The Death of Stop motion

Today special effects genius Ray Harryhausen has sadly died aged 92.

He was most famous for the stop motion animation in Jason & the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans but he also did Mysterious Island, One Million Years BC and the Sinbad films.

Growing up I used to love watching the Sinbad films and Clash of the Titans over and over again, I suppose the only reason I ever got into Greek Mythology was due to my love of the gods and creatures in Clash.

The visual effects really speak for themselves and it’s because of their startling realism that I have always praised animatronics, puppetry, stop motion and prosthetics. I want to see something real, that’s right in front of you.

Harryhausen always created new and interesting creatures, with such high level detail, the animation was created without any real guideline, there wasn’t rotoscoping back in those days, so the feel of the movement was all done by hand and instinct.

With Harryhausen’s passing, the world is a much sadder place, he not only represented his own work, the films they influenced, the people they inspired and the childhoods of the millions that were touched by the sense of wonder and adventure that only traditional and stop motion visual effects can achieve.

We’re another step away from the fantastical and another closer to the rudimentary.

The Death of Stop motion