It is an entertaining speculation as to whether or not Michael Angelo, being a man of many artistic activities, would have tried his hand at animating drawings, had the art been in existence in his time.
In our own day, patterns for emulation in the matter of depicting action and the delineation of character are found in the drawings of Mr. A. B. Frost. Witness his achievements in these respects in his book “Stuff and Nonsense.” Then, too, Mr. Frost’s appreciation of the comic spirit is particularly noteworthy. His graphic work could with every success be set forth on the animated screen.
MR. FROST’S SPIRITED DELINEATION OF FIGURES IN ACTION.
The old-fashioned peep-show has long since passed its way, and in its place has come the cinematographic exhibition. Children consider it a commonplace occurrence in their lives to be taken to the “movies.” Very soon they will imbibe knowledge as well as receive entertainment through the medium of the films. There are many instructional themes that could be elucidated in the school by animated drawings.
THE PEEP-SHOW.
Detail of a composition of a French eighteenth-century tapestry designed by Boucher.
Educational, travel, and scenic films are frequently presented in motion-picture theatres, but the possibilities in these subjects have not been exhausted.
Some of the first investigators who looked into the problems connected with photographic analysis and pictorial synthesis to produce the appearance of movement had ideas of applying the results of their labors to practical purposes. M. G. Demeny, in Paris, to cite an instance, invented an instrument by which deaf-mutes could learn to speak and to read lip movements. His instrument consisted of an optical contrivance that gave the representation of a person speaking by the turning of a glass disk upon which there was placed a series of photographs of a person speaking. The pictures were arranged in a cycle which, when the disk was made to rotate, produced a continuous effect of the action.