Zoetropes

For my first time in the Makerspace facility, my task was to create my own zoetrope which was a very intriguing process and overall a great thing to create.

Before I started creating the zoetrope, I began sketching on plain paper some ideas on what I wanted to animate inside it, I was experimenting with different actions and emotions and seeing what would look the best. in the end I decided to go for a liquid animation where the character melts into a puddle and shapeshifts back into his regular shape.

After I came up with my idea I drew each of the 12 frames onto each frame on the zoetrope so when it rotates it should play a smooth animation.

Next I needed to create the Zoetrope which involved using tools I haven't been familiar with before. I firstly had to stick the template of the zoetrope on a black piece of paper which was where I used a machine and a spray can to make the sheet of paper sticky. I'm not sure what the machine was called or how the process even worked but for the first time using this method and I can say that it does the job a lot better than using glue sticks.

Once we got the template on the black piece of paper it was time to use a crafting knife to cut out the template. Again, I haven't used these tools as much so my experience with them was lacking, however I managed to get the job done and I personally think that using scissors would've been easier and would've had a cleaner job but i can understand why we should be using these tools instead.

Here's the end result of what came out of today's lesson: overall it looks great, I just need to get some colour on the character and get a stick to put in the centre of it and I think it will animate really fluently!