Stop Motion Animation (Part 2)

George Pal
George pal the patienter of Pal-Doll stop motion animation was born in 1908. Pal-Doll was stop motion animation using figures with interchangeable parts to give them movement. After fleeing Germany from the Nazi's and moving to america, Pal created an animated series called 'Puppetoons' which won him an Oscar in 1943. George Pal later went on to work on an adaptation of Hg Welles The War Of The Worlds. 
Willis O'Brien
Willis O'Brien used a combination of stop motion and actual film footage to create films. He is described on Wikipedia as an 'American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer' . The greatest achievement in his career is the Classic King Kong which was made by blacking out half of a film and projecting the stop motion King Kong over the top to create a full composition. This was the first stop motion and live action collaboration making it very innovative.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen was inspired by the work of Willis O'Brien  both the lost world and King Kong ( of which he saw at the Chinese theater). Inspired by King Kong he began to make puppets of the monsters in the movie. He started taking anatomy classes at Los Angeles City College. In 1940 he joined George pal at puppet toons and was one of the first animators to work for him after working one 13 shorts he left for bigger and better things. His first feature film in 1952 was called "Beast from 20,000 fathoms" and is considered the physical inspiration for Godzilla. In this film he invented the dynamite technique which he is still famous for today.
Phil Tippet
Visual effects expert Phil Tippet was the pioneer of the "Go Motion" technique. Phil was hired by lucasfilm (George Lucus) for the miniature chess scene in "Star wars". For the next film he headed the animation department for the battle of Hoth. While he was there he developed a technique called go motion which involved electronically moving puppets which moved in time with the camera shots to provide a more precise smoother motion. The object is in the process of moving whilst the photo is being taken which removes what is called the staccato effect.
The Brothers Quay
The Brothers Quay are Identical twins who produced dream like surrealist stop motion films. They went to the Royal College of Art London where the love for surrealism was found. Their films are often seriously dark and moody using a mix of organic and inorganic parts to their puppets, The have also been know to use pixilation techniques on actors but I will get into that later.