Animation has been around for almost 400 years and wasn't originally seen on a screen but made use of multiple contraptions which may, today not get referred to as types of animations. They were first seen as the magic lantern the predecessor to what we would call a projector, using translucent paint projected using an oil lamp to show paintings on a flat wall or surface. On the other hand a Thaumatrope is an even more low tech item of that era which is simply a disc with two images on either side of the disc which is spun creating an illusion of the two images interacting with each other. A Phenakistoscope is similar to a zoetrope both are spinning contraptions which utilises mirrors and slits only a phenakistoscope is a set of two discs while a zoetrope is a cylinder. Flip books are probably one of the first stages of the modern view of animation as it can create a longer period of time that an animation is being shown in comparison to the previous techniques which would repeat after a limit, flip books had a beginning and an end, being extended with more pages. There was also the praxinoscope, an evovled form of the zoetrope which uses a central mirror rather than slits.
Starting from the 1900's to the first quarter of the century films and animations began to be created, but they were only silent which would have unsynchronized sound but in place were replaced with a live pianist. The very first animation that would be called an animation was 'Matches an Appeal', by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper, it was made in stop motion, moving a set of match sticks to create a performance, it is said to be the oldest animation. The first hand drawn animation was called 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton, drawn on blackboard with white chalk. In comparison, on the other side of the world the first anime was drawn in 1907, titled Katsudo Shashin with no titled author, this one however was drawn on frames rather than being made up of photographs. Fantasmagorie is the first presentation of character driven, story based narrative. Ladislaw Starewicz made the animation Beautiful Lukanida (The Camera mans Revenge) was the pioneer of puppet animation, the animation was made in 1912. One of the most famous animations from that time, would be Gertie the Dinosaur as it showed one of the first detailed animations ever as well as interaction between live action and animation, done between the animation and its creator, Windsor McCay. While it doesn't have any parts of its film left, El Apostol was a seventy minute animation made buy Quirino Cristiani it is known as the first feature length film. The last animation of the silent era was Lichtspiel Opus by Walter Ruttmann, an abstract film a part of the movement called Absolute film.
After the silent era came what came to be known as the golden age, this covered 1923-1960 when the animation industry took a hit from the more affordable alternative called TV. It was during this time that Disney began to rise to power in the animation industry. They started with just shorts at the beginning of movies leading walt disney to come up with his first full length animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It was in these films that Walt Disney came up with the 12 Principles of Animation creating animations with life and action which started to make animations much more relatable. Disney wasn't the only person to be producing more developed and detailed animations during this time, Max and Dave Fleeischer created Song Car Tunes the first animation to work with synchronised sound along with the animation and it was Quirino Cristianis 'Peludopolis' that was the first full length feature film that used synced up sound, however there is none of the original film left. The first full length anime film was by Mitsuyo Seo, called Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors.
In the modern day animation can now be applied not only to cartoons, shorts or movies but also art films, portraying messages to people, wether they be political, experimental or just art.
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