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Joseph Plateau, a Belgian scientist, developed the worlds first phenakistiscope. It was a very crude method of animation by today's standards, but it was the first real look at animation that took off.
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Emile Reynaud patents the worlds first praxinoscope. It was a device that used mirrors to project images onto a screen.
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Windsor McCay produces the first animation that actually took off in popularity, "Gertie the Dinosaur".
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In 1915 and 1917 respectivley, John Bray patents the use of clear cells over a background, as well as rotoscoping
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Otto Mesmer creates the famous Felix the Cat character.
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Walt Disney releases "Steamboat Willie", which is an early cartoon with sound. This really sparks cartoons as a true form of entertainment.
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Warner brothers creates Porky the Pig, Daffy DUck and Bug Bunny. All sensations in animation.
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first feature-length animated film. It was fully hand drawn and its release costed Disney 1.5 Million dollars.
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Ed Catmull, from the University of Utah, develops his own animation scripting language and with it, creates an animation of a smooth shaded hand.
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John Lasseter, employed at Pixar, released a paper that descibes traditional animation principles with his demos " Andre and Wally B" and "Luxo Jr"
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Pixar releases Toy Story. It was way ahead of any other animation that had been released prior.
