The first pre-cinema piece I’ll talk about would be the optical illusion toys that were relatively common in the mid 19th century. While a very early and rough concept through spinning the the toy it would cycle through 2 images, one on the front and one on the back. This would give the crude perception of motion and make the person spinning it think that the image is in motion.
The second pre-cinema piece would be the flipbooks, these became popular in the late 19th century and the very beginning of the 20th century. Just like the optical illusion toy from a couple of generations ago, this would utilize the rapid flipping of motion to trick people into thinking the pages were in motion. While the optical illusion toy allowed for 2 images, the flipbook alternative allowed for a longer motion given how many pages the booklet was.
Both essentially work the same, some what crude and early given animation wasn’t a staple yet but they used the same method of rapid motion to gain the illusion of movement.
