Boys Have Fun

Long before Pixar Studios, Walt Disney, Adobe Flash, Windows Movie Maker,  Buzz Lightyear, Daffy Duck and Homer Simpson, simple devices like the Zoetrope provided animation fun. Some say that the tendency for the eye to see multiple frames as one continuous image is explained by a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Others say this isn't so, and they explain frame-by-frame animation by a condition known as phi phenomena and beta movement. Whatever.

Movie makers have discovered that the ideal number of frames per second for both film and digital movies is 24 frames per second. Frames per second less than 16 is perceived to be distracting and uncomfortable to watch. In the video above, taken while the young ladies from the class were having a special day at Edison Community College, you see a student acting as "projectionist". The frame rate is controlled by an old-fashioned hand-on-device and a flick of the wrist. The Zoetrope can be sped up or slowed down to achieve the ideal frame rate.

All this science is mostly ignored when the students spin the Zoetrope to see their animations come to life. What isn't ignored is how much fun the old-school animation process is. Simple instructions for creating your own hand-held Zoetrope can be found here.