Simple Zoetrope, Part 1 – Progress

I’m trying to make a zoetrope out of four frames of animation.

I’m using this gif as a reference point. I separated out the images and traced over each one in illustrator.

Then I tried to laser cut them onto pieces of green live edge acrylic.

It was all going well on Monday night until I had my first heartbreaking moment with the laser cutter. It stopped cutting through. About 5 people looked at it and tried to fix it but no one could find a solution. This meant that I was only able to cut out the slides and not the box. Whomp whomp.

At least the eyes turned out well.

Now I have to make a foam core box for each slide to sit inside of and run my super bright LEDs underneath it.

This has taken about pie times as many hours as I suspected. I really hope it works out and actually ends up looking like an animation! I haven’t really done a proof of concept yet. The internet makes it look very possible but we’ll see…