TITLE: ZOETROPE — chronophotography machine
PROMPT: Create 'ZOETROPE', a chronophotography machine: a black spinning drum with vertical viewing slits and a strip of hand-drawn animation frames (a galloping horse, a diver, a rising bird — authored as simple SVG frame loops); viewed through a fixed slit, persistence of vision animates them; a side panel explains the illusion with numbered frames you can scrub. Palette: sepia daguerreotype tones on near-black, brass fittings. Interactions: CRANK the handle (drag in circles — the drum spins with inertia, animation frame rate follows physical speed); a strobe toggle replaces slits with a flashing light; frame-by-frame stepper with onion-skin ghosting; swap animation strips (horse/diver/bird/juggler). Victorian media archaeology, genuinely working illusion.
DESCRIPTION: A Victorian optical toy that actually works: a black drum with slit-shaped shading and a brass rim (conic-gradient metal) spins around a central viewport where a 12-frame hand-drawn animation appears — the drum's rotation angle directly drives the frame index, so spinning it produces genuine persistence-of-vision animation. Four authored strips: a galloping horse (bobbing body, phasing leg pairs, flowing tail), a tuck-somersaulting diver, a rising flapping bird, and a juggler with three phased balls. Drag the drum itself or crank the brass handle (rotation adds angular velocity with inertia decay); STROBE swaps the slit shading for a flashing overlay; a scrubbable filmstrip below shows every numbered frame with onion-skin ghosting of its predecessor.
TECHNIQUES: procedurally drawn 12-frame animation loops (phase-parameterized figure drawing), drum-angle-to-frame-index mapping at 2 frames per revolution, angular-velocity inertia from pointer-drag and crank gestures, conic-gradient brass rim, slit-shade strobe compositing, filmstrip scrubber with onion-skin ghost frames.
INTERACTION: Drag the drum or crank the handle in circles to spin — the animation speed follows your physical cranking with inertia; toggle the strobe light; click filmstrip frames to inspect them; swap animation strips (horse/diver/bird/juggler).