Effects pioneer Ralph Hammeras was one of the finest artist and inventor working for the film industry. He developed the rear process technique. He started to paint glass shots in the early 20, and he patented the glass shot technique in 1925.

Ralph Hammeras  with a large-scale miniature of London made for the movie "The sky hawk"

The patent document for the glass shot invention.

 

Ralph Hammeras  and  Ray Mannes, his assistant,  getting the camera ready to shoot a miniature.

 

An example of Hammeras glass shot for the movie "The private life of Helen of Troy" for witch he got an Oscar nomination in 1927. He won the Oscar  in 1954 for "20.000 leagues under the sea"
The stage constructed on the First national lot at right. The final shot with the painting at left

Filmography:
 

- My Dog, Buddy (1960)
- The Giant Gila Monster (1959) (special effects)
- The Giant Claw (1957) (technical effects)
- 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) (effects photographer)
- The Great Dictator (1940) (special photographic effects) (uncredited)
- Four Men and a Prayer (1938) (process photography) (uncredited)
- In Old Chicago (1937) (special effects)
- Dante's Inferno (1935) (technical staff)
- A Connecticut Yankee (1931) (special effects)
- Body and Soul (1931) (special effects)
- Just Imagine (1930) (uncredited)
- The Sky Hawk (1929) (mechanical effects)
- The Patent Leather Kid (1927) 
- The Lost World (1925) (associate technical director)