The history of animation

In the 1880s, Eadweard Muybridge, a British photographer, invented a machine called a zoopraxiscope. He took photographs of moving animals and people. Then he put the photographs on discs and showed them on a screen. As the discs turned, the animals and people seemed to move. This was the earliest form of animation.

Early film-makers used the cinematograph to make stop-frame animation. They film an object, then they stop the camera. They move the object and then they film ita gain. Somfilm-makers dtill use this technique today. In the 1920s, Walt Disney started to make animated films using coloured drawings. Artists drew the pictures by hand. They transferred each drawing from the paper onto a thin, clear piece of plastic. This was called a cel. The film-makers put the cels on the background and photographed the mone at a time.

In the 1960s, people began to use computers for animation. In the 1990s, lots of studios used computer-generated imagery (CGI) for special effects. In the 1993s, Jurassic Park used amazing (CGI) dinosaurs. Toy Story, in 1995, was the first full-length CGI cartoon. Today CGI is the most popular animation technique.

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