Will Vinton

Not to be confused withWilliam T. Vinton.

Will Vinton
Vinton in 2015
Born	William Gale Vinton (1947-11-17)November 17, 1947 McMinnville, Oregon,U.S.
Died	October 4, 2018(2018-10-04)(aged 70) Portland, Oregon,U.S.
Occupations	Animator filmmaker editor screenwriter voice actor
Years active	1969–2008
Children	3

William Gale Vinton(November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018)was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for hisClaymationwork, alongside creating iconic characters such asThe California Raisins.He won anOscarfor his workalongside severalEmmy AwardsandClio Awardsfor his studio's work.

Life and education

Vinton was born on November 17, 1947, to a car dealer father and a bookkeeper mother in McMinnville, Oregon.His paternal grandfather,William T. Vinton,was a well known state senator in Oregon, representing Portland.

During the 1960s, Vinton studied physics,architectureandfilmmakingat theUniversity of California, Berkeley,where he was influenced by the work ofAntoni Gaudí.During this time, Vinton made afeature-lengthdocumentary filmabout theCaliforniacounter-culture movement titledGone for a Better Deal,which toured college campuses in various film festivals of the time. Two more films about student protest followed,Berkeley GamesandFirst Ten Days,as well a narrative shortReply,and his firstanimation,Culture Shock.

Vinton received his bachelor's degree in architecture from UC Berkeley in 1970.

Career

Collaboration with Bob Gardiner

Meeting clay animatorBob Gardinerin theBerkeley, California,area in the early 1970s, Vinton brought him toPortlandand they commandeered Vinton's home basement to make a quick 1½-minute test film ofclay animation(and the supporting armatures) calledWobbly Wino,completed in early 1973. Gardiner refined his sculpting and animation techniques while Vinton built a system for animating hisBolexRex-5 16mm camera and they began work in mid-1973 on an 8-minute16mmshort film about a drunk wino who stumbles into a closedart museumand interacts with thepaintingsandsculptures.Completed in late 1974 after 14 months of production, the film combined Gardiner's sculpting skills and comedy writing talent with Vinton's camera skills.Closed Mondayswon anAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Filmin the spring of 1975, the first film produced in Portland to do so.

Vinton and Gardiner parted ways during the production of their second short film,Mountain Musiccompleted by Vinton in 1976. Gardiner focused on producing PSA spots for local political issues (eventually evolving into other artistic media such as music and holograms) while Vinton established Will Vinton Productions (later Will Vinton Studios) in Portland to capitalize on the animation technology Gardiner had developed for their animated shortClosed Mondays.Quickly expanding his studio by hiring new animators, Vinton produced dozens of commercials for regional and then national companies.

Will Vinton Studios

Will Vinton Studios

Company Logo from 1993 to 2002 with the text similar to the Walt Disney font text
Company type	Animation Studio
Industry	Film,Entertainment,Advertising
Founded	1975
Founder	Will Vinton
Defunct	2005
Fate	Defunct
Successors	Free Will Entertainment Laika
Headquarters	Portland, Oregon

Going solo

Still with only a handful of animators, Vinton produced atrilogyof 27-minute films of ashort storieslikefairy talesin the late 1970s and early 1980s, such asMartin the Cobbler(1977), the Oscar-nominatedRip Van Winkle(1978),andThe Little Prince(1979). These films were later released theatrically under the umbrella titleTrilogy,and later to video asThe Little Prince and Friends.In 1978, Vinton produced the documentaryClaymation: Three Dimensional Clay Animationa 17-minute film featuring the behind-the-scenes technical processes used. The term "claymation" was later trademarked by Vinton,and has become synonymous withclay animationin general.

35mm years

Graduating to35mmfilm, Vinton produced other short films during this time:Legacy(1979),Dinosaur(1980),The Creation(directed byJoan Gratz,1981, Oscar nominated),The Great Cognito(directed by Barry Bruce, 1982, Oscar nominated),A Christmas Gift,and the music videoVanz Kant Danz(1987) forCreedence Clearwater Revival'sJohn Fogerty.VHSvideo compilations of these films were released in the 1980s asFestival of ClaymationandSon of Combo II.

Vinton, no longer performing animation himself, later produced special effects scenes for TV shows and movies, including a sequence forBette Midler'sDivine Madness!movie (1980), an Emmy-winning sequence for theMoonlightingTV series (1987), and the opening & closing title sequences for the feature comedy filmBrain Donors(1992). His company's animation effects forDisney'sReturn to Oz(1985) were also nominated for a special effects Oscar. In May 1985, Will Vinton Productions released their first and only theatrical filmThe Adventures of Mark Twain.

Following his work onReturn to Oz,Vinton was hired by the Disney studio to produce animation effects for theirMichael JacksonDisneyland-EPCOT Centerfilm,Captain EOin 1986 and theSpeed Demonmusic video for Michael Jackson's musical anthology feature-length film,Moonwalker(1988).

ADomino's Pizzacommercial animated at Will Vinton Studios, featuringthe Noid.

Prominent among his hundreds of now international commercial creations were theCalifornia Raisins,theDomino's PizzaNoid,and theM&M'sRed, Yellow, Blue, Green and Crispy (Orange) characters.

The California Raisins' first big hit was the song "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"in the first of their series of TV spots for theCalifornia Raisin Advisory Board.They became such a media phenomenon that they went on to star in their own pair ofprimetimespecials forCBStelevision,Meet the Raisins(1988),The Raisins Sold Out(1990), and acel-animatedshow,The California Raisins Show.A couple of music albums of songs from the specials, produced byNu Shoozpop rock band leader John Smith were also released.

CBS also commissioned three more prime-time specials,Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration(1987),Claymation Comedy of Horrors(1991), andClaymation Easter(1992).Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas CelebrationandClaymation Easterwon aPrimetime Emmy AwardforOutstanding Animated Program.Claymation Comedy of Horrors was nominated for this category, but lost toThe Simpsons.All were later released to video and DVD.

In the 1990s, a variety of Vinton's 400 + animators and technicians helped with new creations and films of their own using the Vinton facilities called theWalkabout Program.Craig Bartlettcreated his short filmArnold Escapes From Church(1988) and generated two more clay-animated short films,The Arnold Waltz(1990) andArnold Rides a Chair(1991), each would later spawnedHey Arnold!,a cel-animated series forNickelodeonin 1996.

Computer animation

The mid-1990s also saw Vinton adding computer animation to his output, used most visibly for hisM&M's charactercommercials. A shortCGIfilm,Fluffy,directed by Doug Aberle, was created during this time. Other CGI films—some combined with clay and stop-motion animation—soon followed. Vinton contributed to a consumer-grade computer animation application calledPlaymation,developed by Hash, Inc., a computer animation company in Vancouver, Washington. Vinton and associates also dabbled in animation for the internet with a series calledOzzie the Elf.

Switch from Claymation to Foamation

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Vinton Studios produced the animated seriesThe PJsfor theFOXTV network. The series was conceived and executive-produced by actor and comedianEddie Murphy.Another animated series was produced for theUPNTV network by the Vinton studio,Gary and Mike.Gary and Mikewas shot using digital video capture system developed for the production by two Vinton engineers Miegel Ginsberg and Gary McRobert. Both series used a refinement in Vinton's style of dimensional animation. Most of the clay figures were replaced by models of moulded foam rubber, eliminating many of the limitations, and maintenance issues, that are inherent with clay, which had been developed by Vinton and his technical teams as far as it could go. Vinton soon coined a new term for this process,Foamation.The studio also produced an unairedpilotforSlacker Catsin 2001.

Decline

By the end of the 1990s, the Vinton studio, seeking funds for more feature-length films, had become big enough to bring in outside investors, which included Nike, Inc., founderPhil Knightand his son, Travis, who had worked at the studio as an animator.

In spring of 2001, the studio's animated shows,The PJsandGary and Mike,were cancelled, with the latter only airing 13 episodes.

In 2002, Vinton lost control of the studio he founded after Knight became the majority shareholder and Vinton failed to garner funds for further feature production in Los Angeles, eventually being dismissed from the studio. Vinton later sought damages for this and sued for ownership of his name. In 2005, Will Vinton Studios was rebranded asLaika.Premiere stop-motion animator/directorHenry Selickjoined the studio as a supervising director. The studio currently produces theatrical films such asCoraline,ParaNorman,The Boxtrolls,Kubo and the Two Strings,andMissing Link.

Aftermath

Vinton later founded a new production facility, Will Vinton's Free Will Entertainment, also based in Portland. In 2005, Vinton producedThe Morning After,the first short film under the new company. The film combinesCGIandlive action.He also taught at the Portland branch ofThe Art Institutesand maintained an office there as an artist in residence.Vinton created amusicaltitledThe Kiss,an adaptation ofThe Frog Princewith music byDavid Pomeranzthat premiered on March 24, 2014, inLake Oswego, Oregon.TheCreative Artists AgencyinBeverly Hillsrepresented Vinton for production projects,which included a graphic novel calledJack Hightowerproduced in tandem withDark Horse Comics.

Illness, retirement, and death

In 2006, Vinton was diagnosed withmultiple myelomaand retired in 2008 from producing films. He died inPortland, Oregon,on October 4, 2018, after a 12-year battle with the disease at the age of 70.He was the subject of the documentary filmClaydream,which was directed by Marq Evans and released at the 2021Tribeca Film Festival.

Archive

The moving image collection of Will Vinton is housed at theAcademy Film Archive.The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Vinton's films, includingClosed Mondays,The Creation,The Great Cognito,Dinosaur,Legacy,andA Christmas Gift.

Work

Feature films

• Gone for a Better Deal(1974) – director, producer (live-action documentary)
• Return to Oz(1985) – claymation director, producer (Academy Award Nominated)
• The Adventures of Mark Twain(1985) – director, producer (Comet Quest:UK: video title)
• Shadow Play(1986) – producer (live-action thriller)
• Festival of Claymation(1987) – director, producer (compilation of short films)
• Moonwalker(1988) – segment director, producer:Speed DemonbyMichael Jackson
• Brain Donors(1992) – segment director (intro and outro)
• The Wild(2006) – executive producer

TV series

• The California Raisin Show,TV Series 23:00 × 13 (executive producer)
• Klay's TV,TV Series Pilot (director, executive producer)
• 5 Cecille shorts forSesame Street,1:30 min. (producer)
• Adventures in Wonderland(Caterpillar's Stories), 4 min. × 30 (executive producer)
• Hammer Timeshort forSesame Street
• The PJs,TV Series 23:00 × 52 (executive producer)Primetime Emmy AwardWinner
• Boyer Brother,TV Series Pilot (executive producer)
• Gary & Mike,TV Series 23:00 × 13 (executive producer)Primetime Emmy AwardNominee
• Slacker Cats,TV Series Pilot (executive producer)

TV specials

• Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration(1987), 23 min. (director, producer) Prime-time Emmy Winner
• Meet the Raisins!(1988), 23:00 (executive producer, producer) Prime-time Emmy Nominated
• The Raisins: Sold Out! The California Raisins II(1990), 23:00 (director, producer) Prime-time Emmy Nominated
• Claymation Comedy of Horrors(1991), 23:00 (executive producer, producer) Prime-time Emmy Winner
• Claymation Easter(1992), 23:00 (executive producer, producer) Prime-time Emmy Winner

Short films

• Wobbly Wino,2 min. (director, producer)
• Culture Shock,17 min. (co-director, producer)
• Closed Mondays(1974), 9 min. (co-director) Academy Award Winner
• Mountain Music(1976), 9 min. (director, producer)
• Martin the Cobbler(1977), 26 min. (director, producer)
• Claymation(1978), documentary, 18 min. (director, producer)
• Rip Van Winkle(1978), 26 min. (director, producer) Academy Award Nominee
• The Little Prince(1979), 25 min. (director, producer)
• Legacy: A Very Short History of Natural Resources(1979), 7 min. (director, producer)
• Dinosaur(1980), 17 min. (director, producer)
• A Christmas Gift(1980), 7 min. (director, producer)
• Creation(1981), 7:36 (director, producer) Academy Award Nominee
• The Great Cognito(1982), 5 min. (director, producer) Academy Award Nominee
• The Diary of Adam and Eve,24 min. (director, producer)
• Vanz Kant Danz(John Fogertymusic video) (1985), 6 min. (director, producer)
• Mr. Resistor(1994), 8 min. (executive producer)
• Zerox and Mylar(1995), 5 min. (executive producer)
• Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension(1996), 13 min. (producer)
• Bride of Resistor(1997), 6 min. (executive producer)
• The Stars Came Dreaming(1998), 12 min. (executive producer)
• Go Down Death,10 min. (director, producer)
• The Lost 'M' Adventure(3-D short film featuring the M&M's characters) (2000), 12 min. (executive producer)
• Día de los Muertos(Day of the Dead) (2002), 8 min. (executive producer)
• The Morning After(2005), 7:30 (director, producer)
• The Martial Artist(2007), 20 min. (director, producer, writer)

Musical theatre

• The Kiss(2014), (director, producer)

External links

• Vinton Entertainment
• Free Will Entertainment
• willvinton.net,Will Vinton's Claymation and Stopmotion Animation Site
• Will VintonatIMDb
• A celebration of Will Vinton on Just Make Animation