-
Creation of the Praxinoscope
The praxinoscope, invented in 1877 by Charles-Émile Reynaud, was made by using strips of picture around the inside of a circle, and a set of mirrors on another circle inside the original. When the wheel turned, it seemes as though the images would move -
Enchanted Drawling
We kick things off with a silent film by J. Stuart Blackton, who some call the father of animation. His silent film shot in Thomas Edison’s Black Moria studio in New Jersey is credited as the first animated sequence on film ever. -
Fantasmagorie
French Charicaturist Émile Cohl steps into the ring now, producing the first fully animated cartoon with no live-action whatsoever. Made from 700 drawings, each double-exposed, this 2 minute long film is the earliest example of what became known as traditional animation. -
Gertie the Dinosaur with key framing
Whilst Gertie was perhaps the first animated character to gain notoriety, Windsor McCay’s animated dinosaur film is worth a mention because it is the first animation to make use of key framing, inbetweening, registration marks and animation loops. These all became part of standard industry practice for traditional animation production for decades to come. -
Rotoscoping
John Bray patents rotoscoping which was developed by Max Fleischer -
Felix the Cat
Musical Mews and Feline Follies introduced Felix the Cat—often considered the first animated movie star. -
Flowers and Trees
The keen-eyed amongst you will notice that we’ve left the black and white era behind us! Flowers and Trees was also the first animated film shot with a three-strip Technicolor camera, a process so costly that it almost ruined Disney financially. -
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs/First animations to have speaking characters
Probably the first animation on this timeline that still holds up nowadays, which speaks volumes of its polish, Snow White was the first ever full length animated feature film.
