History of animation

1824: Peter Roget presented his paper ‘The persistence of vision with regard to moving objects’ to the British Royal Society.

1831: Dr. Joseph Antoine Plateau and Dr. Simon Ritter constructed a machine called a phenakitstoscope. This machine produced an illusion of movement by allowing a viewer to look at a rotating disk containing small windows, behind the windows was another disk containing a small sequence of images.

1872: Eadweard Muybridge started his photographic gathering of animals in motion.

1887: Thomas Edison started his research work into motion pictures.

1889: George Eastman began the manufacture of photographic film strips using a nitrocellulose base.

1892: Emile Renynaud, combining his earlier invention of the praxinoscope. With a project, open the Theatre Optique in the Musee Grevin. It displays an animation of images painted on long strips of celluloib.

1895: Louis and Augustin Lumiere issued a patent for a device called a cinematograph capable on projecting moving pictures.

1896: Thomas Armat designed the vitascope which projected the films of Thomas Edison. This machine had a major influence on all sub-sequent projectors.

1906: J. Stuart Blackton made the first animated film which he called the ‘Humorous phases of funny faces’.

1908: In France Emile Cohl produced a film, ‘Phantasmagorie’, which were the first depicting white figures on a black background.

1914: John R Bray applied for patent on numerous techniques for animation. One of the most revolutionary is being the process of printing the background of the animation.

1919: Pat Sullivan created an American cartoon ‘Felix the Cat’.

1923: Walt and Roy Disney found the Disney Brothers Cartoon studio.

1926: The first feature-length animated film called ‘El Apostol’ was created in Argentina.

1927: Warner Bros introduced ‘The Jazz Singer’ which introduces combined sound and images.

1928: Walt Disney created the first cartoon with synchronised sound called ‘Steam Boat Willy’.

1945: Harry Smith produced animation by drawing directly onto film.

1964: Ken Knowlton, working at Bell Laboratories, started developing computer techniques for producing animated movies.

1988: Willow introduced morphing into live action film.

1993: Jurassic Park use of CG for realistic living creatures.  

1995: Toy Story, first full-length 3D CG feature film.