History of Animation: Volume 2

George Melies 

George Melies born 1861 was a pionneer in filmmaking. The reason he is added to this list as with people like the Lumiere's, Mitchel and Kenyon is that he accidentally discovered stop motion animation due to a camera fault that made him appear to magically jump from place to place on screen. You can see this trick in practice in Voyage to the Moon the film embedded below. Sadly after the first world war he lost most of his resources due to the army confiscating them.  He then later in a fit of rage burnt most of his master prints destroying the majority of his work. Despite this tragedy, around 200 of the 500 films he made have been recovered. His primary audience now are people with an appreciation for early cinema as there is nobody left who would have seen it at its time of release.



You can see in this short that Melies as well as pioneering stop trick animation. He also experimented in multiple film exposures.




George Pal

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1908 George Pal made models with interchangeable parts in a form of stop motion animation he called Pal-Doll . He fled Germany before the Nazis came to power and set up his animated series "Puppetoons" in America which won him an honorary Oscar in 1943. The replacement clean parts kept a fluid reliable look, however lacked a feel of human error. He went on to work on a series of live action movies including the adaptations of HG Wells  "The War of the Worlds" and "The Time Machine".

His Puppetoon series contained the works of both Willis O'brien and Ray Harryhausen. In this short  "Tulips Shall Grow" you can see heavy symbolism and out right denotation at the Second World War.  His technique was a puppet stop motion using individual part replacement the provide a fluid reliable look.



Willis O'Brien

Born march 1886 Willis O'Brien left home age 11 to begin working on cattle ranches. He spent his spare time sculpting and illustrating with some natural talent. Thomas Edison was impressed by his his first film "A Prehistoric Tragedy" and he was commissioned to make a series of prehistoric short films. This led him to be employed on the adaptation of Arthur Cohen Doyle book "The Lost World".   He was the first to incorporated life action footage and stop motion animation in unison. His greatest achievement was the RKO classic "King Kong". This film is regarded as a large part of the inspiration for Ray Harryhausen the Titan (No reference intended) of stop motion in live action films. O'Briens life was one of tragedy, he was pushed into a marriage he didn't want, to a wife who would eventually turn a pistol on his two sons and herself. He would never make a film as successful as "King Kong" again going to B science fiction movies were he couldn't afford his high quality techniques. In the 1960's he approached Tomoyuki Tanaka about making a sequel to "King Kong" which would involve the ape fighting a 50ft Frankenstein monster. His idea was taken, however he was soon bumped off the project which would become "King Kong vs. Godzilla". His primary audience are, people who are fans of RKO's King Kong but that age range can alter dramatically as it's a timeless film. His technique was early stop motion with puppets.

Here we have extracts of both "A Prehistoric tragedy" and "King Kong".






Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen was inspired by the work of Willis O'Brien, both The Lost World and King Kong (of which he saw at the Chinese Theatre). Inspired by King Kong he began to make puppets of the monsters in the movie. He started taking anatomy classes at Los Angeles City College. In 1940 he joined George Pal at Puppettoons and was one of the first animators to work for him.  After working one 13 shorts he left for bigger and better things. His first feature film in 1952 was called "Beast from 20,000 fathoms" and is considered some of the earliest inspiration for Godzilla. In this film he invented the Dynamtaion technique which he is still famous for today. He worked on dozens of famous films over his career. These covered all kinds of genre from monster movie, In the Trailer to "Beast from 20,00 fathoms" to the special effects in "Jason and the Argonauts".  His primary audience are older film fans or people who have nostalgia for classic cinema. The Dynamation technique is a method of stop motion animation that uses multiple camera exposures, animating a subject with frame first than rewinding the film then playing over the fore ground. This requires specialized single frame cameras an projectors and a painted foreground.

Phil Tippet
Phil Tippet is a visual effects expert who pioneered the "Go Motion" technique. He was hired by Lucasfilm for the miniature chess scene in "Star Wars". For the next film he headed the animation department for the battle of Hoth.  While he was there he developed a technique called go motion which involved electronically moving puppets which moved in time with the camera shots to provide a more precise smoother motion. The object is in the process is moving whilst the photo is being taken which removes what is called the staccato effect. After this he went on to work on Jurassic Park where he was set to work as a stop motion animator. However, when Steven Spielberg saw the CGI ILM  he was working on, he opted to make the computer generated dinosaurs. When hearing this Tippets response was "I've become extinct" a line actually used in the movie. He is now working on a stop motion series of his own called "Mad God" which he achieved Kickstarter funding for in 2012. His works primary audience is older fans of his cult work, generally in their 30's however there is a secondary audience of young people who have been introduced to his work through Star Wars. Tippets Go motion technique was regular stop motion but to take photos of the puppets whilst its joints were moving , this gave a more realistic look to the movement.





The Brothers Quay

The Brothers Quay ( Stephen and Timothy ) born 1947, are a pair of identical twins who specialize in dream like surrealist stop motion films. They went to the Royal College of Art London.Their films are often seriously dark and moody using a mix of organic and inorganic parts to their puppets.  The have also been know to use pixiliation techniques on actors but I will get into that later.

Their work has always seemed quite avant garde and arthouse, due to the sometimes disturbing images and surreal content their films can often be regarded as obscure. Here are a pair of the two's films to show you what I'm on about. Their primary Claudine is 20 something year olds with interests of an artistic nature.





Nick Park and Aardman

Nick Park was born December 1958.  He went to the National Film and Television School where he began to work on"Wallace and Gromit in a Grand Day Out".  He also worked on the Peter Gabriel music video "Sledge Hammer" with the Brothers Quay.  Nick himself animated the scene involving dancing headless chickens (An element that reoccurs in Chicken Run). This video had the Pixilation technique which is where an actor has photos of them taken to be played back as stop motion rather than them moving live. This can put terrible strain on the actors as they need to hold poses for several minutes at a time. His technique is traditional claymation.



As well as working on Sledge Hammer, Nick park founded the popular ITV televisions series Creature Comforts. This pioneered the Aardman look that you would see in later Wallace and Gromit stories along with Chicken run and Pirates! Band of Misfits. The primary audience of these shows is children however there is secondary appeal to adults.




Adam Shaheen (Cuppa Coffee)
Adam Shaheen went the University of the Arts London. He is the founder and president of Cuppa Coffee studios one of Canada;s most popular Animation companies. He is most known for his satirical celebrity shows like Celebrity Deathmatch and Starveillance. The Primary audience of these shows are young people with a keen interest in pop culture. Again his work is claymation.





Otmar Gutmann ( The guy who did Pingu )

Otmar Gutmann born April 1937 is probably only known for his childrens television show Pingu which is considered a great multicultural show for it's lack of any kind of conventional conversation. The Primary audience of Pingu is children, but a notable secondary audience is parents watching it with their children. His work was simple claymation.



Tim Burton and Henry Selick

Tim Burton and Henry Selick are a pair of pioneers in making feature legnth stopmotion films. Below is Tim Burton's first animated short Vincent as a tribute to one of his favourite actors Vincent Price .  Henry Selick is one of Tim Burton's greatest creative partners (Him and Danny Elfman) directing "The Nightmare Before Christmas". They both went on to make more feature length stop motion films like Coraline and Corpse Bride.The primary audience of Burton and Selicks work is aimed at young teenagers, with a secondary audience of broader film lovers. Burton and Selick have been known to work with both stop motion and claymation techniques.





References

http://i2.cdnds.net/13/19/300x450/movies-one-million-years-bc-one-million-years-bc.jpg
http://www.goldenageofscifi.info/images/pics/willis_o_brien_large.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/George_Melies.jpg
https://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2008/images/vert_pal.jpg
http://monsterlegacy.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/rancortippetttouchup.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlFtAC1GCKc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgFUzqrbKSc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9HxCkBYum8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwUlh-YZlc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cNOIuijfLs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98fOYDBwFg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5n5Oext5U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OjV-F0Jywc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3n67BQvh0
http://www.rayharryhausen.com/images/Dynamation_drawing.gif