Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Zoetrope shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Zoetrope offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Zoetrope at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Zoetrope? Wrong! If the Zoetrope is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Zoetrope then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Zoetrope? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Zoetrope and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Zoetrope wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Zoetrope then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Zoetrope site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Zoetrope, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Zoetrope, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
For other uses, see Zoetrope (disambiguation).
A
zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits, on the inner surface of the cylinder, is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or
photographs. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder's interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a film. Cylindrical zoetropes have the property of causing the images to appear thinner than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.
Invention
The zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William Horner, who called it a "daedalum" or "daedatelum". Horner based his device on the Phenakistiscope built in 1836 by
Joseph Plateau. A device similar to Horner's was described by John Bate in
The Mysteries of Nature and Art in 1634. In fact, the earliest elementary zoetrope was created in
China around 180 A.D. by the prolific inventor Ting Huan (inventor) (丁緩). Driven by convection, Ting Huan's device hung over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which were hung translucent paper or mica panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device spun fast enough. History of Media, University of Minnesota, accessed May 13 2006
Modern times
William F. Lincoln promoted Horner's device in the United States as a "zoetrope".
The
praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward the end of the nineteenth century.
The earliest
Movie projector were displayed by using a magic lantern zoetrope. This crude projection of moving images occurred as early as the 1860s. A magic lantern praxinoscope was demonstrated in the 1880s.
Zoetrope development continues into the twenty-first century, primarily with the "Linear zoetrope." A linear zoetrope consists of an opaque linear screen with thin vertical slits in it. Behind each slit is an image, often illuminated. One views the motion-picture by moving past the display.
Linear zoetropes have several differences compared to cylindrical zoetropes that derive from their different geometries. They can have arbitrarily long animations. They also cause images to appear wider than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.
In September 1980, independent film-maker Bill Brand installed a type of linear zoetrope he called the "Masstransiscope" in an unused subway platform in
Brooklyn, New York. It consisted of a linear wall with 228 slits in the face. Behind each slit was a hand-painted panel. Riders in subways moving past the display saw a motion-picture within.
Joshua Spodek, as an astrophysics graduate student, conceived of and led the development of a class of linear zoetropes that saw the first commercial success of a zoetrope in over a century. A display of his design debuted in September 2001 in a tunnel of the Atlanta subway system and showed an advertisement to riders moving past. That display is internally lit and nearly 300 meters long. Its motion-picture was about twenty seconds long.
His design soon appeared in subway systems elsewhere in North America, Asia, and Europe. Joshua has also participated in a renaissance in zoetrope related art and other noncommercial expression.
In April 2006, the Washington Metro installed advertising using the zoetrope system between the Metro Center (Washington Metro) and Gallery Place subway stations.
Metro begins testing new tunnel ads, NBC4, April 4, 2006 A similar advertisement is installed on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson train in
New Jersey, between the World Trade Center and
Exchange Place (PATH station) stations.
The term
zoetrope is from the
Greek language words
zoe, "life" and
trope, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" or "living wheel."
Zoetrope is a theatrical production created by
Kinematic Theatre, utilising aerial artists. Debuted at the Rose Theatre, Rose Bruford College. Score composed by Simon Slater, Lighting Designed/Co-Directed by Karl Lawton, Directed and Designed by Andy Sinclair-Harris.
The Ghibli Museum hosts a zoetrope using 3D figures on a rotating disk. Rather than slits or mirrors, a strobing LED is used. The
animation on this zoetrope is inspired by
My Neighbour Totoro.
Pixar created a zoetrope inspired by
Studio Ghibli's for its 20th anniversary celebration at the
Museum of Modern Art, featuring characters from
Toy Story.
In 1998, following the success of the movie Titanic, a rumor started on the internet that the film was going to be released on the zoetrope. Although this was clearly impossible, it was picked up by a Delaware radio station as a real news story. The presenter said 'and it's coming out on the zoetrope, whatever that is.'
In 2007 an image of a zoetrope, where a futuristic city with flying cars was viewed through the shape of a number two, was unveiled as one of BBC Two's new idents.
References
Culver City, California, current home of Sony Studios (originally MGM)has several zoetropes placed throughout the main street area.
See also
External links
- Zoetrope (information on the zoetrope from the V&A Museum of Childhood)
- Further information and a picture can be found here.
- Burns, Paul The History of the Discovery of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology
- A demonstration of similar optical toys, including the phenakistoscope, praxinoscope and thaumatrope
- Bill Brand's Masstransiscope can be found here.
- Joshua Spodek's contribution to linear zoetropes can be found here and a description of the technology used and photos of the subway linear zoetrope here
- Ghibli's museum page, including information about their zoetrope
- Pixar's press release including info about the zoetrope.
For other uses, see Zoetrope (disambiguation).
A
zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits, on the inner surface of the cylinder, is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photographs. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder's interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a film. Cylindrical zoetropes have the property of causing the images to appear thinner than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.
Invention
The zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William Horner, who called it a "daedalum" or "daedatelum". Horner based his device on the Phenakistiscope built in
1836 by
Joseph Plateau. A device similar to Horner's was described by John Bate in
The Mysteries of Nature and Art in 1634. In fact, the earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 A.D. by the prolific inventor
Ting Huan (inventor) (丁緩). Driven by
convection, Ting Huan's device hung over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which were hung translucent paper or
mica panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device spun fast enough. History of Media, University of Minnesota, accessed May 13 2006
Modern times
William F. Lincoln promoted Horner's device in the United States as a "zoetrope".
The praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward the end of the nineteenth century.
The earliest
Movie projector were displayed by using a magic lantern zoetrope. This crude projection of moving images occurred as early as the 1860s. A magic lantern praxinoscope was demonstrated in the 1880s.
Zoetrope development continues into the twenty-first century, primarily with the "Linear zoetrope." A linear zoetrope consists of an opaque linear screen with thin vertical slits in it. Behind each slit is an image, often illuminated. One views the motion-picture by moving past the display.
Linear zoetropes have several differences compared to cylindrical zoetropes that derive from their different geometries. They can have arbitrarily long animations. They also cause images to appear wider than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.
In September 1980, independent film-maker Bill Brand installed a type of linear zoetrope he called the "Masstransiscope" in an unused subway platform in Brooklyn, New York. It consisted of a linear wall with 228 slits in the face. Behind each slit was a hand-painted panel. Riders in subways moving past the display saw a motion-picture within.
Joshua Spodek, as an astrophysics graduate student, conceived of and led the development of a class of linear zoetropes that saw the first commercial success of a zoetrope in over a century. A display of his design debuted in September 2001 in a tunnel of the Atlanta subway system and showed an advertisement to riders moving past. That display is internally lit and nearly 300 meters long. Its motion-picture was about twenty seconds long.
His design soon appeared in subway systems elsewhere in North America, Asia, and Europe. Joshua has also participated in a renaissance in zoetrope related art and other noncommercial expression.
In April 2006, the
Washington Metro installed advertising using the zoetrope system between the
Metro Center (Washington Metro) and Gallery Place subway stations.
Metro begins testing new tunnel ads, NBC4, April 4, 2006 A similar advertisement is installed on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson train in
New Jersey, between the
World Trade Center and Exchange Place (PATH station) stations.
The term
zoetrope is from the
Greek language words
zoe, "life" and
trope, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life" or "living wheel."
Zoetrope is a theatrical production created by
Kinematic Theatre, utilising aerial artists. Debuted at the Rose Theatre, Rose Bruford College. Score composed by Simon Slater, Lighting Designed/Co-Directed by Karl Lawton, Directed and Designed by Andy Sinclair-Harris.
The
Ghibli Museum hosts a zoetrope using 3D figures on a rotating disk. Rather than slits or mirrors, a strobing LED is used. The animation on this zoetrope is inspired by
My Neighbour Totoro.
Pixar created a zoetrope inspired by
Studio Ghibli's for its 20th anniversary celebration at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring characters from Toy Story.
In 1998, following the success of the movie Titanic, a rumor started on the internet that the film was going to be released on the zoetrope. Although this was clearly impossible, it was picked up by a Delaware radio station as a real news story. The presenter said 'and it's coming out on the zoetrope, whatever that is.'
In 2007 an image of a zoetrope, where a futuristic city with flying cars was viewed through the shape of a number two, was unveiled as one of BBC Two's new idents.
References
Culver City, California, current home of Sony Studios (originally MGM)has several zoetropes placed throughout the main street area.
See also
External links
- Zoetrope (information on the zoetrope from the V&A Museum of Childhood)
- Further information and a picture can be found here.
- Burns, Paul The History of the Discovery of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology
- A demonstration of similar optical toys, including the phenakistoscope, praxinoscope and thaumatrope
- Bill Brand's Masstransiscope can be found here.
- Joshua Spodek's contribution to linear zoetropes can be found here and a description of the technology used and photos of the subway linear zoetrope here
- Ghibli's museum page, including information about their zoetrope
- Pixar's press release including info about the zoetrope.
Zoetrope Virtual Studio Home
Motion picture production and post-production company founded by Francis Coppola.
American Zoetrope: Films
American Zoetrope: Dedicated to Creating Classics. In our first 30 years we have produced some of the most important films in American cinema. Our films have received fifteen ...
Zoetrope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides.
Jaiku | Sailor ™
zoetrope Sailor ™ this, being as it is a Saturday, appears to have fitted into the week quite ... jaiku: We're back a little early folks, thanks for the patience in London, UK ...
Definition: zoetrope from Online Medical Dictionary
The Online Medical Dictionary is a searchable dictionary of definitions from medicine, science and technology.
Build a Zoetrope
Build your own Zoetrope movie viewer ... Build your own "Zoetrope" movie viewer : Surprise! Here is a little christmas present to all of our visitors during the holiday season!
AskOxford: zoetrope
zoetrope / zo itrop/ • noun a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when viewed through slits with the cylinder rotating, give an impression of continuous ...
Zoetrope: All-Story
Short-fiction magazine founded by Francis Coppola. Features online submissions and reviews of short stories and novellas.
Zoetrope
TO MAKE A ZOETROPE YOU WILL ALSO NEED: scissors a sharp pencil play dough the stick from a boiled sweet lolly a glue stick
BBC - Blue Peter - Zoetrope
Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is an illusion that was created in the 1830's. When the drum is spun and you view the image through the slits, the pictures merge into one to produce ...
