One good way, if an animator wishes to represent a bird flying across the sky, is to have several—five or seven—positions for the action drawn on cardboard and then cut out. These little bird models are placed, one at a time, over the general scene during the photography and manipulated in the same way as described for other cut-out models. The slight wavering from the direct line of the bird’s flight that may occur by this cut-out method would not matter very much. The bird describes a wavering line anyway as he flies—its body dropping slightly when the wings go up and a correlative rise occurring when the wing flap takes place.
CYCLE OF PHASES OF A WALKING DOG ARRANGED FOR THE PHENAKISTOSCOPE.
PHENAKISTOSCOPE WITH A CYCLE OF DRAWINGS TO SHOW A DOG IN MOVEMENT.
If an artist wishes scrupulously to be exact in drawing a bird flying across the sky, he should observe certain rules of perspective applying to the case. The problem is the same as that of the airplane, previously noted, which flew across the field of the picture. Regarding this matter, to specify: When the bird appears on one side it is represented in a side view, which changes as it gets near the centre to a profile. After it has been viewed in profile, the perspective changes again and when it reaches the other side it is again in a perspective side view, slightly from the back.
In the mode of progression that was given as the usual one in quadrupeds, in which a diagonally opposite fore and hind limb moved simultaneously, there is a sinuous lateral twisting of the back-bone. It is not so perceptible to us in the larger beasts. It is an effect, though, that takes place in other creatures and in some of them can be clearly seen. In the walk of the lizard, as an instance, when viewed from above, a successive undulation of the back-bone takes place. As one fore limb—the right, to particularize—moves forward, that side of his body—the right shoulder, moves forward, too; while approximately at the same time the left hind limb moves forward and carries with it that side or the left pelvic regions. This causes an alternating obliquity of the transverse axes of the shoulder and the hind regions of the body of the reptile as he walks on the ground. And this alternate changing of these axes gives rise to a continuing sinuosity in the spine.
RUNNING COW.
Positions selected and adapted from Muybridge’s photographs.