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Willis H. O’Brien the original inventor of 3-Dimensional Animation. Starting with Clay Animation then pioneering the more commonly used Stop-Motion Animation. Both applying the same technique as used in an Animated Cartoon except with three-dimensional objects. O'Brien toying around with Clay Figures realized u could move them an inch at a time or less with a 16mm Movie Camera. O'Brien tried doing this like you would do a Cartoon. Shot a frame of film of the clay figure standing in an upright position. Then he would move the arm or any limb an inch or less take another frame of film & so on. Thus inventing a new special effects process similar to an animated cartoon. This is Clay Animation or the more common Stop-Motion Animation. Which Stop-Motion doesn’t consist of clay figures either. So O'Brien toying around invented 3-Dimensional Animation. Moving less then an inch is even better the less u move each limb on ur character the smoother ur animation is. Willis H. O'Brien started in the early 1900's with his first animation shorts, shot for Thomas Edison. Early shorts like The Dinosaur And The Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915), R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. (1916), & Prehistoric Poultry (1916) used clay animation. Primitive, Jerky, Corky & intentionally comical. Still neat though. O'Brien's first feature film would be The Ghost Of Slumber Mountain (1917) Which he did all the Stop-Motion Animation. Also played a character in the little film. It involved Dinosaurs. I am pretty sure Slumber used armatures for the first time with denin clothe then rubber over that. Not sure who designed them though. The Lost World (1925) was the first big step O'Brien drew out design plans on paper for the Dinosaur Armatures. Armatures are metal with ball & socket joints held together made to hold still posses an armature looks similar to a skeleton but is metal. O’Bie had a factory make these armatures. O'Brien hired Marcel Delgado to design the dinosaurs flesh & muscles over the armatures. Which wrapped in denin cloth then rubber for the skin & painted. Wire in the lips & eye brows. Clay for the eyes. Designed & Painted very detailed by Delgado. At least 15 or more most likely were constructed for The Lost World I never actually counted all the dinosaurs in that film. That film was very groundbreaking with Stop-Motion by O'Brien & Second Animator Fred W. Jackman. The Lost World (1925) was a big hit as well & gained enough flurry for O'Brien to do more animation work on other films similar to The Lost World. King Kong (1933) was his next project O'Bie again drawing out the armature plans on paper then they were made properly. Delgado again designing over the armatures there were four different Kong Models used in the film. One was 18 inches, one 24 inches not sure about the others. Delgado also had to design some more Dinosaurs & I think some left over from The Lost World were used too. O'Bie as well as E.B. Gibson a.k.a. Buzz Gibson did the animation on King Kong with O’Brien supervising his. Gibson was a good animator. His animation isn’t as jerky as some but it is still jerky to a certain degree. Delgado covered the Kong armatures by wrapping them in denin cloth then covering them with a latex rubber & last black rabbit fur. Wires in the lips & eyebrows like a lot of the Dinosaurs. Clay for the eyes as well. Delgado did an excellent job. O'Bie had to come up with some new effects like The Split Screen Technique & Rear Screen Projection. Using Matte Paintings with glass & scenery painted on used in front of the camera then 3 dimensional sets had to be designed of trees bushes mosses & more. The same was done with The Lost World (1925). King Kong gained worldwide recognition & became a huge hit. It is a masterpiece of special effects work. I will be posting all of O’Brien’s films & more about him.