Pioneering Animators

Now some of the most iconic stop motion films have been talked about i'd like to turn your attention to some of the pioneering animators that have really pushed the boundries of stop motion and its capability. As such there are three main people i want to discuss, of which they are:

• Jan Svankmajer
• Willis O'Brien
• Ray Harryhausen

Jan Svankmejer

Jan Svankmajer was known for being a surrealist and renowned for his animations. Born in parague in 1934 Svankmajer developed an interest in animation from his fascination with puppets. He used stop motion in a very unique way which allowed him to make surreal and creepy pictures. His favourite techniques to use were fast motion (he particularly favoured the use of this for when people were moving) and claymation for the hightened control over models.

His work was thought be have been a key influence on the Brothers Quay whom went onto creating several very popular leading animation productions.

Willis O'Brien
Willis O'Brien most famous for his work on the film King Kong in 1933, was an exceptional animator whom was recognised for his outstanding work with an academy award in 1950 for best visual effects. This man was a master of stop motion and the use of models in conjunction with claymation in order to achieve desirable results.

The advantage of the use of models with claymation was quite vast and allowed a hight quality product to be produced. For static positions models were used as they would offer higher quality than clay, however these were not used throughout due to them not being very posable. This is where claymation came in, replicas were created however these were fully posable and so allowed motion transitions to be created inbetween the static posses of the models (an easier way to explain this would be to take a model of a monkey on all fours, then one on its hind legs. Going straight from this would result in poor quality, and so clay models were used to bridge the gap and give motion). This procedure however was short lived when Willis employed Richard and Marcel Delgado, master model makers, in order to create custom fully posable models, this was a very advanced procedure using high detailed rubber skins placed over a complex metal frame.

It was these models which saw Willis to the top of his animating career, making both clay and normal models obsolete, and it was these which helped him create some of his best works.

Ray Harryhausen
A personal favourite, and my Stop motion idol, Ray Harryhausen was responsible for some of the most cutting edge and most fascinating stop motion techniques and films ever created. His style was easily recognisable, his models (favouring claymation) were very highly detailed and physiques were extremely close to realism. The man was a genius, even inventing his own stop motion method which completely revolutionised the use of stop motion, broadening its use and making it more seamlessly fit in, so much so that it actually was capable of being in the same scene as actors and such, which til now was not possible.

Dynamation was in effect the overlaying of a image upon another, this meant stop motion models could be worked with then the images overlayed on the live action film, this made it look as if they were real and were interacting with the actors, massively enhancing viewing quality.

But how did this work? Well the process was incredibly simple basically a projector would display the still images of the film onto a rear screen, then the models would be placed in front of this, next a glass screen would be placed in front of the models, this was used to remove the surroundings (i.e. the place where this process is taking place, for instance walls furniture etc), finally a camera would when the model has been positioned take an image through the glass pane, this would set up would act like layers in effect and create a single 2D still. I have found an image below to help explain.

This methods main advantage was the massive improvement upon visual quality and transition of stop motion in live action films. However two negative to this process was the increased creation time due to the film needing to be completely filmed and then models manipulated and overlayed, as well as the increased cost of creating a film in thsi way due to the additional equipment. There is no doubt however as to the dramatic quality gained from this and the leap in stop motion technology, for this reason i personally would say this was a necessary step as well as a positive one.