In creating my phenakistoscope, what I was able to accomplish visually was more or less dictated by my lack of Illustrator skils. Having never really used the program before severely curtailed by ability to create a well-exectued illustration. Given these limitations, I decied to work with the shapes provided in the Chinese puzzle game Tangrams. For reasons unknown to me, I was the proud receipient of a Tangram puzzle set this Christmas, and after noticing the box sitting across the room, decided that these simple geometric shapes would be the perfect thing to base my animation on.

I wanted to utilize both abstract images as well as recognizable forms. In my first phenakistoscope, I concentrated primarily on perfecting the running action of the human figure. By the end of my first attempt, I was able to make it appear as though the figure's legs were moving, but I was unable to achieve the illusion that it was running around the perimeter of the circle. This was remedied by removing one of the figures, and shifting its position incrementally around the wheel. Using multiple layers, I filled out the phenakistoscope visually (and hopefully made it more interesting) by incorpoating simple shape designs and a secondary figure.