Stop All The Clocks (then take a picture and move them slightly)

Ray Harryhausen died today.

If you don't know who that is...well you should.   But if you are one of those sadly unacquainted with the name, you are no doubt familiar with the man's work.  Unless you are one of those young snots who never watches movies from before 2000, in which case seriously; go to hell kid.

Ray Harryhausen was the undisputed master of stop-motion animation, that most painstaking of filmic techniques, and responsible for so many classic movie moments and monsters.  It begins with an amazing model, and from there it moves forward at the breakneck speed of a glacier that has not yet had its morning coffee.

This type of animation requires you to move your models, take a picture, and then move the model again, by fractional increments.  For each second of screen time, you need 24 shots to make it look anything like realistic motion.  This is an art form for talented sculptors, and patient photographers.

Ray Harryhausen was both.  He created monsters from some of the greatest fantasy and scifi movies of the twentieth century.  I won't bore you with his filmography, I'm just going to tell you the ones that made me an eternal fan.

He gave us the awesome skeleton warriors in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, and anytime you imagine skeletons walking around, I guarantee that it's based on those images (not to mention nearly every other one was based on his work.)  He created the horned cyclops thing that you've seen a clip of thousands of times, even if you never actually saw the movie it's originally from.  He gave us all these ideas and more.

But for me, the most important thing he did was give us the 1981 magnum opus Clash of the Titans.  This movie had a huge impact on me as a child.  Pegasus, Medusa, the vulture, Calibos, and the Kraken were wonders to my young eyes.  This film gave voice and visuals to the stories I had read, and I wanted to bring my own ideas to life in the same way.  One of the reasons I took to miniature painting was to try and replicate his successes.

He is gone now, but not only do we have his films (seriously, go check out some of his earlier stuff, it's great,) we have the work of all the special effects artists that were inspired by his work.  Because of him we all know how skeletons are supposed to move, and that is a rare and priceless gift.

Thank you for all you created mister Harryhausen.

Even freaking Bubo.