George Méliès, born in December 1861, was a French illusionist and filmmaker. He started his career as a magician and then, when filming, he accidently discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896 when the spring in his camera broke, and he had to fix it. When he watched it back, he could see that from the time he stopped filming to fix the spring, to filming starting again, the objects had moved and it looked as though some had disappeared. He experimented with this and created several films, 531 in fact, from 1896 and 1913. His most famous film is "A Trip to the Moon" (shown below), which was made in 1902. He also used painted backdrops instead of proper sets, which made the film cheaper to make, and also effective to watch.
Winsor McCay is the second "godfather" of animation. He was born in 1869 and was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for "Little Nemo" which he created in 1905, and "Gertie the Dinosaur," 1914 (for a video of Gertie, please see below). He was a prolific artist who pioneered animation. He set a standard followed by the likes of Walt Disney, and his comic strip work has influenced generations of artists and animators.
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was born in 1899 in Germany, but later became a British citizen. She was a master of cut-out animation and was also a film director. As a child, she fell in love with cinema, she particularly loved those of George Méliès (above). Below is her silhouette animation of Hansel and Gretel from 1955.
