Claymation Man: Will Vinton

Many would agree that Will Vinton was to Claymation, what Walt Disney was to Animation.

It all began with, "Closed Mondays" the first clay animated film that Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner created together which won an Academy Award in 1975.

Their second film,"Mountain Music" lead to Vinton and Gardiner parting ways and soon Will Vinton Studios began making other films including, Martin the Cobbler (1977), Rip Van Winkle (1978) and The Little Prince (1979). 

Every year a new claymation film was produced and soon Vinton entered into working on TV commercials and winning awards. The most successful ad campaign was for The California Raisins, which lead to several independent projects for Michael Jackson. Below is a compilation of Vinton's California Raisin commercials as well as other behind the scenes interviews on other commercials. 

 

Here's a collection of stories from a few people who worked at the Vinton Studio during the M&M commercials, The PJs and Gary and Mike TV series.

https://soundcloud.com/user-444046006/will-vinton-claymation-man

Here's a rescued Raisin armature made of wood, bendable lead wire encased in shrink wrap rubber for arms and legs with a pair of solid Sculpey shoes.

One of the first M&Ms commercials featured the voices of Jon Lovitz and John Goodman. This was the first commercial where I animated both Red & Yellow. Watch for the scene where they are tied up and struggling to break free.

I animated Yellow in the Xmas M&Ms spot as well as Green when she's naked in her trailer.

 

The director wanted to make sure the actor would give an appropriate reaction of seeing a nude M&M. So they posted a bunch of porn magazine images all around the camera. As the PA stumbled into Green's trailer, the actor was surprised to see the collection of pornography displayed in front of him and it worked.

In 2002, Vinton's studio changed ownership and here is a very accurate account of what happened in this article called "How the father of Claymation lost his company."

Since posting this, a documentary called ClayDream about the life and career of Will Vinton. You can also learn about the film in an interview below...

Here's a great "Making of" article about the Claymation process from Step By Step magazine, March/April 1987

Here's a rare interview with Bob Gardiner, who worked with Will Vinton on "Closed Mondays" 

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Next time: Mike Owens, Animation Director.