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Zoetrope Instructions Zoetrope strips are similar to a film strip. Each image is slightly different than the one before it.

• The best animations for a zoetrope are cyclical, like someone walking, or an umbrella opening and closing.

• Solid areas of black work better than lots of outlines. • Create 12 drawings of an action cycle or a morph. • The last drawing must smoothly evolve into the first frame.

Examples

Cycle

Morph

P a g e | 2 Items you will need to make your Zoetrope:

White paper lid, white paper strip with 12 sections, black foam strip, straw, cookie stick.

Draw Animation

1. Decide what your cycle or morph will be.

2. Some suggestions: • Playing leapfrog • Cartwheel • Animal walking or running • Umbrella morphing into a mushroom

3. KEEP IT SIMPLE!!! (You only have 12 frames to make your animation happen.)

P a g e | 3 4. Start with a pre-cut strip. There are short vertical dashed lines on the top and the bottom of

your strip that define the divisions of each frame.

5. Use the blue col-erase pencil to lightly sketch out your animation beginning with frame 1.

6. Keep the baseline for each animation at approximately the same level. If you need to,

lightly draw a horizontal line across the entire strip with the blue col-erase to act as a guide.

baseline

baseline

P a g e | 4 7. Once you have the animation roughed in, fill in your images with a black marker. Solids

usually work better than outlines.

8. Work smarter not harder, use the light box to copy shapes or rotate your strip to draw

shape at a different angle instead of redrawing your image. Construction

1. Place wall template on top of piece of black foam.

Foam

Wall Template

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(Wall Template on top of foam.)

2. Trace around the slits with a pencil.

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3. Use one of the x-acto knives, a cutting board and a ruler to cut out the slit area. You do NOT have to press very hard.

4. DO NOT FREEHAND IT!

5. Use circle template #1 with a small circle in the middle and place it in the center of the paper lid. Use a regular pencil to trace the small circle in the center on the template. This is the center of the lid and where you will insert the cookie stick.

6. Use the ribbon to take the circle template #1 out of the paper lid. (It’s a tight fit.)

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7. Place your paper lid on top of the circle template #2 and make a crosshair slit ONLY within

the circle you drew in Step 5. DO NOT GO OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE.

8. Place double-sided tape across the bottom and up one side of the foam template.

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9. Starting with the edge with tape at the bottom only, seat the base of the black foam with

the tape around the bottom inside edge of the paper lid pressing the tape against the paper lid as you go. Overlap the ends and make sure the edge with tape is behind the other edge. (It’s OK if you see the tape on the overlap.)

10. Use the CD case spindle contraption with the cute pink base to insert a cookie stick. (Believe it or not, this will help your stick to be perpendicular to the upper part of your Zoetrope, which you need to make your Zoetrope spin without wobbling. You just thought you wouldn’t have to do math in Animation!)

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11. Take the upper part of your Zoetrope and GENTLY push the cookie stick through the paper lid where you made a small slit in Step 7. If you did it correctly, the Zoetrope should sit on top of the CD spindle contraption (with the cute pink base) like so:

12. Use the hot glue gun to put a ring of glue around the tip of the cookie stick so it won’t slip through.

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13. On the underside of the CD spindle contraption, use another cookie stick to give your cookie stick a LITTLE push to loosen it from the suction created by the contraption.

14. Turn your Zoetrope upside down.

15. Slide the straw over the cookie stick.

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16. Use the hot glue to add a ring of glue on the cookie stick just past the straw. You don’t

need much and make sure there is a little distance after the straw before you add glue to the stick. This gives the straw room to be loose to spin and not tight.

17. Turn your Zoetrope over and insert your 12 frame strip you drew in the beginning and spin!

Turn In Instructions

1. Ask someone to help you. This part takes two people.

2. You will ask the person helping you to spin your Zoetrope while you take a video of it.

3. Use one of the point and shoot cameras and set it to video.

4. Record for 8-10 seconds. (File should end up at approximately 12MB)

5. Once you are done, name your file: periodnumberlastname_zoetrope

6. Upload your movie to the correct Edmodo Assignment.