Flipbooks

Flipbook Animation
By Gary Ferrington


Example of a Very Complicated and Long Flipbook.
Posted May 20, 2008 by youtube account Mytoons.

A flipbook is a simple form of animation consisting of a sequence of drawings, or photographs, that when "flipped" through by the viewer appear to create the illusion of motion.

This illusion is an optical phenomenon known as the persistence of vision. It is the result of the eye’s retina retaining an image for about 1/12 of a second. When successive images are shown at a faster rate, the eye will blend them together with the retina retaining one image as the second is superimposed over it. This creates the illusion of movement and is the fundamental principle involved in film and television recording and reproduction. Sound movies have been traditionally projected at 24 frames per second or faster making the illusion of movement very smooth.

Early photographic pioneers such as Edward Muybridge and Thomas Edison explored moving images using the flipbook concept. Still photographic images were mounted on stiff paper and when either flipped through by hand or later in a hand cranked arcade machine. The Kinetoscope and Mutoscope used the flipbook concept and became popular pre-movie entertainment media for many.

Filpbooks were popularized in the early 1900's by the Crackerjack company that gave them as in-box prizes. In the 1920's they were used to teach dance steps - an early form of the "educational movie".

Flipbooks have been an important tool for the teaching of animation and remain so today. An idea for animation can be quickly tested using the flipbook technique.

Flipbooks stories are never very long and usually have a single objective that can best be put across short animated movies. Flipbooks are a true form of microcinema.

The following links cover the history flipbooks, techniques, and examples.

Drawings That Move-Flip Books. Flipbooks show how drawings can be made that seem to move. It is also a way to practice animation drawing.This site provides a nice overview of how to produce flipbooks.

FlipCapsule. Produces commercial flipbooks for promotional purposes. Images are captured from video and turned into flipbooks for advertising, sporting events, trade show handouts, and other events.

Flipbooks. This site sells flip books but also provides the opportunity to explore a number of sample animations designed by animator Patrick Jenkins. The samples illustrate how flipbooks can be an expressive form of communication.

Flipbooks - the Ancestors of Micromovies. "In the 19th century, before the cinema culture had established its position, there were various flipbooks, notepads bound together and flipped through to view a short string of moving pictures: animations of sort."

Flipbooks: Handheld Animations. Provides background information about flipbooks and gives instructions on how to make them using digital images.

Flippies is a company that makes flipbooks for creative premiums, event handouts, sports promotions and trade show giveaways. This site provides some examples of how flipbooks can be used for commercial purposes.

Filptomania. This company designs and produces flipbooks. The site has a variety of flipbooks presented as quicktime movies. Give them a try!

History of Filpbooks. The site provides a comprehensive history of the flip book.

Post-It Theater. These movies are all hand-drawn on Post-it® brand notes and scanned. No computer simulated the action.

Windows to the Universe Flip Books. This flip book series was produced to celebrate Sun-Earth Day (April 27-28, 2001). They were developed in partnership with Dr. Janet Kozyra at the University of Michigan, Space Physics Research Lab. Simply print the pages for a flipbooks, cut out each, arrange them in order and staple.

Other:

American Museum of the Moving Image. Select item - Shutters, Sprockets, and Tubes. This consists of six animated interactive tutorials that explain the science and technology behind movies and television. The tutorial on The Illusion of Motion facilitates an understanding of the concept of persistence of vision and how we see moving images.

http://www.proscenia.net/pronews/randomlinks/filpbooks.html

When I was little I thought the only purpose of Post Its were to make Flip books. I would always draw little cartoons in the corner of the Post Its and make my own little stick figure flip books. Most of the time it was a basketball player dribbling the ball. I still think flip books are awesome and even with all this computer based art, they are still entertaining to watch and make.

BEST CARTOON EVER!!!!

Looney Toons--Enough said. The current youth of America is being robbed of this classic cartoon because it is barely shown on TV anymore and its a shame. I have never met anyone who hates Looney Toons because they are classics.

Optical toy

Thaumatrope

John Ayrton Paris, 1825

History:

The invention of the thaumatrope, whose name means "turning marvel" or "wonder turner," has often been credited to the astronomer Sir John Herschel. However, it was a well-known London physicist, Dr. John A. Paris, who made this toy popular. Thaumatropes were the first of many optical toys, simple devices that continued to provide animated entertainment until the development of modern cinema.

How it works:

A thaumatrope is a small disc, held on opposite sides of its circumference by pieces of string. An image is drawn on each side of the disc, and is selected in such a way that when the disc is spun, the two images appear to become superimposed. To spin the disc, one string is held in a hand, and the disc is rotated to wind the string. Then, both strings are held, and the disc is allowed to rotate. Gently stretching the strings will ensure that they continue to unwind and rewind. This motion causes the disc to rotate, first in one direction and then in the opposite. The faster the disc rotates, the greater the clarity of the illusion.

Although the thaumatrope does not produce animated scenes, it relies on the same persistence of vision principle that other optical toys use to create illusions of motion. Persistence of vision is the eye's ability to retain an image for roughly 1/20 of a second after the object is gone. In this case, the eye continues to see the two images on either side of the thaumatrope shortly after each has disappeared. As the thaumatrope spins, the series of quick flashes is interpreted as one continuous image.

One example of a thaumatrope has a tree with bare branches on one side, and on the other, its leaves. When spun, the tree appears to be full of leaves. Another example has a bird on one side, and a cage on the other. When spun, the bird appears to be in its cage. The bird-cage pair of images were used on the first thaumatrope, and is the most common one seen on thaumatropes today.

What became of it:

Most pairs of thaumatrope images were pictures that did not imply motion, such as running animals or dancing people. A thaumatrope could only take two images and merge them, essentially creating one still image from two. The phenakistoscope was a great improvement on the thaumatrope, creating one moving image from several stills, and became the first optical toy to create a true illusion of motion.

http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit06.htm

I chose this optical toy because I remember I had a friend who actually had one and I thought it was so cool. I was so entertained by it and never knew the name of the actual toy or how old it was. Now because of this assignment i know.

Eyes

Afghan Girl
-Featured on the June 1985 over of National Geographic
-Photographed by Steve McCurry
-Excerpt of article by Cathy Newman about cover: "The portrait by Steve McCurry turned out to be one of those images that sears the heart, and in June 1985 it ran on the cover of this magazine. Her eyes are sea green. They are haunted and haunting, and in them you can read the tragedy of a land drained by war. She became known around National Geographic as the "Afghan girl," and for 17 years no one knew her name."

I first saw this cover when I was in the sixth grade, in my World History class. It has always stuck with me ever since. Like the quote says above, there is something about that girl's eyes that cut right through a person. She is so beautiful, but should not look as aged as she is. Since she was born in Afghanistan her entire life has been enveloped in war. Her eyes show her endless pain and anger. She makes a person realize how lucky they are but at the same time makes a person feel guilty for the life she will never receive.

Amazing Animation

Muto a wall painted animation by Blu
-An Ambiguous animation painted on public walls in Buenos Aires and Baden
-Animation and editing by Blu and produced by Mercurio film
-Posted May 09, 2008 on their youtube channel notblu and website blublu.org

A friend of my mine showed me a video done by these people before and I though it was amazing. The Content of the animation is really strange but its impossible to look away. I love how the animation actually travels along many surfaces and looks so three dimensional. It is fascinating to watch how the animation evolves into so many characters. Each character is interconnected throughout the animation and its captivating to watch.