1. By Ellie Woods

2.  Ray Harryhausen Jason and the argonaughts War of the worlds Mighty Joe Young Clash of the titans

3.  Willis H. O’Brien King Kong Mighty Joe Young In 1949, 16 years after his ground breaking work on "King Kong", Willis O'Brien worked as Chief Technician on another gorilla picture for Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack called "Mighty Joe Young". A young Ray Harryhausen would animate most of the animation, but O'Brien did come up with the designs for the film. At the 1950 Academy Awards, O'Brien was awarded an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. This along with "King Kong", are often considered his greatest achievements.Awards, O'Brien was awarded an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. This along with "King Kong", are often considered his greatest achievements. Willis was an inspiration for Ray Harryhausen and worked with him in Mighty Joe Young.

4.  In both Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2006) and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005), there appear pianos both labelled with the makers name of Harryhausen. This is proof that Ray Harryhausen was a massive influence to many Aardman Films. Ray Harryhausen made stop motion films which influence companies such as Aardman and many other directors such as Tim burton. Tim burton is probably the most famous modern director/ artist who still uses stop motion animation techniques even with the high quality CGI affects that are available for us now.

5.  The most famous person in terms of pushing the boundaries has got to be Jan Svankmajer. He even got banned from making films for awhile.  A more recent person who pushes the boundaries is Max Hattler.

6.  Jan was seen as a dissident. This meant that he actively challenged the idea behind stop motion animation.  This meant that between 1973 and 1980, Jan was forced to “rest” by the communists.  He then started making films again in 1981.

7.  Max pushes the boundaries because he is interested in the space between abstraction and figuration.  This is shown in his films as he uses abstract art in order to tell a story.

9.  Corpse bride  Nightmare before Christmas  Coralline  Frankenweenie  James and the giant peach

11.  Wallace and gromit was originally made for deaf children because the emotions and actions of the characters were so dramatic that it was easy for deaf children to follow the program.  This program was enjoyed by both deaf and non-deaf children and also adults, which is why the program has become so popular.

12.  The Quay Brothers used a lot of puppetry in the stop motion films.  Their work seems to be influenced a lot by the work of Jan Svankmajer in terms of the style of characters they use and also in terms of pushing the boundaries.