90 - to Celebrate Ray Harryhausen's 90th Birthday

Ray Harryhausen, the American film producer and special effects creator most famous for his brand of stop-motion model animation (like we need to tell you) was 90 earlier this year.

Carsten Sommer has to be one of his biggest fans, seriously.  To celebrate the occasion he sat down and created - from scratch - this amazing homage.  You must really watch it through to the end to get it, however, but it is well worth the wait.  In terms of ana ct of reverence, respect and honor, this takes some beating.

Nothing in this short animation had been used before, not the models, miniatures, puppets, mechanis or images.  Perhaps not one of the most economical birthday greetings ever, but one of the best for sure.  The stop motion is essential in any homage to Harryhausen so, for starters, the approach of the alien ship on its journey to earth is shot at 75 frames a second.

The aliens themseleves were created by using pippetry with some cable controlled finctions.  This helped to achieve their rather comical movements.  All in all the prohect took Sommers two years to produce from start to finish.

Time well spent we say.