History Of Animation (Part 2)

George Melies - is considered the pioneer of stop motion. He was credited to be the first person to discover the stop trick in film. He discovered it by accident when his camera jammed and he lost some footage. He then reviewed the footage and found that objects jumped around and things transformed. He then used this trick to become a very successful magician and filmmaker. He received a Legion of honor for his outstanding contribution to film. A recent film Hugo (2011) was about of his later life of how he disappeared to run his own toy shop. The film is said to be a tribute to Melies by the films director Martin Scorsese.


Willis O'Brien - was a famous stop motion animator who used clay animation in his films. He was inspired by paleontologists he guided through his job. In his spare time he would sculpt and illustrate as a hobby. A local newspaper noticed his work and he became a sports cartoonist for Francisco Daily News. He went on to animated King Kong (1933) and The Lost World (1925) which were very successful films. These films gave him an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. He was also inducted into the cartoon hall of fame by Hollywood.

Ray Harryhausen - was the creator of the stop motion method called "dynamation". He learned animation from his mentor Willis O'Brien another famous pioneer of stop motion animation. He animated the models in the film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad  (1959).  Dynamation is the process of balancing the colour in an animation to make it look better. In this film he incorporated the process and the film became the highest grossing of that summer. He also made the film Jason and The Argonauts (1963) and his last film Clash of The Titans (1981).

George Pal - was an animator that specialized in puppets. When he was raised his parents were both stage entertainers so he was brought up in an artistic background. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of the Arts with a degree in Architecture and Advanced Drawing skills. He was then employed into Hunnia films were he learned about film and motion cartoons. After this he went on to become head of a cartoon department for UFA in Berlin he decided to use his own studio to find a new way of animating objects with stop motion. As he worked independently he would start to use puppets which would become his trademark. His most famous animation with puppets would be Tulips Shall Grow (1942). It was about the effects of the Nazi's coming into power with the invasion of Holland.

Phil Tippet - is a computer animator who specializes in go motion. Go motion is the process of creating a motion blur for each of the frames in a film. This is similar to stop motion as seen in some of Tippets examples. He had worked on Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and George Lucas's Star Wars . There are a variety of methods that can create this blur that is go motion. One of these is moving the table. This is when a model is standing however when film shot for shot the table is moved to create a blur motion. This is used in the chase scene in Wallace and Gromit The Wrong Trousers.

The Quay Brothers - Stephen and Timothy quays were stop motion animators. The Quay Brothers are twin brothers who have been very influential to stop motion animation. Many critics have praised there style of work which was influenced by eastern European animation. There use of textures and camera work are also very well known and can be spot anywhere. They also are very passionate about paying attention to the smallest of details. Many critics have mixed feelings on the Quay Brothers work as the comments made by the critics are skeptical.


Tim Burton and Henry Selick- Tim Burton is a famous animator to this day making films and animation. His style of animation is mostley focused around gothic colours. He has made many short animation clips influenced by DR. Seuss and Roul Dahl. After gaining some attention from Disney they offered him to work for them. He did so working on films like The Fox and The Hound and The Black Cauldron. However because of his style of animation he left to pursue his own style. He has made many feature films including The Nightmare Before Christmas and Alice In Wonderland. Henry Selick was also an animator working with disney at the time Tim Burton was there. He learned from many people at Disney and said he learned most of his drawing skills from Eric Larson a Disney legend. He directed Tim Burtons production of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and The Giant Peach.

Otmar Gutman - was a German animator, director and television producer. He is most famous for his very popular creation Pingu. This was a British-swiss television series about a penguin called Pingu. All of the characters were made with claymation. The show did phenomely well for a time until Gutman passed away and the assets were sold to hit entertainment. A UK pol was introduced that showed children's favourite program was Pingu.The show carried on but ended suddenly without any warning. Before he passed he won the Berlin International Film Festival.

Nick Park - is an english stop motion animator and director. He is mostley known for the creation of the british show called Wallace and Gromit. He first studied Communication Arts in Sheffield and then went on to the National Film and Television School. During this time he had started making many Wallace and Gromit shorts which made his reputation grow. He was then offered to make a feature length film in which he made Chicken Run. He won 4 Acadmy Awards for Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comfort. He is also the creator of Shaun the Sheep a childrens programme on the BBC.

Adam Shaheen - is a British animator and the founder of Cuppa Coffee studios. This company has dealt with the production of many programmes on a variet of channels. These channels include the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and MTV. The studio has won over 200 international awards in animation. One show that he produces is Celebrity Deathmatch which is aired on MTV. He studied animation at the Univertsy of The Arts London. However he also produces animated commecrcials and has won many awards for them internationally.