Animation workshops: phonotrope

This exciting activity for children requires special equipment and remains a little difficult to set up; the teacher will test this technique himself before offering it in class.

1- Material for this activity

• A vinyl record player.
• A vinyl record.
• Sheets of paper.
• Colored pencils or coloring pens.
• A digital camera and a tripod.
• A video projector. This animation technique does not work without a camera; The optical illusion is the result of the matching between the shutter speed of the camera and the rotation speed of the disk. Another technique would be to create the visual interruptions using the flashes of a strobe.

2- Preparation of the support

• Cut a sheet of paper into a circle (same diameter as the vinyl record).
• Separate the paper disk into 20 parts. This preparation can be done with the children. To do this, before sticking the sheet of paper on the vinyl record, separate the paper record into 4 quarters by tracing the first two diameters. Each quarter must then be separated into 5 parts. You can also download and print a 20-part disc separation template.
• Glue the sheet of paper to the vinyl record.

3- Drawing and animation

• Imagine a movement that can be repeated endlessly (a bouncing ball, clapping hands, etc.). For a first animation, choose simple geometric shapes like a triangle, a square... Discover examples of children's creations...
• Draw each step in order on each of the 20 parts of the paper disk.

4- Viewing

• Position the digital camera vertically above the disc.
• Spin the record on the record player and turn on the camera. The camera settings depending on the disk rotation speed will have been tested before.
• Watch the animation through the camera eye connected to the video projector.
• Compare the projected animation with the animation on the disc itself to understand that this illusion does not work when looking directly at the disc but only thanks to the adequacy

between camera settings and disk rotation speed.

Phonotropic animation like that of the short film remains difficult to implement. Another technique, simpler but just as exciting, can be adopted: the phenakistiscope. The phénakistiscope (1832) requires neither a record player nor a camera, simply a cardboard disc.

Print the materials for this activity...