This was such a fun project. As much as I am into film and animation, this was something I wasn’t aware. Or maybe I’ve come across it and it has never stuck with me. Any of the items, the thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, or the zoetrope. So my wife and I got out the crafts and got to it.

I picked the zoetrope, mostly because it looked like a challenge. I’m not the craftiest person, but since my wife was joining in, I was able to take a few tips from her and not fail at putting it together. And as far as all three go, only one of them was once known as the “the wheel of the devil'“ so the zoetrope was easily the most badass of the choices.

With a little help from some youtube videos, we gathered some guidance on where to get started, and not much longer, we were in business. Piecing it all together was probably the easiest and less time consuming of all the steps. A dvd made a good template for the base of the zoetrope, tracing around it to make a base. Poster-board works well for make the walls, easy to cut and form. I wanted to use a string for the spinning device, but a simple #2 pencil was more practical. Gluing it all together, with a little bit of flair to take up the poster-boards negative space, the device was finished.

The most time consuming step was making the strip. I really wanted to have a punk rocker strumming their guitar but it didn’t work out, so I settle with the standard bouncing ball. It’s simple but honestly the best way to show off what a zoetrope is capable of. And the best part, the strip is not attached to the player. I can take it out and replace the strip with another strip, if I decide to make more.

I could see myself making these for fun, maybe a gift in the future, for my nieces and nephews. Or making a really nice one for ourselves. Once you make one, future ones are a piece a cake.

It’s really cool to see how far animation has come. From basic but creative all the way to the insanely realistic computer animation we see today. The movie was a great tribute to Renauld, I really appreciated the story, but what got me was the music. Edith Piaf’s version of “Don’t Go Manuel” is wonderful.