The flipbook

The Flipbook

A brief history

The first flipbook appeared in September 1868 patented by John Barnes Linnett under the name 'kineograph' (MOVING PICTURE) although the French Pierre-Hubert Desvignes is generally credited with being the inventor of the flipbook. After Linnett died his wife sold the patent to an American.

How it works

It's pretty much just a lot of drawings that when flipped they give off the illusion that you're watching some sort of short animated movie. 

"The books are designed so that each page’s image advances the scene from the previous page; when the pages are thumbed rapidly the sequence becomes animated due to the persistence of vision." ~ history of the museum of science

What you need to make it work

You only need very basic materials to make a flipbook;

A pencil or pen

A sharpener 

An eraser 

A lot of paper 

Coloured pens or pencils (optional)

Although flipbooks are ideal and very cost efficient to make there are a few quite big draw backs for example, because they are made of paper they're prone to damage and don't have much in the way of life expectancy, they take a massive amount of time and patience to make a half decent one and lastly you need to be a pretty good artist to produce a good final outcome.

Here are a few flipbook examples