Muybridge Zoopraxiscope, Horseback Somersault, 1893. The zoopraxiscope is an early device for displaying motion pictures. Created by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in 1879, it may be considered the first movie projector. The zoopraxiscope projected images from rotating glass disks in rapid succession to give the impression of motion. The stopmotion images were initially painted onto the glass, as silhouettes. A second series of discs, made in 189294, used outline drawings printed onto the discs photographically, then colored by hand. Some of the animated images are very complex, featuring multiple combinations of sequences of animal and human movement. The device appears to have been one of the primary inspirations for Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Dicksons Kinetoscope, the first commercial film exhibition system.