Edwin Porter directed "The Teddy Bears," one of the earliest stop-motion animation films. A short sequence of playing teddy bears, just over a minute in length, takes over 50 hours to animate.

Willis O'Brien's "The Lost World" included 49 prehistoric animals in stop-motion, which took a huge step in stop-motion history.

Willis O'Brien directed another film called "Mighty Joe Young", a well-known film in 1945, with the help of Ray Harryhausen, and stop-motion animator. Ray Harryhausen received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his technological contributions in 1991.

Stop-motion has changed dramatically since the early 20th century. In fact, stop-motion is rarely used anymore, only in children's TV shows do you see such effects, such as Gumby.

With the development of digital 3D animation, animating a 3D character in a film has become much easier and faster, which is favored by the industry. 3D animation allows unreal characters to seem to be alive.

Some Further Notable Events in stop motion Animation Early history

A picture of a Zoetrope  at the History of Photography Collection, Smithsonian Institution

The zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William Horner who called it a "daedalum" or "daedatelum".

However it is believed that Horner may have  based his invention on that of a basic zoetrope created by a Chinese inventor  by Ting Huan in 180 AD. Huan created a hanging lantern (something like a lamp shade) made of decorated transparent paper over a lamp which moved due to the convection of heat from the lamp. At certain rotational speed objects on the lantern would appear to move.

Horner also based his device on the Phenakistiscope built in 1831 by Joseph Plateau. A device similar to Horners' was described by John Bate in The Mysteries of Nature and Art in 1634.

      The Thaumatrope