Stop Motion Developers

Stop Motion Developers

Willis O'Brien - 

Willis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American Born in 1886 and he lived until November 8 1962. He was a motion picture special effects and stop motion animations pioneer, he 'was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history'. His most renowned work was on The Lost World, King Kong and Mighty Joe Young.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O'Brien)

His work - 
The Lost World:

and one of his most well known films 
King Kong:












He had a unique style in which he combined the filming of live actors and stop motion models to come up with a very different style to what was shown at the time. With this method, he was able to create scenes where men fought great monsters; much like King Kong, by combining the two method of traditional film and stop motion. He was the main pioneer of this kind of model animation.

Ray Harryhausen - 

Ray Harryhausen was born in 1920 and is still alive, aged 92 years old. He is an American visual effects creator, writer and producer. He created a brand of stop motion animation which is known as 'Dynamation'. Some of his best work is in Mighty Joe Young (in collaboration with Willis O'Brien) and Jason and the Argonauts, in which is the famous scene where Jason s in a sword fight against 7 skeleton warriors.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen)

His work - 

Mighty Joe Young:

and his more famous piece
Jason and the Argonauts:

Ray Harryhausen uses similar techniques to Willis O'Brien. The main technique used by Harryhausen is Dynamation, which is a type of model stop-motion animation which he created. He was one of the only animators to work in the field and he kept the technique alive with his inspiration from Willis O'Brien. With his work, Harryhausen tries to make it seem as if the models are not animated at all, as if they are real. He does this by making them interact with objects and the scene in the real world.

Jan Svankmajer -

Jan Svankmajer was born in 1934 and is still alive, aged 78. He is a Czech film maker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labelled surrealist and he is now for his surreal animations and feature films, these have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. His best know works consist of the feature films Alice, Faust and Lunacy.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer)

His Work - 
Alice :


and one of his more recent titles
Lunacy:

Jan Svankmajer has a very surreal style in his animation. His work has had great influence n other well known animators, like the Brother Quay, Terry Gilliam and many others. He uses claymation in a lot of his work. He likes creating clay masks of the face for his work, it helps to create his surreal style with faces being able to be squished and stretched unlike a normal face.