Willis O Brien animates King Kong Willis O Brien animates King Kong Back before the invention of the computer animation, there was Willis O Brien and his magic hands. O Brien practically invented three-dimensional animation.
Today stop-motion animation is old hat.
But in 1933, when King Kong was first unleashed on audiences, it was nothing less than miraculous. Here s how it worked. If a walking person takes one-half second to make a step, it takes 12 individual photographs to show the motion. With stop-motion animation, movement must be photographed one frame at a time. A special single frame camera clicks off the frames while the animator moves the legs of his doll a little at a time until the walking cycle is complete.