Pixar's Zoetrope

August 9, 2011 7:14 PM

This is a zoetrope (previously). It's a device that creates the illusion of animation from a succession of still pictures filtered quickly through slits in a wheel. Pixar made a really cool one with a strobe light. Here it is more up-close and personal. Here it is in a higher resolution.
posted by SpacemanStix (29 comments total)

I want one.
posted by bz at 7:17 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, we've got one of those
posted by ghharr at 7:23 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

The cute, it hurts.
posted by pinky at 7:25 PM on August 9, 2011

show offs
posted by zeoslap at 7:25 PM on August 9, 2011

Nice! Does anybody know where there might be a longer/closer/better video of the Studio Ghibli zoetrope? I found a couple of videos on Youtube, but they're pretty low quality. This was the best one I could find.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:40 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Here's the Pixar description of building it to show how animation works.
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:49 PM on August 9, 2011

I was just in New York and I sought out my favorite of these things, the Masstransiscope. I randomly happened upon the original in 1980 and it blew my mind, so I was so excited to see it again.
posted by bitslayer at 8:03 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

I think that is the same Pixar video from the post.
posted by smackfu at 8:21 PM on August 9, 2011

A few of Peter Hudson's zoetropes from Burning Man: Tantalus (2008), Homouroboros (2007), Deeper [NSFW language] (2004).

And, just because: Zoetrope.
posted by mykescipark at 8:25 PM on August 9, 2011

Related.
posted by nickyskye at 8:28 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pixar's awesomeness knows no bounds. I actually stop hating Disney for the duration of whatever it is they've made, that's how good they are. Seriously, they can't be this talented without sacrificing babies to Hitler's ghost or something.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:31 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

wonder if they were inspired by the one in the Studio Ghbili Museum
posted by sineater at 8:34 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

wonder if they were inspired by the one in the Studio Ghbili Museum

Yep, that's the one that was shown in the video as an inspiration. Very cool to see a shot from further back of the whole thing.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:40 PM on August 9, 2011

I'm not really a Toy Story fan or even a bix Pixar fan, but when I saw this my jaw dropped to the floor. It was breathtaking.
posted by quarterframer at 9:40 PM on August 9, 2011

wonder if they were inspired by the one in the Studio Ghbili Museum

My understanding was that they were explicitly inspired by Ghibli's zoetrope!
posted by mkgrfn at 10:25 PM on August 9, 2011

I saw this in person at a recent Pixar exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California. It really is amazing and bizarre to see animated characters hopping around in physical space.
posted by brundlefly at 11:02 PM on August 9, 2011

Two years ago for a cake contest I run, someone submitted this awesome entry, based on the Threadless shirt design Human Thaumatrope.

(The idea is that as a human thaumatrope, you are to spin very quickly whilst wearing the t-shirt. The idea, transformed into cake, was to spin the cake in place on a platter. They even made a video!)
posted by disillusioned at 12:26 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a (duplicate?) copy of this at Disney's California Adventure, hidden in a rather obscure location. It's always fun to show it to people for the first time, having them wonder what the heck it's all about, then watching it come to life when the strobe light switches on.
posted by ShutterBun at 2:15 AM on August 10, 2011

It's really kind of...frightening.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:19 AM on August 10, 2011

I've seen the Pixar one twice. Once at The Art of Pixar exhibition and one at Disneyland. Nothing beats the reaction my friend had when she saw it at Disneyland. When it started moving her eyes went wide and she slowly turned to me and said

'Azz......what the fuck just happened?'
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 5:06 AM on August 10, 2011

i saw that in a pixar convention in melbour when i was like 4 im now 11
919superman 3 months ago

Who lets their 11 year old read or comment on YouTube?
posted by Splunge at 5:56 AM on August 10, 2011

If you don't like the cute, there happens to be an incredibly cool one of these -- the 3D strobe-light kind -- of a much creepier sort up right now in the Small Realities show at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Sadly, no movie is available, but it's one of the coolest things ever. In fact, everything in the show is one of the coolest things ever (yes, everything in those last links is a tiny "fake") -- it's like two floors of MeFi fetish objects. Patrick Jacobs alone deserves his own FPP. Check it out if you're in NYC.
posted by The Bellman at 6:04 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Touche.
posted by Splunge at 6:15 AM on August 10, 2011

Not sure if this is mentioned anywhere in the old posts but Culver City has the 2-d kind sprinkled throughout downtown.
posted by mzurer at 6:48 AM on August 10, 2011

Bellman... I saw that show too. (my Wife's paintings were in it). "Garden of Earthly Delights" really stole the show. I'd never seen a 3-D zoetrope.
posted by JBennett at 12:31 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I loved every single thing in the show. Who is your wife, if you don't mind sharing?
posted by The Bellman at 2:54 PM on August 10, 2011

There's a company trying to start out that makes physical zoetropes from animated gifs.
posted by eye of newt at 6:51 PM on August 10, 2011

Bellman.... Amy Bennett. She had a few very small paintings in the show. And the model used as a still life to paint them.
posted by JBennett at 10:51 AM on August 11, 2011

OK. Now I want to go to Disneyland. I will pay full admission just to gaze upon this, and then leave.
posted by djfiander at 12:23 PM on August 11, 2011