Ray derived a process were he could combine live-action with animation. It is similar to the split-screen process we see today.
His fundamental years of experimentation and exploration into new processes for combining live-action and animation began early in Ray's life. As a boy he created his first studio in his parents garage. One of his first experiments was filmed in a garden. He quickly learnt that sun light moves, effecting the shadows and continuity of his film. With this fundamental lesson learnt early that every framed exposure needs to be controlled, he began collecting lights and a Kodak Cine II camera that possessed a one frame shaft allowing him complete control over the scene.
During the time between 1938/40 Ray meet 'Willis O'Brien', the master animator who created the dinosaurs and animated them for 'The Lost World' and 'King Kong'. These two impressionable movies inspired Ray to follow his passion for animation. After meeting O'Brien at MGM Studios he received advice about his animation projects that would change the way he worked helping him create more fluid animations. "You've got to put more character into it and study anatomy to learn where the muscles connect to the bone". Determined and passionate Ray enrolled in night classes in art and anatomy.
Ray went on to develop beautiful films and also published books on the art of animation.
Although Ray has a list of successful films he worked on including 'MIGHTY JOE YOUNG" and "JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS" to name a few, my favourites have been his earlier works on Fairy Tales. Below is the 'MOTHER GOOSE STORIES' released in 1946.
Enjoy the work of a talented and passionate man who loved this amazing art form of ANIMATIONNNNNNNN!
Great stuff Jac. This is well researched and reported. Knowing what animation pioneers did deepend the knowledge well we can draw from as animators and creative artists.
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