Creating an Animated Disc called Phenakistoscope

The optical toy, the phenakistoscope, was an early animation device that used the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion. It was invented by Joseph Plateau in 1841. The phenakistoscope used a spinning disc attached vertically to a handle.

Hello Folks,

Recently I got the opportunity to present an online workshop-"Doodle Moves" at windmill virtualfuntown event, so I made an animated disc called phenakistoscope. It's very interesting to see the animation taking place on a piece of paper. It's a fun activity and it also teaches one about the persistence of vision. I tried to make it as simple as possible so check out my version of the phenakistoscope. Also, it's my first video so do motivate and share feedback :)

Arrayed around the disc's center were a series of drawings showing phases of the animation, and cut through it was a series of equally spaced radial slits. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the disc's reflection in a mirror. The scanning of the slits across the reflected images kept them from simply blurring together so that the user would see a rapid succession of images that appeared to be a single moving picture.

Material for making your animated disc-

A 200 to 300 gsm thick paper
pencil, eraser, scissor, scale, colours, a compass
A board Pin and an eraser tip pencil, A mirror

Some reference from the internet to understand more complex animated discs

1833 "McLean's Optical Illusions; or, Magic Panorama" (early animations)

Lets watch out how to make your own Animated Disc called Phenakistoscope based on optical illustion. Watch my video tutorial for the workshop.

You can refer or copy given template designs for creating your Phenakistoscope

Article by

Smithaa Pande
Author/Trainer- Animation Suplement
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