io9.com: Ray Harryhausen was the stop-motion special effects pioneer behind movies like Mighty Joe Young, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans. And while his creations were impressive on the screen, it's equally remarkable to see Harryhausen creating and manipulating them in his studio.
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Just astonishing what this gentleman did. The stop motion section with the skeleton is just breathtaking. Really looks like the skeleton is moving by itself and with personality. There is something here that modern movies do not have and yes I love the Avengers movie just as much as the next guy but this is WOW. Makes me think of the Sesame Street gentlemen who talked yesterday, and was commenting on how many artist he works with and today rely too heavily on the computer to produce their art. That they should remember where they came from with the hand. Maybe the same can be said for the power of the green screen. It is not that we stop using green screen but just remember. I have to say that is one thing I like about theatre, is there is no green screen. We are getting more and more technology on stage but it still has to be done on stage.
Harryhausen's work reminds me of the lecture by Louis Henry Mitchell I saw yesterday in the Chosky. He talked about the importance of completely understanding and knowing the character you are 'acting' for; a character designer needs to embody everything a beast would do do be able to convince the audience that said beast is alive. The gif of Harryhausen animating the skeleton from Jason and the Argonauts was especially interesting to me, as I've seen the film once or twice. The amount of work that went into animating a single action is intense and astonishing. I wonder if most people my age would have the patience or the energy to pull together something like that. It's a shame that we've turned so heavily to CGI and green screen technology; we're losing an artisan craft that defined so many of the classics we still watch today.
I remember watching stop action movies when I was a child and thinking to myself, "Wow, that must have taken so much patience to make." It is utterly incredible how detailed each movement must be in order for the models to looks semi-realistic. This is an art that has definitely been lost due to the green screen and CGI. I completely agree with Adam, that I love theatre because it is more "real" since it has to be live. Yes we are getting a lot more media use in theatre, but it is still being played out in front without a green screen.
Stop motion is my favorite form of animation because it takes such incredible patience to make. Every movement is impressive because it takes so many tiny TINY movements to make a character move. That gif was my favorite part because the skeleton was moving so smoothly, but Ray Harryhausen was moving almost too fast to see. It brings me back to how the original Disney animations were drawn movement by small movement. It's really sad how much CGI has taken over movies. CGI is only impressive because it can show the imagination of the creator in a way that is impossible otherwise (such as a sci-fi world or something similar), but CGI is not always used that way. More often than not it's because it's easier to film in a studio than to go and move everything and everyone to a different location, and it's easier to animate a creature on a computer than to spend the impressive time to make it move through your own hand.
I love stop motion. Not only is it fun to watch, but the work that goes into it is just so... what's the word... fantastical? Amazing? Beautiful? Magical. I recently watched a behind the scenes of the movie 'Coraline' about the puppets and they had said that they make 2-7 seconds worth of film a week. each second has about 20 frames and in those 20 frames, 20 slight changes have to be made so that it can all come to life. The stop motion of the skeleton in this article is a great example of how many shots its take for the puppet to just stand upright and move its shoulder. I think that's what makes stop motion so spectacular. It's the hand that goes into them. Their patience and passion for perfection. Even when puppets don't look like real people, the stop motion is still breathtaking and tells a story that can be boundless and is only set by the limits we give it. I just watched 'Mary and Max' yesterday and I thought it was amazing. I think it would have been a great movie even if it weren't a claymation but something about it being so made the movie so much more effective.
When we think about stop motion animation today, it is its own genre. A very tiny subset of animation, but still, I would consider to be its own genre or sub genre of movies. It really hadn't occurred to me to consider its use as a special effect, but prior to the development of CGI, it really was the only way to go about portraying something like a dinosaur attacking an elephant. Today, I don't think anyone watching a movie would question how they made a moving, fighting skeleton in a movie, but in 1958 it was so much more of a mysterious and magical process. While we haven't completely lost this art form, as there are still small companies putting out stop motion animated work, what I think we have lost with the advancement in special effects technology is audience's willingness to suspend their disbelief. I think there is much more room for this in theatre, but in film, there is very little room for effects to not look completely and entirely real. I think that this unwillingness to suspend one's disbelief in film is where we are losing some of its magical qualities.
What really impresses me about this stop motion animation isn;t only the time and patience that it must have taken to make these things move in a fluid way, but Harryhausen must have done some extensive research on the anatomy of animals. The motions that these figures are incredibly lifelike because they all move in the ways creatures with that skeletal structure would have to. Another aspect that really impressed me about the realness of this animation was the video of the dinosaur attacking the elephant. The dinosaur kept going for the elephant's neck, something that many predators do instinctually in order to subdue their prey. It may seem nit picky, but that level of attention to detail really makes or breaks the greatness of that stop motion animation.
The beauty of the process behind this art is astonishing. To know that so much time and dedication was put into such small scenes makes me appreciate them 20 fold. I honestly love the last image where Harryhausen is manipulating the medusa figure. The sheer commitment that you can see on his face and how much he cares about each movement of the figure is something that directors can learn novels from. The care in every detail of a production, even just how an actor may walk or turn their head has everything to do with the message of the play.
I love when articles like this are posted! People who make stop motions animation special effects are artists who have my utmost respect. The details in these figures are insane and really bring the creatures to life. I cannot imagine the work that went into their creation. I wonder how long it takes to make, say, the Pegasus. Then there is the animation of the movement, following each little movement that a creature as to make to get from point A to point B is one hell of a feat. The results have a wonderful quality that I hope is still appreciated today. I look at stop motion animation to be a more physical art form, if that makes any sense. The handmade aspects of the creatures and their movement are delicate and unique. With the newer animation that is all computers done there is nothing special about the character (in some cases) which is a shame.
While I love where the future of entertainment has been taken, it would have been so fun and rewarding to have been a part of this time when so much tiny detail went into the physicality of making movies. I love stop motion movies and its rare that I will watch a movie that incorporates live action as well as stop motion techniques. Its crazy to think that stop motion was the only feasible way in which special effects were achieved. Also, even though the mediums are so different, the stop motion does not take the viewers out of the story. Filmmakers were able to execute the shots in a way that used stop motion technology while also blending it into the rest of the story.
It blows my mind how much work it takes for scenes line this to occur. The work that Ray Harryhausen put into these pieces look to be extremely time consuming and detail oriented. I never knew that it took this much to create claymation films. I have a new found appreciation for this line of work. It reminds me of some of the claymation christmas specials that I used to watch and makes it all more magical now that I see what goes into it.
That just mind-blowing! Having dabbled in a few small small small stop-motion endeavors myself over the past few years, I can attest to just how stupidly difficult and trying the process is. Talk about patience! This man certainly had it. Harryhausen was definitely a man of his work and was one of the best at it. Seeing these things of the screen and not knowing how they work takes a lot of the magic out of it, in my opinion, but once you do know how the magic happens, it will probably leave your jaw on the floor for a while. Each movement so specifically choreographed and moved one tiny measurement at a time is a true testament to a passion for your work.
Ray's work is astounding. It is crazy how at the time these looked utterly life-like. My favorite image though is the animated GIF of him animating the skeleton from Jason and the Argonauts. Of course the animation is much faster than the actual process but it certainly makes his work magical. I would be curious to know what research ands study he did before he animated these creatures and the sort of team he had behind him.
Stop motion animation always fascinates me, and I find it really interesting how Ray Harryhausen used it to create these special effects. Looking at the clips involving actors, and also seeing what years they were made, the work that he is doing seems just incredible. Some of my favorite movies are stop motion animation, and usually when I watch them I think about how far the art form has come. Looking at the more recent Wallace and Gromit movies and then comparing them to the older ones you can see how much higher quality they are. And this difference can go back even further if you look at the old Christmas specials that were done using stop motion animation involving magnets in the characters' feet so that they would walk more realistically (which didn't quite work out). But now looking at this animation, which is much older than Wallace and Gromit and seeing how high quality it is. I mean, it looks almost like a real dinosaur fighting an elephant. Considering that it was over 40 years ago, I'd say it looks pretty awesome. There's still some green screen/CGI stuff that I've seen in recent years that don't look as good at that. I think my favorite video from the article was watching him manipulate the skeleton in Jason and the Argonauts. It was so cool the way that they shot that because of how fluid the animation looks but at the same time we're so aware of everything that he's doing to sculpt it with his hands.
Man! This is so cool to see. Now that we are surrounded my CGI in the world of cinema, it's crazy to think that all of these special effects were once done in a very low-tech, analogue fashion. Although we consider the more high tech approaches to be "movie magic," I think the true magic is in the ability to create illusions without the aid of digital manipulation. Here is a link I recently found that displays how incredible the illusions they were able to make are.
Stop Motion was all the rage back then, when doing the impossible for a movie. That’s why it was so cool. Even now, the skill and artistry it takes to plan out how something is going to move is just fascinating. I recognized some of the movies that were listed in the article, I mean who could possibly forget the Medusa scene Clash of the Titans, something like that is where history is made. With the world of cgi growing with every movie we watch, the stop motion is becoming a thing of the past. But I guess what the article is really trying to focus on is Ray Harryhausen the genius behind what we’ve seen, and his particular manipulation of the models is just intriguing. I think what they should do now, is make another stop motion film, I know the movie the Box Trolls came out not too long ago, but when was the last time stop motion was used in a major motion film, just something to think about, that I think might add a corny or cheesy factor, but hey worth a shot.
I know a lot of people are saying this but it's true. This really takes a stand for those creative directors that mold and shape their character to give them emotions and personality. Another artist who is really serious about this is Louis Henry Mitchell. Having him come to CMU was a dream come true and he really stressed how important it is to not only create the character (or give it a pose) but giving that character specific traits to show the audience how the character is feeling in their own specific way. Louis always said he felt like he was performing, and through all of these video, I believe that Ray felt the same way. And I think any character creator, animator, sculptor, or artist should feel this way about all of their work. They need to make sure it not only looks good, but that you really get the whole sense of what it is by it's mood, tone, and personality.
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