Understand the Techniques and Development of Stop Motion Animation

I will start my research by researching Joesph Plateau who was the inventor of the 'Phenakitoscope'

The stroboscope is a device that employs bright pulses of light to illuminate a vibrating or rotating object and to make it appear motionless or moving very slowly. The stroboscope works by permitting the eye only a brief glimpse of the object or a portion of it at time intervals that correspond to the object's rate of vibration or rotation. The rate of movement and the light pulses can be adjusted to match.
In 1836, The Phenakistiscope. It consisted of two disks, one with small radial windows, through which the viewer could look, and another containing a sequence of images. When the two disks rotated at the correct speed. The projection of stroboscopic photographs, creating the illusion of motion, eventually led to the development of cinema.

Here is a link to Joesph Plateau's website:

http://www.famousbelgians.net/plateau.htm