Thaumatrope
First stop is a classic!
Im sure people have came across a thaumatrope animation at some point in there life! The word itself Thaumatrope comes from comes from the greek word Thauma (marvel) and -Tropos (turning) so roughly trasnlated id say its turning marvel! heh made me giggle. Anyways, The Thaumatrope is an optical illusion animation, tricking the eyes with the phenomenon called the persistance of vision, using two imagies on each side of a circluar bit of paper, and spinning it, tricks the mind thinking that both images are the same!
Making a Thaumatrope!
very easy and fun thing to make! all you need is a bit of paper, i prefare card, and either a stick or a bit of string, some drawing skills! (maybe some glue if you want to make the stick version :D) ive linked a short video showing how to make one to simplify things!
Ups and Downs
The ups of this little wonder, is its simplicity, very easy to make, little time and effort needed :D
The Downs of it though is, unfortunatly, its limited to the one image to be joined (one on both sides) and to get the best effect you would need some niffty drawing skills (which i have none of)
The coming of!
So been chatting about what it is, how to make one, and the goods and bads of the Thaumatrope, but lets take a second to appreciate who came up with the idea (though nothing is definate just a possible inventor, no way of knowing who originally came up with this little trick! :P) so the biggest heavy weight contendor for inventor of the Thaumatrope is none other than British physician, John Aryton Paris! woooo! ....yea...no clue who it is either! but he did publish the idea with W. Phillips in april of 1825! but there was accounts that this was used before it was published! though obviously no exact records of it unfortunatly so im gonna go by the publishing date for this one!
Gimme some examples!!!
okay, okay settle down, i hear you screaming for some awesome examples of this bad boy
of an illusion! so i'll go from when i first and
last time ive personally seen examples of it!
the first time id seen this was, beleive it or
not, from a late 90's Tim Burton Movie!
oooh! none other than "Sleepy Hollow!"
You've probobaly seen this one yourself!
Though....i feel kind of bad since the
last time i seen one was in the game bioshock
infinite, i was going to show that here, but
as it is the same image ive decide to use another
example instead! I came across another typical Thaumatrope, but with a a nice twist!
this is of a headless skelton holding its head,
but i came across an even better example!
All hail the pumpkin king!
