Ray Harryhausen
Wednesday, May 22th, 2013 by Margarete Kitel
A pioneer in the field of animation and special effects recently passed away with 92 years. He was an important person for the Science Fiction development.
The film King Kong that he saw with 13 years inspired and fascinated him. The special effects in the film that were made by Willis O'Brian captivated him. He started to create his own figurines and practiced the stop-motion technique at a young age. He got in touch with Willis O'Brian who tought him.
Willis O'Brian employed Ray Harryhausen as his assistant for the production of Mighty Joe Young. He studied gorillas at the zoo to make the movements look more realistic. Willis O'Brian employed Ray Harryhausen as his assistant for the production of Mighty Joe Young. He studied gorillas at the zoo to make the movements look more realistic. In the course of time he optimized the stop-motion technique and collaborated on a lot of famous film productions.
His creatures in popular films like “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad”, “Clash of the Titans“ or „Jason and the Argonauts“ have inspired a lot of famous directors and special effect artists, and still do. In contrast to today's computer animation technique, Ray Harryhausen worked with small movable figurines and brought them to life with stop-motion technique.
You can read more about the technique and biography of the VFX and animation artist on the official website:
http://www.rayharryhausen.com/index.php
Ray Harryhausens career in pictures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuU_w8KGuAE
Tim Burton, a famous film director meets Ray Harryhausen. They are talking about the career of Ray Harryhausen, the animation technique and his impressions:
