Undestanding: Early Practitioners

Emile Reynaud:

Charles-Emile Reynaud was responsible for the first projection of animation. He took the invention of the zoetrope which is a device that involves several frames of an animation and is spun to create the illusion of movement. 

Praxinoscope

What Emile Reynaid did, was take this device, and put his frames on black card so that he could replace it with any background/setting he wished. This was then a new device in which he called the 'Praxinoscope'. Along with this he advanced this device so that up to a duration of 15 minute films could be produced and projected on to a screen to an audience. He then opened his own theatre and for 10 years projected his animations to audiences that he had created. This was if not, THE first animation to be projected to the public. Though he died penniless, he is recognised greatly by scholars and students who study animation and is acknowledges as a great inventor who opened up a door to animation.

What I like about his animations is that they have no dialogue but you can easily distinguish what is occurring for the duration of the animation. When he projected his animation in his own theatre he would hire musicians to play live music behind the curtains and the screen so that the audience would be able to listen to some sort of soundtrack as the animation played. Since the animations were quite short, this was ideal but still allowed an atmosphere to be created. For his pieces being the very first to be shown to the public, they aren't as 'choppy' as you would have imagined, they are actually quite smooth, and this is perhaps due to the speed of the praxinoscope. The bigger the device, the longer the animation usually was, but for early stages of animation, I think this is a very impressive practitioner.