Significant Developers

Willis O'Brien

Willis O'Brien was a stop motion pioneer from America. During his teenage years he was a cartoonist as well as a boxer and cowboy. As years went by his interest shifted to sculptures. This mainly consisted of human and animal figures which he would add moulded rubber to their surfaces to give them more freedom of movement.

Willis O'Brien's idea of stop motion first started when he was making figures of boxers out of clay with his co-worker.  The Edison company took interest in his methods of stop motion and hired him to do several prehistoric themed shorts. Willis' models were mainly made of clay however throughout the years he career and skills grew, leading to a more advanced and detailed versions of his models. Willis went as far as to add inflating and deflating rubber bladders to his models to make them appear as if they were breathing. For his piece 'King Kong' he studied the movements of a gorilla to so that he could imitate it's movements with his characters. Willis was able to add actual actors to his films through the use of a green screen.