How did these techniques and early Pioneers impact on the future of stop motion?

If it were not for these techniques and pioneers, animation today would not look the same as their knowledge helped us understand more and develop our skills, to get to where we are today.

The Persistence of Vision – this is the theory that when there are slightly different images shown to the human eye in quick succession, it appears to have the illusion of movement. Whenever light reaches the retina of the eye, the brain remembers that light for a brief period (roughly between 1/25 and 1/30 of a second). Once the brain remembers the previous image, the next one is displayed which makes it look like it is moving. A very good example of the persistence of vision is the Thaumatrope which was invented in 1825. This is a device consisting of two images stuck back to back and when spun fast, the brain puts both images into one, making it appear to be on image. This was the start of animation as it is just a few images that appear to be moving, which then gave creators the idea of stop frame animation.




Frame Rates (FPS) – short for “Frames Per Second”, this is the measurement of speed that frames are displayed on a screen. There are many different speeds and they all look different to each other. How fast these images appear on screen decides the quality of cinema that you see. Common frame rates consist of 24, 30 and 60fps. Frame rates originated by Eadweard Muybridge who decided that if pictures were taken in quick succession of each other, then it would appear to be a clear moving image. To achieve this he set up a contraption where he used 100 cameras in one straight line with wires running across a race track that, when triggered, would take a photo. He then used a horse to run down this track to trigger the cameras. Once he had the images he put them together and it created the illusion of movement. This had an enormous impact on film today as early cinema was shown in roughly 24fps, however now technology has advanced, Avengers: Infinity War was displayed at 60fps which had better fluidity. Comparison between frame rates.

Stop Frame – similar to the persistence of vision, this is where inanimate objects are photographed but are mover very slightly between images. When the images are played after each other, it gives the illusion that the inanimate objects are moving. This process would not have been possible without the discovery of The Persistence of Vision as it is used to display motion. The very first example where stop frame animation was used was in 1899 by Albert Smith and Stuart Blackton in the animated short “The Humpty Dumpty Circus”. Emil Cohl was a French cartoonist who brought stop frame to America, he photographed 700 of his drawings and put them together to give the illusion of movement. This was then used to create extremely well known films with much more advanced technology like “Wallace and Gromit” by Ardman Studios.