Over the easter break I had recently made a booking in the green screen room for some of the more presenting aspects of my video essay into the history of animation. Before this time I would need to perfect my zoetrope design before I attended my booking. However due to several cancellations was also the time for me to develop my final design. I had recently thought of a new way to approach the zoetrope and that was to use thread instead of thick string and have two twisting points of the string on the top and bottom rather than have one to stabilise the spin. I felt looking back on past designs that the spin didn't seem very stable and made it hard to see the animation taking place inside the zoetrope.
I also needed to consider the net design of my zoetrope as so far it was a way being attached by a tabbed base. I had a new idea for the net design and that was to have the walls of the zoetrope coming from the base itself this would save the issue of estimating the number of walls needed. This was then drawn out onto cardboard then inked with a fine liner pen. The net was then cut out and stuck together using prit stick glue however when I looked at the finished net I could see that some of the walls were out of scale and had to be cut down slightly. Once cut down some of the small holes in the walls were reaching too far to the top.
In terms of the interior animation I decided to do the clocks in Photoshop as it would make more sense and help show a clear animation as learned from previous attempts. I did these with twelve circles then had the hands moving in a backwards direction. These were at a small scale to fit inside the zoetrope. Once printed these were cut out and stuck inside the zoetrope next to the viewing holes, The strings were attached and tied via a cross I made out of scraps of mount board then secured with sellotape. Two of these were attached to the top and bottom of the zoetrope and then I tested the piece in its spin.
It seemed to work however it didn't have enough spin whilst stabilised, so the idea hadn't worked. I decided to revert back to my original idea and upon testing the spin I could see the clock spinning backwards it worked very well and the cross seemed to stabilise the spin very well.
Following this discovery I created a more refined version, and accounting for the large walls I created a large circle inside another circle and then drew straight line edges to create a hexagonal shape. The walls were then drawn out but as I found with the last net drawing the walls lines were very difficult given the angle of the shape. However I managed to get it correct and then drew in the holes and cut out the net with the craft knife but being careful not to injure myself. The net was done on watercolour card and coloured with black ink, however this did have the side effect of getting into the holes and hitting the base slightly. I corrected this with a piece of white paper cut in the shape of the base and stuck down.
The piece was then put together and again some of the walls were a bit taller than the others. I felt that this mistake was an issue that kept occurring but I worked around it and cut down the walls slightly. One other issue was that despite there being twelve holes in the zoetrope the clock faces didn't fill the whole thing, luckily I made two more clock faces to fill in the space and added the same clock faces to the base of the zoetrope as a normal one should have.
The second strings from the test were added and then I wound the zoetrope up and it began to spin and inside I could see the clocks moving backwards in time indicating that it worked.
Looking back over the course of the zoetropes development there were a few ups and downs and some malfunctions but with time and development I had created a more refined piece of work for the video essay. I would possibly have considered looking at the measurements for the walls of the zoetrope and possibly use double sided tape on the tabs to properly secure them into place instead of using sellotape to secure the walls in place. I would also make sure I had the correct materials for doing a clean zoetrope such as black cardboard instead of colouring it with black ink.
However the use of the cross as the strings holding point instead of an A pillar seemed to work in balancing the spin of the zoetrope.
In conclusion I would think this Zoetrope is deemed for viable use in my green screen booking and I may consider trying a little green screening for doing the transition effect or even use the spinning clocks in a separate animation. In future I shall consider looking into having the correct materials prepared and get the walls in the correct length before sticking the zoetrope together. I am overall pleased with the construction of the zoetrope.
In terms of the interior animation I decided to do the clocks in Photoshop as it would make more sense and help show a clear animation as learned from previous attempts. I did these with twelve circles then had the hands moving in a backwards direction. These were at a small scale to fit inside the zoetrope. Once printed these were cut out and stuck inside the zoetrope next to the viewing holes, The strings were attached and tied via a cross I made out of scraps of mount board then secured with sellotape. Two of these were attached to the top and bottom of the zoetrope and then I tested the piece in its spin.
It seemed to work however it didn't have enough spin whilst stabilised, so the idea hadn't worked. I decided to revert back to my original idea and upon testing the spin I could see the clock spinning backwards it worked very well and the cross seemed to stabilise the spin very well.
Following this discovery I created a more refined version, and accounting for the large walls I created a large circle inside another circle and then drew straight line edges to create a hexagonal shape. The walls were then drawn out but as I found with the last net drawing the walls lines were very difficult given the angle of the shape. However I managed to get it correct and then drew in the holes and cut out the net with the craft knife but being careful not to injure myself. The net was done on watercolour card and coloured with black ink, however this did have the side effect of getting into the holes and hitting the base slightly. I corrected this with a piece of white paper cut in the shape of the base and stuck down.
The piece was then put together and again some of the walls were a bit taller than the others. I felt that this mistake was an issue that kept occurring but I worked around it and cut down the walls slightly. One other issue was that despite there being twelve holes in the zoetrope the clock faces didn't fill the whole thing, luckily I made two more clock faces to fill in the space and added the same clock faces to the base of the zoetrope as a normal one should have.
The second strings from the test were added and then I wound the zoetrope up and it began to spin and inside I could see the clocks moving backwards in time indicating that it worked.
However the use of the cross as the strings holding point instead of an A pillar seemed to work in balancing the spin of the zoetrope.
In conclusion I would think this Zoetrope is deemed for viable use in my green screen booking and I may consider trying a little green screening for doing the transition effect or even use the spinning clocks in a separate animation. In future I shall consider looking into having the correct materials prepared and get the walls in the correct length before sticking the zoetrope together. I am overall pleased with the construction of the zoetrope.
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