone and explore what else you can do with animation.
So I choose to go back
in time and see how people used to make moving pictures before cameras were invented. I stumbled upon a peculiar
word, "Zoetrope". I did some research on what a zoetrope is and I was interested in making my own. Because how
cool would it be to have a physical .gif laying around.
While I got the idea to make a zoetrope, I didn't know what they looked like and what they could do. The
picture here next shows what they looked like. In order to make a zoetrope you need a bowl with grooves. And
underneath those grooves you'll need pictures
with a character that is going to make a movement, with each groove the character stands a bit different.
The most famous one for this is the racing horse that galops when you spin the zoetrope around.
These grooves need to be very small. Because this will also create the illusion that you're looking through
pictures, because you wouldn't get the illusion if you'd give the zoetrope no grooves at all.
To create my own zoetrope I needed something big to show the pictures in. I didn't know what to do because I am
not great with materials and what does and what doesn't work. Luckily my friend does go to a school that
actually taught him that stuff so I could use his help by making my zoetrope.
We came to an agreement that a fire pit would do the trick. Preferably one that has small holes in them to we
could get the grooves in easily. Once I found one I would also need something to get the fire pit spinning
around. I figured I could use a turntable used in the kitchen to get this done, preferably one as big as my fire
pit.
Now that I have the shape of my zoetrope I needed to have something move in it. I choose my elephant I also
used in my ACA projects. And add that I used my exaggerated one so it's easier to spot the movement.
And for that I used some practise zoetropes that were very eassy to download and print out. I first made
them with the grey colour I used on ACA. However, you weren't able to see the movement very well. Even with
outlines and shadows. So I used another, more bright, colour.
Which became this pink colour. In the practise zoetrope I made pictures for the necessary movement and
printed them out. Using a piece of cartboard as the floor and a pencil to be able to rotate it I got all the
tools to have a zoetrope.
In my playlist you're able to see these practise zoetropes move.
In my "Spark" page I'll talk with more detail about the project, in Dutch.
In "All of them" you'll go to my Youtube channel and see a video where I spin each of my made zoetropes
(practised and fire pit)
In "Playlist" you're also going to my Youtube channel and will be in a Playlist where I talk about my zoetrope,
the making off, all the zoetropes, vlog about it.
