• Inventions in the world of film and computers advanced animation technology.Cartoon Eye image by hellotim from Fotolia.com
  
  Many inventions in the history of animation are tied directly to the development of film and computers. The creation of live-action films and animation both occurred around the same time in the late 19th century. Many years later, in the 1960s, computers began to impact animation. Nowadays, using simple computer programs, a person can create a short animation from the courtesy of his own home.
  
  

Praxinoscope

• The Praxinoscope was an early prototype of animation that was created by Emil Reynaud in 1892. The device consisted of a spinning Zoetrope affixed with mirrors. This allowed for the simulation of movement with up to 80 frame and 10 to 15 minutes of action. The Praxinoscope could be viewed at the Theatre Optique in Paris. This precursor to film was later put out of business when film became the standard.
  
  

Color in Film

• Several color process were tested before settling on Technicolor in animation. The first color cartoon was released in 1920 and it was called The Debut of Thomas Cat. It used an expensive process called the Brewster Natural Color Process which used color emulsion and was quickly abandoned. Technicolor was later created by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation in the 1930s and eventually almost all animated films would use this process for color.
  
  

Rotoscope

• While the Disney animated films may be the most memorable of the early twentieth century, they would not have been possible if not for an invention by a competitor. The Fleischer Brothers revolutionized animation by creating a device called the rotoscope. This contraption streamlined the frame-by-frame copying process and made it possible to place drawings on live action film. The Fleischer brothers took advantage of this technology in their cartoons by having characters like Ko-Ko the Clown leave the drawing to interact with their human creators.
  
  

DAC

• Design Augmented by Computer (DAC) was a computer-based design environment that was the precursor to animation on the computer. This allowed the user to make an image with a light pen or pencil and then zoom and rotate the image. Around the same time (1963 to 1964) another drawing program called Sketchpad was created, which performed similar functions and was the first Graphical User Interface (GUI) ever created.