SPECIAL effects genuis Ray Harryhausen, the man behind films such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, has died aged 92, his family has announced.

The legendary visual effects master and stop-motion model pioneer was a regular visitor to the North-East, often taking part in the University of Teesside's annual Animex International Festival of Animation.

He also received an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from the University of Teesside in 2002.

A statement posted on Facebook by the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation said: "Harryhausen's genius was in being able to bring his models alive.

"Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray's hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right."

Among those paying homage on Twitter to Harryhausen after news of his death was announced were Sedgefield-born Mark Gatiss of League of Gentlemen fame, Jonathan Ross, Tim Burton and Simon Pegg.

Harryhausen, who won a special Oscar and BAFTA, has been cited as a major influence on several movie directors, including Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas and John Landis.

Britain's Nick Park, the man behing Wallace and Gromit, was also inspired by Harryhausen's work.

Harryhausen himself was influenced by Willis O’Brien’s creations in the 1933 classic King Kong.

He went on to make some of the greatest adventures in movie history, including Mysterious Island, Mighty Joe Young, One Million Years B.C, three Sinbad films and Clash of the Titans.

Arguably his most memorable work came in the 1963 version of Jason and The Argonauts, which included the giant bronze man Talos and an incredible fight scene involving seven skeletons, which took him three months to film.