Really Early Animation

Phenakistoscope

An early animation technique, first pioneered by Greek mathematician: Euclid, and later by Newton; the Phenakistoscope was only fully realised in 1829 by Joseph Plateau. It could only be used by one person at a time, the user would spin the disk near their eyes and facing a mirror, so that they could look through the slits and watch the animation in the reflection.

the Zoetrope

Often used as a child's toy, the Zoetrope was invented around 180 AD, it was developed in 1833 in Britain by William George Horner and commercially released in Britain and the US. It works by spinning a drum with slits and frames of an animated loop spaced inside it, when a viewer looks through one of the slits, they can see the animation. Some subway stations have animation frames painted on the walls, so that passengers on trains could watch the animation while traveling at high speed. The world's largest zoetrope was made by Sony, it features as the subject of animation Kaka