theconversation.com: It’s the early 1980s and I’m about ten years old. On the TV is a fantasy movie replete with swords and ships. And monsters: monsters of metal, monsters of bone. Creatures of the imagination. And they are all brought to life with frightening realism on the screen before me. Those creatures lit up my young mind. The movie was Jason And The Argonauts, which was my introduction to the wonderful world of animator and movie-maker, Ray Harryhausen.
8 comments:
I absolutely loved Harryhausen and the innovative work that he did. Prior to the first "Jurassic Park" stop motion animation was the way things were done. Spielberg even had an entire version of the movie ready to be done in this way until the CGI was seen to be a viable path.
There is an amazing blend of computer work and stop motion happening in Hollywood. Movies like "Kubo And The Thousand Blades" is a great mix of hands on stop motion and the computer elements. Movies such as "Monster House" had an amazing way of using 3D printing to create faces mid emotion or word to maintain perfect synchronicity. This kind of technology means no more thumb prints on faces or mouths that mostly work.
But with Harryhausen there are amazing layers to work. The way fur moves over a body, with the muscles moving underneath. Attention to detail and being based in realism will always be the difference between good and bad levels of believably. (Of course Jason fighting the army of skeletons doesn't really deal with all of that...)
I don’t think I’ve seen a Ray Harryhausen film before, and now I know that I should. This three dimensional animation work is pretty phenomenal, especially with how the animated creatures interact with the live action people. What I love the most about what is described here in regards to Harryhausen’s work is the depth and breadth of research he invested time into in order to create the most realistically monstrous looking and moving creatures. During my time in design classes, the importance of having research to back up the foundation of your design was pressed, but it was not pressed to go as deep and as specific as Harryhausen’s research is described. I think this research is all the more important (and justified) in Harryhausen’s case because his creatures also need to move and interact with other living, moving things. That movement has to be believable. Now I know that not only should I be watching some of his films, but I should also be researching zoology and biomechanical anatomy when designing puppets and their movements.
I've seen a couple of the films listed here but never really knew who was behind this amazing component of the film and now I know it is Ray Harryhausen. It really goes without saying but his work is phenomenal and the attention to detail is astounding. As someone who initially came from a more scientific background it always warms my heart to see elements of science and research being applied to artistic endeavors in this way. You need such an in depth understanding of a wide array6 of topics to be able to create 3D models of extinct or imaginary animals the way Ray was able to accomplish it and just the results are astounding. Though we now have so much control digitally to create the effects there is just something about the style of stop motion that I find really appealing never mind the large skillset it requires. I'd also imagine those skills are becoming really hard to find as we lean so heavily into the digital world. This work is really an art all of it's own and he was certainly a master.
I think what we see and like during our childhood actually has substantial impact to the aesthetics of our creation that we make as we grow older. The important points is, not everyone who watched Clash Of The Titans or Mighty Joe Young would not have been able to get this much inspired and make such creations. It is amazing how Harryhausen pursued his interest to the point where he was trying to do similar things with paleontologists for the revival of extinct species and the imaginative creatures. It really is another level of creation, as he did not stop at just producing the visual (2D) form of his imagination, but took a step further by considering how their body would function with muscles and bones. It’s sad that we cannot see his works with such advanced digital technologies these days, but I am still glad that he left so many inspirational pieces for us.
This article was full of so much appreciation and passion and was an enjoyable read. I am very bad with names and I did not know who Ray Harryhausen was before reading this. However, I did enjoy reading about how this one artist was able to spread so much joy and happiness through his work to so many diverse groups! How the monsters he created in his movies grasped the audience of many scientists such as zoologists, ecologists, paleontologists, and much more reminds me of sci-fi and how incorporating fantastical elements of entertainment can bring the attention of people actually working in the field associated with it in reality. I also thought the 3D models he created crowned him the "titan of cinema" was truly amazing. Harryhausen really revolutionized animated fantastical monsters and enemies in the cinematic world, definitely progressing the imaginative side of productions. I will definitely be watching some of his films this Christmas!
I watched some of the clips attached to the article to get a better sense of the art being described, and I think that the use of stop motion is something so unique and charming. As an artist, I love using mixed media and multiple materials of one project, and I feel like Harryhausen’s work is reminisce of that concept. To me, it feels like the stop motion should be a bit jarring when placed in a realistic environment (and to some extent it is just based on the technology we have today), but I think it just has some kind of artistic flair in the way that it moves that makes it flow a lot more naturally as a part of its environment. This article also speaks to me because I used to make stop-motion movies with my brother when we were kids using toys and figures from around the house, and despite being pretty rudimentary, they still took us a long time to make. I can’t even imagine the precise and focused level of detail, along with time needed to produce the art that Harryhausen did.
This is so cool! I had a peripheral knowledge of Harryhausen’s work, but I had not encountered it in any detail. On a basic level, the ways in which he played with scale and early green screen editing techniques is incredible (although of course it looks really rough in comparison to modern films). The creatures are amazing--they make me think of Tim Burton’s early work, which was happening around the same time. There is also something a little muppety about the way the scenery looks, although I think I may just be aligning the special effects with those used in the original Muppet Movie. I would love to see some more analogue techniques used in modern filmmaking--I think that they could integrate well with the slicker editing tools that we have available now. It is done sometimes, but generally it is either used on smaller-screen productions or it is integrated so well with the rest of the video that you do not notice it unless you know it is there.
My mom used to geek over Ray Harryhausen because she grew up loving his work from the 80s. I had a huge love for Greek and Roman mythology in middle school so my mom had me watch the original Clash of the Titans movie a bunch of times. Even in a recent series, I saw Ray Harryhausen’s work being referenced. A new Netflix anime series called “Blood of Zeus” referenced the mechanical owl from the original movies which I absolutely adored. Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, I even have a Pan’s Labyrinth tattoo, and I see Harryhausen’s influence all over his work too. The way the Faun moves in Pan’s Labyrinth is very reminiscent of the animatronics that Harryhausen developed in the 80s. He is truly a film pioneer and it makes me want to rewatch all the old classics my mom loved when she was young.
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