Build your own Victorian animation toy…
What is a zoetrope?
A zoetrope is a Victorian animation toy that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings that are each slightly different. When you spin the zoetrope they move, just like a film clip!
Okay, are you ready to make one?
You are! Good!
Then let’s get a bit Blue Peter…
First of all you will need to download the two pdf files:
And print them out….
Things you will also need:
- 2 pieces of thin card
- A small piece of cardboard
- Some scissors
- A pritt-stick
- A push-pin
- A cork
Cut out the print out of the clock face and cut one of the pieces of thin cards into a circle the same size…
Glue the back of the other piece of thin card…
And stick the printout of the zoetrope sides to it…
Then cut out the two zoetrope sides with your scissors…
Finally cut a small circle from your piece of Cardboard.
Now you’ve done all your cutting out, these are the pieces you should have…
Fold up the flaps on the side pieces, and glue along the two end flaps…
Stick the two pieces together at one end, and then the other, so the form a shape like this…
Apply glue to the edges of the blank card circle…
Then glue the sides onto the top using the flaps, and sandwich the clock face on top…
When the glue has dried this is what it looks like…
Glue the circle of card to the bottom of the zoetrope, to make it extra strong…
Put the cork in the centre, underneath the zoetrope…
Turn it over and push the pin through the centre of the top into to cork underneath…
(Don’t push it in too tight, because you want it to be able to spin.)
Now hold the zoetrope in one hand and spin it with the other…
The animation should move…
There’s also a blank sheet for drawing your own zoetrope strips here:
Download and print it out…
Then draw a frame along the axis of each line…
Cut out the two strips and stick them together into one long strip…
Put the strip inside the zoetrope, and spin it…
Here also is a blank template for a separate base circle in case you want to animate your own zoetrope base animation
You can get some great effects with circular animations, so it is worth having a go at creating your own…
Here is a real victorian circular animation, that inspired the one I created with Malkin for my zoetrope. If you google Victorian circular animations you will find many more examples! You could even print some of them out and try them in your zoetrope…
