It’s tough to say when animation and whiteboard animation videos really started since it all depends on how literal you consider the notion of animation. Some see shadow play, in which moving pictures are formed using cutouts and various light sources, as one of the first types of animation, predating photography. Shadow play dates from the first century, and it’s extremely likely that people have been attempting to create moving pictures of some form since we first learned how to construct even the most rudimentary art.
The phénakisticope, developed by Joseph Plateau and Simon von Stampfer in 1832, is commonly regarded as the earliest modern animation device. Through the use of a spinning disc of still graphics in front of a mirror, this was the first time that pictures in a series were exhibited in fast succession to create the illusion of movement.
The phénakisticope, which became popular in the 1830s, was rapidly followed by the zoetrope, flip book (or kineograph), and praxinoscope. To generate the illusion of movement between the visuals, they all used the same fundamental approach of spinning or flicking motions over a sequence of pictures.