Mike Hill

I just discovered the hyper real sculptures of Mike Hill. He's been paying tribute to some of our legendary monsters and monster makers like this charming image of stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen teased by his warring skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts.  Incredible, aren't they?

Ray and his skeletons

Detail of Ray Harryhausen

Dr. Pretorius showing off more of Mikes work

Mike with his Margaret Hamilton

The Wolfman

RIP Ray Harryhausen

Well it finally happened.  Today we lost another pioneer of animation, Ray Harryhausen.  Without his contribution to stop motion we would have never grown up with the wonder and magic of his films.  He saw the media as a way of realizing classic mythology and combining supernatural creatures with live action.

His films crossed age barriers and generations appealing to both young and old.  His inspiration bred a new generation of artists in stop motion and computer animation.  We owe a tremendous debt to Mr. Harryhausen and I'm glad he saw some return of affection and appreciation by throngs of admiring fans before he passed.  Thanks for all the dreams and wonder, Ray.

   

Skeleton Fight

This relates to my last post about stop motion which mentioned Michael Sporn's blog.  If you bothered to go there he had included an interview with Ray Harryhausen talking about his regret that the skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts couldn't be at night.  Ray doesn't give a reason but I agree it would have been more dramatic.  Even so you have to admit it's pretty cool and captures that magic element I spoke about in yearly stop motion films.  Thanks Ray for filling my life with dreams and the magic of animation.

Sporn on Stop Motion

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3255

Above is a link to an article by Michael Sporn about his musings on the sophistication of modern stop motion. He wondered how a master like Ray Harryhausen would fare in the modern world of rapid prototyping and the ability to make stop motion almost indistinguishable from computer animation?  I don’t know for sure but I think Ray would be cool with it. He was certainty trying to make his work as believable as possible with the tools of his day.

I think I know what Michael means though. There is an ‘other-worldliness’ to old school stop motion, particularly when combined with live action, that tickles the imagination. It’s undeniably real and yet something about it is not. It’s magic. That quality Michael mentions caused by shooting on twos or the differences in film grain or lighting which were really unintentional drawbacks in production seem to further push that indefinable magical quality making it more akin to dreams and hallucinations. The very artificialness, (is that a word?),  makes the action more memorable.

A production like “A Nightmare Before Christmas” which used the latest technology like a frame grabber system, (a live frame and a captured frame ), and computers for rig removal, also used replacement faces to give more expression to the puppets.  Even with these improvements the puppets didn't squash and stretch like organic objects and still had that rigidity we recognize as stop motion.

I see the use of computers as a natural progression in film making. The use of rapid prototyping and full color exporting of computer models has forever changed stop motion. The fluid movements and organic distortion of computer animation has spilled over and one wonders if stop motion will become, I fear,  redundant since a lot of it begins as computer models anyway?

Sentimental Journey…

Going through a book of mine for reference I glanced at the autograph at the front and recalled the great opportunity of meeting this legend of Animation. It suddenly dawned on me that I’ve been blessed to have met three of Disney’s Nine Old Men: Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and Ward Kimball, all in good health and productively vibrant. Here are others I’ve met and am glad I shamelessly asked for autographs: Chuck Jones, Ray Harryhausen, and one I treasure for the brief time I spent with him, a fellow fan of Laurel and Hardy, Joe Ranft. Thanks guys, for inspiring us all.