Ray Harryhausen, a legendary name in the special effects animation, had passed away on Tuesday morning, relatives tell the New York Times.

Long before the technological advancements in computer and digital technology, as far back as 1940s, there already was Ray Harryhausen who used a scrupulous technique to stage animations in films.

Stop-Motion, Dynamation Animation

"There's a strange quality in stop-motion photography, like in King-Kong, that adds to the fantasy. If you make things too real, sometimes you bring it down to the mundane," were Mr. Harryhausen's famous words about the stop-motion technique. This animation technique uses three-dimensional miniature models photographed frame by frame with tiny adjustments in movement.

Indeed, Mr. Harryhausen unique stop-motion technique was made all the more appealing with his style of making his animations interact with real actors and settings as believable as he can achieve. He has developed this style on his own and called it Dynamation.

Ray Harryhausen's Humble Beginnings

Mr. Harryhausen had taught himself the essentials of stop-motion animation with the support of parents. As early as his high school years, he had already created animated films with dinosaurs and apes as his characters. He used to work inside the family garage. His hard work had immediately obtained him an appointment with Mr. O'Brien. Seeing Mr, Harryhausen's remarkable potential, Mr. O' Brien advised him to take anatomy, sculpture and film production which Mr. Harryhausen did.

Mr. O' Brien and Mr. Harryhausen do not lose their contact from each other until "King Kong" director and producer Merian C. Cooper agreed with Mr. O' Brien to hire Mr. Harryhausen as an animator for the film "Mighty Joe Young" which won an Academy Award for special effects in 1949.

The Legendary Movies

In 1952 Mr. Harryhausen made an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Fog Horn" which he entitled "The Beast From 20, 000 Fathoms." The film was instrumental to Mr. Harryhausen's image of a filmmaker who could create remarkable scenes and engage a large number of audiences even with his very limited budget.

The Beast From 20, 000 Fathoms

In 1958, he made his first colored animated film, still with a limited budget, and incorporated mythical adventure into his theme. He came up with "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad".

"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad."

Mr. Harryhausen was able to create archetypal milieu, special effects and effective characters that he was able to transcend to his much recent and famous film in 1963, “Jason and the Argonauts”.

"Jason and the Argonauts".

In 1959, for him to be able to create scenes with the giant and live actors for "The Three Worlds of Gulliver", he traveled to Britain and made use of the "traveling matte" system by Rank Organization. He lived in Britain permamnently and later married Diana Livingstone Bruce and had a daughter with her.

"The Three Worlds of Gulliver"

In 1964, the outer space interest Mr. Harryhausen thus he created the movie "First Man in the Moon".

"First men in the Moon".

In 1969, seven years after Mr. O' Brien's death, Mr. Harryhausen created the films develop by Mr. O' Brien back in the 1940's namely, "Mysterious Island," "One Million Years B.C." and "The Valley of Gwangi."

The year 1970 posed a challenge for Mr. Harryhausen's career when Hollywood launched its films employing digital special effects like "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park". He had no desire of altering his technique and was not willing to bow-down to these innovations.

In 1981, Mr. Harryhausen was able to work with famous stars Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith in his last movie to be produced entitled, "Clash of the Titans.

"Clash of the Titans"

Mr. Ray Harryhausen's notable contributions in animation were awarded in 1992 Academy Award for technical achievement. Tom Hanks, in his introductory speech told the audience that " I thought the greatest movie of all time was not Citizen Kane" or "Casablanca" but "Jason and the Argonauts."