I was very lucky to be able to attend the best art school in the country, Will Vinton Studios. Learn by doing and then by doing it again. The talented and beautiful people of Portland Oregon who believed in this business of Stop motion animation. No, not stop motion animation, but Claymation. A term that was accepted as, “the thing” they do up there in Oregon.
We were all kids knocking about in a warehouse space filled with clay, cameras, lights and stages.
My very first job I had at Will Vinton Studios was to sculpt some of the main puppets for a SPAM commercial. Everything was clay. Clay SPAM, clay tomatoes, clay lettuce, clay everything. That was the Vinton way.
These are some of the amazing sculpts from the talented Gairy Bialke. There were a few people at Vinton Studio’s that MADE Vinton Studio’s the powerhouse that it was. Gairy was one of those talents.
Below is a Showreel of my Animation from 1986 to 2000. This is not everything I animated but it gives you an idea of the type of work that was produced at Will Vinton Studios.
There is a line at the end of a Stephen King story titled, The Body. “ I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12.” Well, in my case that quote applies to the age 24. 1986 the studio was filled with talented people. Will Vinton Studios had grown with amazing talent from all over and some became very close friends. I had crazy adventures with a few folks that worked there and the memories will never be lost.
Yes. 1983. This was my Honda 1100cc Goldwing Interstate. If you look close you can see a black antenna right by the side mirror. I had a full AM/FM Cassette tape deck mounted on the fairing of my bike. When I was in full leather, the sounds of Robert Palmer and Pink Floyd would blast from the speakers for a summer night ride.
I was asked to come down to Portland for an interview with Will Vinton in 1986. I was living in Seattle at the time and Portland was an easy 3 hour trip away. I had a Honda Goldwing 1100cc motorcycle that I purchased after I received my first paycheck from an underwear modelling job I did for Eddie Bauer outdoor store. This is a big touring bike. The kind of motorcycle that has saddle bags and a rear luggage compartment. One usually sees older gentlemen riding these bikes with their wives on the back seat. The bike was too much for me, being it was the first motorcycle I ever owned. I was a fairly weak person and if the bike fell over, I had to get someone to help me get the bike up on it’s tires again. Anyway, I decided to ride my Goldwing down to Portland with my clay sculptures and a super 8 movie I had made. I had to take a super 8 projector as well to play the film for Will. I placed my clay sculpture of Batman and Robin in the side saddle bag and loaded the rest of the crap in the other bags. I left before noon and around 1:00pm the temperature was hovering around 90 degrees as I headed down the freeway to Portland. Of course I was in full leather. Leather pants, Leather coat with fringe tassels and leather gloves with the holes in the knuckles. All the wrong gear to be wearing on a hot summer day. I was baking as I pulled into Vinton Studios. I parked and walked into the studio’s main lobby. The receptionist asked if I needed help bringing anything in. We walked back out to my bike and I opened the side saddle bag. When I saw what was in the bag my heart dropped. It was basically a grey and black puddle of clay with a little bit of green that I assumed were Robin’s panties. I didn’t know what to say. This was my audition piece. This was what I was going to show Will Vinton. This was my only chance to make an impression and hopefully get a job. This was a hot clay mess of a puddle. No audition piece to show. I blew it. I grabbed the super 8 projector and then walked back into the studio with the receptionist. I waited on the couch. Eventually Will Vinton came out and ask me to follow him to his office. Someone must have told him of my melted clay sculpture cooking in my motorcycle’s trunk because he never asked to see my audition piece. He never asked to see my sculpture. We talked for awhile and then I showed him the super 8 film. He seemed to like the clay animation that he saw in the film. He took me down to where the boxes of clay were kept. In the storeroom there were boxes and boxes of clay, sorted and dated on the shelves. Will said there were some fine vintage years of clay on those shelves and were perfectly aged. Clay at the right consistency of clay/oil mix. This vintage clay was excellent for fine sculptures and animation. He said I could take as much clay as I thought I needed. He told me to load up my bike, go back to Seattle and make another audition piece. He said, “Bring back the new piece and I’ll have a look at it.” He also asked me if I had a car with air conditioning and to maybe use that on the return trip. Amazing!. He was giving me another chance.
THE BATMAN
Here is the Batman Sculpt before the horrible outcome in the side saddle bag of my Honda Goldwing.
And here is Robin before the trip to Portland.
WORK SHOES. My 1981 Nike Air Jordon. These shoes where my everyday work shoes while I was animating at Will Vinton. I still have these shoes and if I had known at the time, I would have tried to keep them in better shape. The prices on eBay for these are crazy (if in mint condition)
““Let’s get roll’in””
This is the Film CLOSED MONDAYS. The film that won Will Vinton the Oscar in 1975. I had never seen clay expressions like that before. This film was a big influence to me the first time I saw it. I must have been around 14 and I remember I saw the film as part of a social gathering at a local church. I was involved in a youth study program and alter boy training. Fridays we had film nights. Luckily I stayed to watch this film instead of sneaking out back with the other alter boys for a smoke.
The Noid from the Domino’s Pizza commercials. I did not animate on this particular spot. I joined Will Vinton after this first commercial had been aired. I spent my first few months at the studio making the Noid puppets for the animators. I also was sort of prep cook, melting clay for many of the animators. Mixing up Raisin purple was a full time job. It wasn’t until later that I got the chance to actually animate the Noid and the Raisins for those long running campaign adds.
I also spent my first days making sure all of the NOIDS where sculpted and delivered to the right animator. He was the first puppet I officially animated for Will Vinton Studios. That was the character that started me off in the world of Claymation.