The animation of Ray Harryhausen -- OUAN405

In the days before digital film, and many years before the widespread use of computer generated animation, the only option for filmmakers who wanted to create fantastical imaginary creatures was traditional drawn or stop-motion animation. The techniques to combine drawn animation with live-action film had been devised as early as 1918 when Max Fleischer patented his rotoscope technique. His Out of the Inkwell series, featuring animated character Koko the Clown interacting with his creator in the real world was a hit amongst audiences, but fairly limited in scope and action. King Kong (1933), and Mighty Joe Young (1949), both featuring an animated giant ape, popularised the use of stop-motion segments within live action films, but it wasn't until Ray Harryhausen created his 'Dynamation' technique - first used on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) - that actors and 3D creatures could appear simultaneously within the same shot. By combining the techniques of double exposure, back projection and scale model stop motion puppets, Harryhausen was able for the first time to create scenes where fantasy creatures interacted realistically with live action film. The technique is probably most famously used in the film Jason and the Argonauts (1963) during the scene where the Argonauts fight a cohort of skeleton warriors. Using back projection allowed Harryhausen to see the movements of the actors on screen whilst he was animating the puppets, so interaction, for example swords clashing, could be timed perfectly, aiding the illusion that the puppets were really in the scene. We can see the traces of Harryhausen still in modern CGI, but what I find interesting is that, until very recently, computer animation in films was not good enough to truly look like computer generated characters were really in the scene, and because of this the skeletons and dinosaurs of Harryhausen's films are still far scarier than many villains from modern films.