Ray harryhousen

Prior to the availability of technology such as CGI and camera motion control animators used various different ways to create animated special effects an example would be model animation which was used in films such as King Kong. Raymond Harryhousen created a new form of stop motion model animation which is known as Dynamation. Dynamation is an effective way to make actors and animated characters look as if they are in the same frame interacting with one another, to create this effect Harryhousen would use 3 layers the first layer being the background being projected onto a glass then in the middle as the second layer you would see the character which is being animated i.e. the dinasour and then the next layer would also be a piece of glass which the actual film which the actors are in would be relfected on to a section which would be outlined depending on where the actors and their background is with a black wax pen and then painted over with black matte paint all these layers combined created a realistic moving image. Ray Harryhausen awed Willis O'brien as a young boy as he watched King Kong in 1933 after watching O'briens work the 13 year old Harryhausen researched animation and how effects were created in films thoroughly and also learnt everything he could about O'brien. Ray Harryhausen went on to create films which remain popular till now such as Jason and the Argonauts and he also went on to work with his inspiration and pioneer Willis O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young.