Final Project: Research: Flip books

 In this post, I decided to go back in time and look at flip books. Flip books are kind of a pioneer for an animation. I think most kids do this sort of animation in a corner of their notebooks, when they are bored in class, therefore most people are familiarized with the general idea of a flip book. 

The concept of it is simple, there is an image drawn on every page and when the pages are flipped really fast, it creates motion. An animation drawn frame by frame uses the same concept, there is a lot of images flipped very quickly, to achieve motion. 

The process of making a flip book is easy, however I am going to attach a video below, explaining how to create one. 

This video can be a great tutorial, if someone is new to the concept of a flip book or just in general new to the concept of drawing frames. 

Before the name "flip book" started being used, today's flip books were called kineographs. The Kineograph was patented by John Barnes in 1868 (Mellby, 2010). The flip books quickly gained popularity and I understand why. In the middle of the 19th century, there were still no films, videos or animations, therefore for children, but not only, a flip book must have been a great joy. For me personally, it still is great to make and to play with it. Flip books gave people the ability to create short motions that did not need to be in a circular form, as they would be in the phenakistoscope. "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." (Juxtapoz, 2014) 

Phenakistoscope

The fact that this motions were made on a surface that was in a shape of a circle, and it was achieved by spinning it, it made it impossible to make those 'animations' long or tell any sort of story. This is why a flip book was a great invention. The more pages, a flip book would have, the longer the story, therefore there are not any limits. 

The Disney Studios had also released many flip books, that can be purchased online or in Disney parks. The one series that I think is good to bring up, is the series called "Nine Old Men". Nine Old Men is a nickname for the nine original Disney animators. The set of the flip books looks like that.

"Nine Old Men" (2013)

This series is available to purchase online, and the idea behind it is that each of those flip books, contain a drawing that has been drawn and created, frame by frame, by one of the Nine Old Men. I think an object like that, can help to see different methods of drawing a character or a scene and different styles animators had. Nowadays, we know all of those people and all of their creations, under the name of Walt Disney, but I think, releasing a series for them is a great tribute to their work and their input to the Walt Disney Studios. 

I have found this video with a review of these flip books. I think it is a good to watch and see what the flip books actually look like.

There is also another series of flip books just like these ones, called "Nine More Old Men".

"Nine More Old Men" (2017)

This series follows the same idea, the first one did, however there are different animators mentioned in this one. What really surprised me, is that Ub Iwerks is not on the list of the original Nine Old Men, but he has been added to this series. Ub Iwerks worked with Disney from the very beginning in Kansas City, MO, and this is why it is a surprise to me, that he is not considered one of the Nine Old Men. 

I decided to dig in more into the Disney history to find out who exactly were the Nine More Old Men and that is where I found a youtube video, that quickly explained to me, why Ub Iwerks is not one of the Nine Old Men and who exactly are the animators mentioned in the second series of the flip books. Click here to access the video I have watched. From the video, I know that the well-known Nine Old Men, are not exactly the first ones to work with Walt Disney, there were animators, such as, for example Ub Iwerks, that were working there before. The Nine Old Men did look up to them and learn from them, and these animators are the ones shown in the second series called "Nine More Old Men". I think this is now a lot more clear to me, and I am glad they also have a special series dedicated to them, because I think it is all the people who worked with Disney, that made the company what it is today, and they also deserve a tribute. 

I think, that after doing this research, I know more about the history of how animations have started in the 19th century and I think basic knowledge is critical when studying a subject or creating a project. 

Reference List

Juxtapoz, (2014) 'Short History of the Phenakistoscope' Available at: https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/news/short-history-of-the-phenakistoscope/ [Accessed 11/11/2020]

Mellby, J. L. (2010) 'Kineographs' Graphic Arts Exhibitions, acquisitions, and other highlights from the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library Available from: https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2010/02/kineographs.html#comments[Accessed 11/11/2020]