Developers

Willis O’Brien was an American special effects creator and stop motion animator who is widely remembered for his revolutionary work on now classic films such as The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Young Joe (1949), the latter for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for best visual effects. The reason O’Brien’s work is so influential even in today’s world of animation is because it transformed what was possible and what could be accomplished in terms of special/visual effects in films, paving the way for future films such as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) or Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), and O’Brien’s work did for special visual effects what George Melies or the Lumiere Brothers did for modern cinema, in that they all pioneered to create something is taken for granted today. O’Brien also helped influence Ray Harryhausen in his earlier years, suggesting that Harryhausen study anatomy in order to bring more character and life to his creations. Harryhausen’s work is suited for a more younger audience, as his work such as King Kong (1933) consists of a much lighter visual style than someone like Jan Svankmajer.