Moving on through time animation developed, when the film industry started to take shape stopframe came back and people used it to make productions. Movement of model came in around in
the 1920’s, with one of the first people to do this was Willis H. O'Brien with the creation of the stopframe film “The lost world” in 1925. The movie based on a novel followed different models of
dinosaurs, this was his first stop-motion film and would have had quite a low frame rate due to the
technology at the time. The models O’Brien used were made out of clay and were moved inch by
inch picture after picture, then once played back it would create the illusion of movement. To keep
the models still he used ‘metal armatures’, these are small metal skeletons that can be used to make
moving the models easier and keep shape. The models contained a bladder inside the skeleton
model that could be inflated and deflated to give the illusion of breathing. His techniques lead to the
inspiration for those such as Aardman Animations which used similar skeletons to move their
models, this invention was one of the first of its kind and helped build stop-frame animation for the
1920’s.
Another man who built his own stop-motion method was Ray Harryhausen, in the 1940’s,
Harryhausen created his own method for stop motion called “dynamation”. This method allowed
Harryhausen to use less mini-set’s, this was a cheaper and faster option to creating whole small sets
which would cost a lot and take time to make. This method also allowed for close interaction
between the actors and figures, this was because the model is later added into the scene compared
to just being there to start with. For example, this allowed for actors to sword fight with characters
such as skeletons, as the actor would perform his action and the models can be matched to it later.
It did have a downside however like it was often extremely difficult to match parts of the miniature
set with the previously filmed-material for brightness and color.
The 1920’s also gave birth to another pioneer of animation Lotte Reiniger, she created animations
with cut out card and wire and managed to create classic animations that helped path the way for
many others. Lotte used frame rate to her advantage and created her own models, with other
models at the time (armatures) being created her method was totally different. Cutting out
characters and holding them together with wire, Reiniger managed to create animations by slowly
moving her models but in 2D. This sort of style would have been easier to do but the model would
potentially take longer to make. Her animations would be fluent and her work is one of the most
recognized of the time.