craft rock friday with final fantasy

Final Fantasy's video for their charmingly entitled song, "He Poos Clouds", features a paper craft that most of us have seen, played with, and maybe even made ourselves (I'm pretty sure this was an art/science project in elementary school!) ... but few of us can name.

Personally, I like to call it "that spinning flip-book type thing". Apparently, it's really called a zoetrope.



Zoetropes are really old paper crafts. According to Wikipedia, the first zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD.

The version we know today has a slightly more complicated history - being called first the "wheel of the devil" then the "wheel of the life"...

The modern zoetrope was invented in 1833 by British mathematician William George Horner. He called it the 'Daedalum' ('the wheel of the devil'). It didn't become popular until the 1860s, when it was patented by makers in both England and America. The American developer, William F. Lincoln, named his toy the 'zoetrope', which means 'wheel of life'.

- Wikipedia entry for 'Zoetrope'

Here are instructions on how to make a zoetrope from the lid of an ice cream container.

Chances are your zoetrope won't be quiiite as animated as Final Fantasy's, but I suspect he got a little help with his.