How Ray Harryhausen Combined Stop-Motion and Live Action

It always amaze me when I think about the old times of movie making. Special effects as also cartoon movies are so freaking much an accurate work to do.

Fun fact: "Dynamation" wasn't chosen for any other reason than sounding marketable.

Ray Harryhausen would be missed as a legend. Rest in piece 1920-2013

Well executed stop motion is amazing. The skeleton fight is a classic example of that and I'm so glad people like Laika and Aardman still use it to this day. CGI is great for enhancing stuff but in my opinion it lacks the personality that stop motion and great model work can bring. Also, CGI is so often rushed now that it makes a film look shonky. A case in point being the 1981 Clash of the Titans (which isn't always successful in everything Harryhausen tries in it) and compare that to the 2011 remake which despite a great cast, is strangely cold and soulless in comparison. This video shows just what a clever man Harryhausen was. He was a true pioneer and he lived long enough to see his great work carried on by people like Phil Tippet, Rob Bottin, Nick Park and loads more, even into the 21st century.

Great video...👍

Great video! Thanks for sharing :)

Fabulous explication. The "3D-ification" of the b&w clip was beautifully conceived and executed. I've seen these techniques described multiple times, but never so well. Cheers.

go watch mad dog. Best goddamn movie of the year.

There is a charm to stop motion animation which makes it more enjoyable than CGI.

This was great!

Cool

Love harryhausen so does jesus christ

That was a pretty shit thesis and hook, but nonetheless great video

I was talking to Ray one day about stop-motion vs. CGI and expressed to him that I found his work more effective because I could feel a personal artistry, real hands at work and loved how his work had a dreamlike quality. He agreed.

The skeleton scene is one of the most badass pieces of film history.

Ray was a god.

Thank you for this video ❤️

please write the name of the movies in your next video

nasa used stop-motion on their early space footage. yeah space is fake.

We still use this technoque to this day (as you pointed out with the Photoshop example) and we literally call it masking

Harryhausen was amazing. A true visionary and unbelievable artist. I wish movies were still made like this today.

Such a fantastic video

Great essay, etc., but for the love of Hitchcock, don't use the YT's subtitle system to source your credits. This video is inaccessible as hell.

Jason and the Argonauts one of the best movies ever made. he was a genius..

The Argonauts movie Ray worked on was fun. I still like it. :) The hydra and skeletons of the hydra curse are great foes from it.

Nasas favorite software back in the day. Now they use cgi.

Great editing

How brilliant the skeletons are !

That’s amazing!

Honestly, we do rather need more stop frame and practical effects in movies. I mean in a sense its cheaper. Normally looks more natural and just charming. I mean CGI is cool and all, and something like a scene from marvel wouldn't really work in practical effects, but CGI would be pretty good if you get the right people.
That and the light just seems more realistic as the models are there!

you are KILLING the magic with this stuff. Mac!!

Great collection of all his F/X, but the best way to experience adventures is not 'movies' - it's to get out and travel and explore new places and experiences.

I remember and I still enjoy it sir.

HARRYHAUSENS?!? But it’s impossible to get reservations there?!? 😂

So, this was before CGI science fictional films that i still being seeing every year

His works made the lives of my grandparents and parents wonderful. Thank you Ray. RIP.

Thank you! I watched this video twice, loved it and still have no idea how they do it!

I grew up watching the Sinbad movies and loved them so much, especially the creature design. The movies with the most amount of special effects were my favorite as a kid. The fight with the 6 armed Indian statue was my favorite.

i still love them today, even though I must admit they look pretty bad with my adult eyes. However, the one thing all of them do better than any modern cgi movie is that the monsters were actually scary. Like looking at them even today freaks me more out than any cgi monster we have seen for the last 20+ years.

Perfect! Just the video I needed. I have a Christmas movie on the mind that combines Rankin Bass stop motion with live action. Kind of like Elf, but with more animation…AND more Rankin Bass references.

Now I wonder what the Rankin-Bass TV specials would have looked like, if they had Ray Harryhausen and the resources he had.

Imagine if Laika and their stop motion prowess decided to make a fantasy movie akin to something Harryhausen would have made back in the day. Combining live action and stop motion and everything!

He doesn't look that hairy to me?

My two favorites are everything in Clash of the Titans and the giant metallic guardian with the 'Achilles heel' in JATA. But one must marvel at his overall creativity and enormous work load. (And I have to say that the skeleton fight is just damned good.)

I always wondered about this. Really cool, thank you.

That crocodile fight from Gulliver is so incredibly clean it blows my mind. Like you can't see matte lines, there is no generational loss from optical printing. It just looks like a tiny guy fighting a crocodile oin a table

Harryhausen was basically the director on his films but couldn’t be added as such in the credits due to the directors guild stipulations

Do you know who else combined stop-motion and live action?
Jan Svankmajer!

Them dinosaurs really hit different