How To Make Your Own Zoetrop At Home
Making a zoetrope at home is easy and fun, but do you know what it is? Who invented it? Learn all about this optical toy that fascinates all children and then start organizing your next family project. Are you ready to get started?
What is a zoetrope?
Since the invention of the art of photography, man has continuously strived to create images, and to make them moving. It was the beginning of the film’s emergence, or “the stage before the cinema”, where various devices were invented. One of these was the zoetrope.
This optical device was designed in 1834 by the mathematician William George Horner, but it did not become popular as a toy until around 1860 under the name “drum” or “wheel of life”. Its mechanism shares the same principles used to create animated series.
The device also works in the same way as film and creates a sequence of moving images. It is a kinetic illusion that combines drawings of different divr and movements by taking advantage of the effect of light and how the retina retains an image. When the drum rotates, the divs are linked together to achieve the effect of a moving scene.
What you need to make your own zoetrope at home
Creating something with your hands is creative, playful and addictive and an activity that children love to do. Start the project of building a zoetrop at home and you will see how much fun the children have with it. You will need the following materials for the project:
- Templates for zoetropen or white cardboard
- A round box
- Black cardboard
- Silicone adhesive
- A ruler
- A pen
- Scissor
- A precision knife
- A cup of plastic or paper
- A thumbtack
Start making your zoetrope with the kids
- Draw two shapes on the black box: a circle the same size as the diameter of the round box. A rectangular strip of the same size as the inner circumference of the circle and twice as high as the box so that it protrudes over the edge. For example, if the wall of the box is 5 centimeters, the cardboard strip should be about 10 centimeters wide.
- On the upper half of your rectangular strip, mark 5 millimeter wide vertical slits approximately every five centimeters. Cut these out with the precision knife and remove the excess cardboard. You now have a ribbed strip.
- On the opposite edge, make small triangular cuts of about 1 centimeter. Fold these tabs in so you can attach them to the bottom of your round box.
- Glue your rectangular cardboard to the inside of the box by gluing your tabs.
- Place the black circle you cut out on top so that it covers the tabs.
- Cut a strip of white cardboard the same length as the black one. This strip should be the same height as the edge of the box.
- Divide the white strip into six parts and mark with a pencil. Leave 1 centimeter on each edge for gluing together.
- Draw divr in a sequence of movements in each space. You can also download templates of drawings in sequences from the internet. Print them out and then paste them on the bottom half of the black box.
- Glue the cardboard strip with the drawings or your prints on the inner wall of the drum.
- Mark the base in the middle of the box.
- Now is the time to make sure that our creation can rotate. Place your paper cup upside down on a flat surface and place the box on top so that the center of the base is in the center of the cup.
- Attach the box, carton and cup with the thumbtack, and your zoetrope is ready to spin!
A durable moving film
Zoetropen is a simple and fun device to make at home. You can even use recyclable materials to make an environmentally friendly toy! For example, use a round box that has had candy or chocolate in it to make the base and boxes from your breakfast cereals to make the drum.
You can also combine your own drawings with templates you find on the internet to have several models with different themes. In this way, you will encourage the learning of different subjects within one and the same activity: information and communication technology (ICT), reading comprehension, image, craft, geometry and mathematics.
Plan an afternoon with the kids to do a zoetrope at home. It is an entertaining activity that uses several skills, such as creativity, fine motor skills, the children’s artistic side and above all the desire to play and have fun as a family. What are you waiting for? It’s just getting started!
