FRAMEBURST ACADEMY 6

Totally Likeable; Don’t Regret (TL;DR)

 

If you are curious how animation began, here’s the short version:

• Flipbooks allowed anyone to animate with pencil and paper.
• The multiplane camera introduced depth by stacking layers of artwork.
• Barrier grid animation used a moving striped sheet to create an illusion of movement.
• Humans tried to show movement in art thousands of years ago, even in cave paintings.
• Ancient pottery sometimes showed sequential images that appeared to move when spun.
• In the 1800s, inventors created optical toys like the zoetrope and thaumatrope that produced moving pictures.
• Stop motion allowed real objects, like puppets or clay models, to be animated frame by frame long before computers existed.
• Early film animators developed techniques like cel animation and grid animation to make drawing easier and more consistent.
• Some artists even created animations inside subway tunnels, where images placed along the wall appeared to move, as the trains passed.
• Some artists even created animations in the Minecraft game, where objects placed along the wall appeared to move as the player passed by.

In other words, animation did not start with software. It started with clever ways of tricking the human eye.

Now, let’s explore how each of these ideas appeared throughout history.

 

How Did Animation Even Start?

From Cave Walls to Stop-Motion Puppets:

 

Motion in the Oldest Art:

 

Thousands of years before movies existed, artists were already experimenting with movement.

Some prehistoric cave paintings show animals with multiple legs drawn in different positions, almost as if different frames of animation.

These paintings appear in places such as the Lascaux cave.

The cave artists likely wanted to show animals running or jumping, even though they only had still images.

While this was not an animation yet, it shows something important:

Mankind have always wanted to capture motion in pictures.

 

Ancient Experiment with Sequential Images:

 

Another early hint of animation appeared in ancient pottery.

A famous example is the bowl discovered in shahr–e–Sukhteh.

Around the rim of the bowl are several drawings of a goat jumping toward a tree.

Each drawing shows the goat in a slightly different position.

When the bowl spins quickly, the images appear to animate.

It is essentially the same principle used in making modern cartoons.

 

Optical Toys That Made Pictures Move:

 

Somewhere in the 1800s, inventors commenced creating optical devices designed to animate drawings.

Some of the most famous were:

 

Thaumatrope

A card with two images on opposite sides.

When spun swiftly using strings or rubber bands, the images merge.

This was shown how to make in an indian art show, entitled ‘M.A.D. {Music, Art, Dance}’ on Pogo.

E.g. A bird and a cage appear as a bird inside the cage.

 

Phenakistoscope

A spinning disk with drawings arranged in a circle.

When viewed in a mirror through slots, the images appear to animate.

 

Zoetrope

A spinning cylinder with images inside and slits around the sides.

Looking through the slits while it spins makes the images appear to move.

This was also shown how to make in an indian art show, entitled ‘M.A.D.’

These inventions proved something crucial:

Showing images quickly, one after another, can create the illusion of life.

Another interesting animation trick involved placing a model on a rotating round table and flashing light.

Here is how it worked:

1. A small model of your character was placed on a rotating table.
2. The room lights were turned off.
3. Meanwhile, the other person rotated the table.
4. A flashing light briefly illuminated the character.
5. Each flash revealed the character in a slightly new position as the platform rotated.

Because the light flashed instantaneously, the viewer saw a series of positions that blended into motion.

This method used the same concept behind animation:

Showing multiple positions of an object rapidly.

Even simple experiments like this helped people understand how movement could be created visually.

 

Flipbook: Animation Anyone Could Make:

 

Flipbooks are probably the simplest animation device ever created.

You draw slightly different photos on each page of a pocket/small book.

When you flip the pages rapidly with your thumb, the images come to life.

This is what almost everyone has done at school, without realizing it’s a part of animation: mainly in the bottom left of your textbooks.

Flipbooks became popular with the invention of optical toys and are still used today by beginners getting a feel or learning to animate.

They demonstrate that making a cartoon requires nothing more than drawings and timing.

This animation can even happen in unexpected places.

Some artists installed sequences of images along subway tunnels.

As trains moved past the pictures rapidly, passengers saw the pictures one after another.

The images appeared to animate outside the window.

Experiments like this have appeared in systems such as the New York City subway.

It’s basically a giant real-world flipbook.

 

Cel Animation: Making Production Faster:

 

Early animators had a big problem.

Every time something moved, they had to redraw the entire scene, including the background.

The solution was cel animation.

Characters were drawn on transparent celluloid sheets called cels placed on top of painted backgrounds.

This meant animators only needed to redraw the parts that moved.

Cel animation became the standard technique used in many classic cartoons and films.

 

Multiplane Animation: Creating Depth:

 

Traditional animation looked flat.

To solve this, studios developed the multiplane camera.

This system placed artwork on multiple layers of glass.

For example:

• Foreground trees
• Middle-ground characters
• Distant background mountains

The camera could move across these layers, creating the illusion of depth in a 2D world.

Studios like Disney used multiplane cameras to produce more cinematic scenes.

 

Grid Animation:

 

Animators also developed methods to keep drawings consistent.

One technique was grid animation.

Artists would draw grids over frames or backgrounds to maintain:

• Perspective
• Correct proportions
• Consistent movement

Grids helped plan complex movement and prevented characters from changing size or position by mistake.

 

Barrier Grid Animation:

 

Barrier grid animation uses a clever optical illusion.

A sequence of images is printed with thin vertical slices

Then a transparent sheet with black stripes is placed over the images.

When the striped sheet moves across the image, different slices become visible.

The result is mesmerizing, and it is an animation effect where the picture appears to move.

This technique is sometimes called scanimation today.

It’s another example of animation created without a camera or a computer.

 

Stop Motion Animation Before Computers:

 

Stop motion animation works differently from drawings.

It works more like a puppet.

Instead of drawings, animators typically utilize real objects.

The process is simple but tiring and time-consuming:

1. Place a puppet, toy, or object on a set.
2. Take a photograph.
3. Move that object slightly.
4. Take another photograph.

Repeat hundreds or thousands of times.

When the photos play quickly, the object appears to move.

Early stop motion pioneers included animators like Willis O’Brien, who used this method to animate creatures in early films.

Stop motion proved that anything could be animated:

• Toys
• Clay
• Legos
• Puppets
• Cardboard cutouts
• You (yourself)
• Even everyday objects.

 

The Big Idea Behind All Animation:

 

Every animation technique throughout history shares the same core idea:

Show many drawings instantly.

Each image is slightly different.

Your brain connects them into motion.

That simple illusion of life is the foundation of everything from ancient optical toys to modern YouTube animated content.

And the best part?

You do not need expensive tools to try it yourself.

Just a pencil, paper, a little imagination, and a little patience.

 

Try This Tinsy-Winsy Animation Experiment at Home:

 

Take anything and place it on the ground. It can also be a toy.

Take a photo and move it slightly.

Take the photo again.

Repeat the process until you are satisfied or had enough.

You have just created the same animation trick that inspired inventors centuries ago.

And that’s exactly where many animators begin their journey.

 

Your Next Step

 

Now that you have seen how animation began, the next tutorial is understanding something even more interesting.

How do animators observe what those drawings should look like?

This is where one of the most important animator skills come in.

Not software

Not drawing

Observation

In the next lesson, we’ll explore:

• Why animators carefully watch how people and animals move
• How everyday actions like walking, talking, running, jumping, or laughing can teach you about movement
• Why studying real motion helps make animation feel believable and real
• Simple observation exercises that can train your animator’s eye

See you until the next relive. ✨🎬