A Bicycle-Powered Animation

By Claire Lawton Mon., Nov. 28 2011 at 7:00 AM

One new idea for every day in 2011. We're talking big, small, local, international, in action, and on the drawing board. Here's today's -- what's yours?

http://www.katybeveridge.com/

London-based designer Katy Beveridge isn't alone in her fascination with zoetropes; the quickly spinning devices have been used to create animations for centuries. Today, they've helped the development of the cinemagraph and the physical GIF.

While studying for her dissertation, Beveridge came up with a simple question: Is it possible to film animation in real time, with the help of a few snowflake and gear-shaped paper cutouts attached to a few bicycle wheels?

(Watch the answer after the jump ...)

"I've taken a lot of influence from other contemporary designers who are using these techniques to explore the way we look at animation and how its made," she writes. "I developed this project based on what is being done in animation right now as well as a lot of primary research into the history of animation techniques."

Beveridge's zoetrope can only be captured on film -- the human eye cannot process the paper's rotations on the wheels and becomes blurry. When filmed, however, her designs come to life.