John Whitney was a man who made pictures come alive with his computer-like machine. He was like a wizard who knew how to make lines move in special ways.
You know when you draw a picture and then you color it in? Well, John Whitney did something similar, but his pictures moved in a movie! It was like magic!
He used a special machine that he built himself to make his pictures move. It was kind of like a big box with lots of buttons, switches, and wires. He used this machine to make really cool patterns that would move in different directions and change colors too!
He was one of the first people to use computers to create art, like creating animation for movies. He was a really smart person who had really big ideas, and he worked really hard to make them come true. His work inspired many other people to create amazing art with computers too!