Wheels in Motion

Over the past couple of days this intriguing and mesmerising animation has appear online. Created by Katy Beveridge as a 3rd year dissertation piece this wonderful bicycle animation plays out on rotating bicycle wheels.

Using paper cutouts applied to the wheels of bicycles Katy is able to create a zoetrope effect. To the naked eye the effect merely appears as a blur, so captured frame by frame on film the wintery snowflake designs come to life in mesmerising abstract forms.

This is how Katy Herself describes the piece:

This is a piece created to question whether it was possible to film animation in realtime. Part of my CSM 3rd year disseration project I was looking at proto animation (really early basic animation) in contemporary design. I’ve taken a lot of influence from other contemporary designers who are using these techniques to explore the way we look at animation and how its made.

After seeing this piece it reminded me of the Life Size Zoetrope, From Arthur Cox and Directed by Mark Simon Hewis.