1660's Magic lanterns are introduced
1820s + 1830's The Zoetrope, Thaumatrope and other optical toys are developed
1860's Development of the flip book, which led to a coin machine 'viewer' based on a series of photographs being flipped by turning a handle
1880 Eadweard Muybridge carries out his best-known experiment with 24 cameras and trip wires to record horse movement
1882 Eastman-Kodak invents celluloid film
1895 The first live-action motion pictures are projected onto a screen in Paris by the Lumière brothers
1895 Plasticine is invented. This is used for model animation - now made famous by Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run
1914 Winsor McCay, a pioneer animator, produced the first proper animated film for cinema entertainment called Gertie the Dinosaur. This was a silent film in black and white
1915 'Cel' or cellulose acetate was developed. This is a clear plastic that enables drawings to be made in layers. This cuts down the amount of drawings needed as drawings can be overlaid
1920s Sound suitable for adding to film was invented
1928 Disney releases ' Steamboat Willie ', Mickey Mouse’s first sound cartoon.
1930's Colour was added to film
1937 ' Snow White ' by Disney became the first full-length animated feature film in colour
1937 The Van Beuren Studios produce ' Tom and Jerry '
1964 Ken Knowlton starts developing computer techniques for producing animated movies while working at Bell Laboratories
1980's 'Tron' was the first animated feature film made by a computer
1990's Computers are commonly used in all levels of film making
1992 The Cartoon Network is the first TV network to offer animation programming 24 hours a day
1995 ' Toy Story ' by Pixar is the first full-length all-computer-generated animated film
2002 CGI is mixed with traditional hand-drawn animation to combine the art with the technology in films like ' Spirit ' and ' Lion King '