Early Animation Devices

The Zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. The Zoetrope is made out of a cylinder that has vertical slits, on the the inside of it there is a 'band' which has several slightly different images on it,the cylinder spins round and as you look through the slits The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. Although they are a early example of simple animation they are still used and referenced in modern culture for example in the film 'House On Haunted Hill'(1999 remake) there is a man sized Zoetrope used as a horror tool also Artist Scott Blake created a Zoetrope that let viewers relive the events of 9/11 although morbid it is still an example of a modern Zoetrope in action.

The phenakitoscope was a very early animation device that employed the use of a disk that spun round with a sequence images on it again it used the persistence of vision principle to trick the eye into watching the images come to life, a famous example of one of the first phenakitoscopes was created Edweard Muybridge created in 1893 it showed a couple dancing the waltz. 
The first Phenakistoscope was invented in 1841 by the Belgian Joseph Plateau who was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image with the Phenakistoscope.

The Praxinoscope was another early animation device known as the successor to the Zoetrope it was invented in 1877 by the French inventor Charles-Emile Reynaud similar to the Zoetrope it used a 'strip' of images placed around the inner cylinder that when spun round you can see the animation  The Praxinoscope improved on the Zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so that the reflections of the pictures appeared more or less stationary in position as the wheel turned.

The Zoopraxiscope is another early animation device that was considered the first movie projector, it PROJECTED images from a rotating glass disk that rapidly spun this again would trick the eye into seeing a moving sequence/ animation, Initially the images were painted onto glass as silhouettes later on outlined drawings that were printed on disc then coloured by hand some of the animated sequences were extremely complex the device has been named as the inspiration behind Eddison's Kinetoscope.