Stop Motion — History, Present, and the Future with Designers
From there, many artists began toying with stop motion; however, it was not until 1933 that stop motion made its mark. Willis O’Brien was hired to create stop motion animation in King Kong. The movie was an instant classic because the creatures were realistic, modeled after scientific replications, and portrayed emotions that audiences connected with. Kong and the dinosaurs no longer felt like animations. They felt like reality.
Inspired and compelled, Ray Harryhausen sought O’Brien and became his student. Harryhausen surpassed his mentor and is known as one of the pioneers of stop motion, largely due to DynaMation. DynaMation is where the screen is split between the foreground and the background. This allows the creatures to appear larger and move in ways on the screen previously unheardof. Harryhausen is best known for The Clash of the Titans aired in 1981.
Flash forward to 1976 and enter Tim Burton. Burton was 18 years-old and recently accepted to the CalArts school in Santa Clarita, CA. Walt Disney established this school for young designers in the 1960s. Burton flourished his passions for drawing, animation, and the dark arts.
At the end of his education, Disney offered him a four year apprenticeship with them at their animation studio. During his time, he worked on The Fox and the Hound, Tron, along with The Black Cauldron. From his current work, one can extrapolate that The Fox and the Hound and other iconic, fluffy Disney movies weren’t his cup of tea. Fortunately, he shined with The Black Cauldron and created roughly 200 concepts for the film. None of which were used in the film.
His time at Disney wasn’t all dark. Disney funded 3 personal projects for Burton: Vincent, Hansel and Gretel, and Frankenweenie. Shortly after the release of Frankenweenie, Burton was fired. The film was “too dark.”
Sometimes getting fired is a great thing. Burton went on to direct Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and his iconic Batman series. Even with all this success, he had an itch even Sparky couldn’t scratch. He needed to get back to animation and did so with The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Since he had concepted this idea and made storyboards at Disney, Disney had the rights to the film. Fortunately, Burton was more than an intern this time and Disney allowed him to create the film. As this movie was still “too dark” for them, they released this under Touchstone Pictures. It received various Oscar Nominations and critical acclaim, but although Burton concepted the idea, he cannot take credit as the director of the film.
Henry Selick directed the film because Burton was simultaneously working on other projects and was only able to be present for about 10 days of filming. However, audiences still claim Tim Burton since his name is on the title of the film: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas.
After that, he went to direct many other films — Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to name a few, but again, he found he never properly had scratched that itial itch around stop motion. Thus, he created Corpse Bride and this time directed it. Again, this movie received several awards and nominations. From there, he created Frankenweenie, a movie that payed tribute to the previous monster movie classics.
But what if you aren’t a drawer and don’t have a CalArts degree? Where do you fit into this realm? The answer is simple. Use what you have- smartphone, GI Joes or Barbie dolls- and create something.
In a technological industry, the best part of the industry can be about getting your hands dirty and actually building something.
Stop reading. Start doing.
