Animation has existed since prehistoric times, with one of the earliest examples being an 8-legged boar drawing in the Altamira caves over 10,000 years old. Early animation concepts included Egyptian wall drawings from 2000 BC depicting wrestlers in motion and Leonardo Da Vinci's illustrations of limbs in different positions. Animation was made possible by the persistence of vision, the phenomenon where the human eye retains an image for a fraction of a second after seeing it, first demonstrated in 1828. Early animation devices included the Thaumatrope in 1828 and the zoetrope in 1860, which used successive drawings to create the illusion of motion. The development of film cameras and projectors in the late 19th

1. Animation A history: 2000BC- 1828AD

2. S ince the beginnings of time, human beings have tried to capture a sense of motion in their art. One of the earliest examples is the eight-legged boar in the Altamira caves of Northern Spain which is over 10,000 years old.

4. The early years before Disney A forerunner of today's comic strip can be found in an Egyptian wall decoration circa 2000 B.C. In successive panels it depicts the actions of two wrestlers in a variety of holds.

6. In one of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous illustrations, he shows how the limbs would look in various positions.

8. Based on this, how would you define animation? Write a one sentence definition in your own words.

9. Animation could not be achieved without an interesting feature of the human eye. When you look at a picture, your eye and brain retain the image for a fraction of a second after it has gone. This is called persistence of vision .

10. This was first demonstrated in 1828 by Frenchman, Paul Roget , who invented the Thaumatrope .

11. In 1860, Pierre Desvignes , inserted a strip of paper containing drawings on the inside of a drum-like cylinder. The drum twirled on a spindle, and the viewer gazed through slots at the top of the drum. The figures on the inside magically came to life, endlessly looping in an acrobatic feat. The device was called a zeotrope.

12. T he development of the motion camera and projector by Thomas A. Edison and others provided the first real practical means of making animation.

13. Stuart Blackton , issued a short film in 1906 entitled Humourous Phases of Funny Faces where he drew comical faces on a blackboard, photographed them, and the erased it to draw another stage of the facial expression. This "stop-motion" effect astonished audiences by making drawings comes to life.

14. I n the early twenties, the popularity of the animated cartoon was on the decline. The public was tired of the old formula of stringing sight gags together without including a story line or any character development. What the art of animation could accomplish was not yet evident in this period, except for in the works of Winsor McCay such as Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914 .