Early animation pioneers created simple moving picture devices with a few images and a cardboard disc.

The historical and traditional types of animation give the basic ideas of animation and how the animation appears from several still images.

C130 A.D. Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus discovers persistence of vision.

1825 The thaumatrope was invented in 1825. Depending on the source, the invention is credited to three different people: Peter Roget, also the creator of Roget's Thesaurus, Dr. John Ayrton of Paris, and Dr. Fitton of London. The thaumatrope is a simple device with two different images, one on the front and one on the back. A piece of string is attached to each side. By quickly rolling the string between your fingers, the two images appear to blend together making one image.
1880 Eadweard muybridge creates the zoopraxiscope to display his animal motion photographs.

1912 Thomas Edison produces the first talking motion picture.

1920 Walt Disney produces and sells his first animated film. He receives a contract to produce 12 more fils for Newman Theaters.

1930 Max Fleisher Studios relealses Betty Boop's Prize Show, the first Betty Boopfilm. The film series runs for nine years.

1937 Disney releases its first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film is composed of approximately 477,000 drawings.

1961 An early computer drawing program called Sketchpad is created by 12:26 PM 10/24/05MIT student Ivan Sutherland.

1967 The first videotaped movies are distributed for home use.

1968 Doug Englebart demonstrateds the first computer-mediated representation of "informational spaces." His innovations include bitmapping, the use of pixels to represent graphical images on the screen, and their direct manipulation on the screen with what is now known as the "mouse." Englebart's info space is the prototype of the graphical user interface.

1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen join forces to start Microsoft Corporation.

1981 Microsoft Corporation begins work on the graphical user interface that one day becomes Windows.

If images are flashed before the eye at at least 10 frames per second, the brain thinks it is seeing a single moving image. The number of frames per second, or FPS, directly correlates to how smooth the movement appears. If the frame rate is too slow, the motion will look awkward and jerky. If the frame rate is too high the motion will blur.

• The Thaumatrope
  The thaumatrope was invented in 1825. Depending on the source, the invention is credited to three different people: Peter Roget, also the creator of Roget's Thesaurus, Dr. John Ayrton of Paris, and Dr. Fitton of London.The thaumatrope is a simple device with two different images, one on the front and one on the back. A piece of string is attached to each side. By quickly rolling the string between your fingers, the two images appear to blend together making one image.
• The Phenakistoscope
  Developed in 1833 by Joseph Plateau in Brussels, the phenakistoscope is actually one of the oldest motion picture devices. The device consists of a cardboard disc with evenly spaced slots cut along the outside edge. The face of the disc is divided into pie shaped sections containing a series of images. The center of the disc is attached to a stick or dowel so it may spin freely. By holding the image side up to a mirror, spinning the disc, and looking through the slots, the images create a motion picture.
• The Zoetrope
  Although an unknown Chinese inventor discovered an early version of the zoetrope in 180, the invention was credited to William George Horner in 1834. The zoetrope is based on the same principles as the phenakistoscope. The zoetrope consists of paper bands of pictures or images placed inside a revolving drum. To view the zoetrope movie, the viewer looks through slots on the outside of the drum while it rotates. You can change the band of pictures to vary your viewing pleasure.