One Frame at a Time

A Brief History of Stop-Motion Animation

O’Brien’s work inspired his young assistant Ray Harryhausen who followed in his footsteps by creating sequences and films that further blended stop-motion model/puppet animation with live-action footage. One of his finest pieces of work was the sequence in Jason and the Argonauts featuring a fight with seven skeletal warriors who are all performed via stop-motion animation. Not too shabby for 1963.