1923-1924

American sculptor and animator Joseph Roop created a series of stop motion films. Roop stands out in the medium’s history as a “lost stop motion artist,’ because although we have enticing photographs of his work, no copies of his movies remain.

1925 - The Lost World, Willis O’Brien

O’Brien continued to push the medium forward, with his remarkable dinosaur work. This adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle novel features a split-screen method that blends live action footage with its wild array of battling stop motion dinosaurs. 

1926 - Prince Achmed, Lotte Reiniger

Another benchmark film, this time created with beautiful cut-out puppets and an early version of a multi-plane camera setup. Quite notably, this film is generally considered to be the first feature-length animated film in existence (an earlier cut-out film called El Apóstol by Argentine Quirino Cristinai was created in 1917, but no longer exists). 

1928

Willis O’Brien applies for his “composite picture setup” patent, a process of rear projection that allowed live action footage to be smoothly blended with stop motion. This process would further refined by Ray Harryhausen for much of his stop motion effects work. 

1928 - There It Is, Charley Bower

A little-known short film from a highly original comedian/animator, this short mixes live action with stop motion, and features a bizarre-looking bug-creature-person-thing that wears a kilt. Why would I make something like that up?