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Will Vinton

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Claymation , sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation , is one of many forms of stop-motion animation . Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay .

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119-534: William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins . He won an Oscar for his work alongside several Emmy Awards and Clio Awards for his studio's work. 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 ,

238-651: A Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program . Claymation Comedy of Horrors was nominated for this category, but lost to The 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 the Walkabout Program . Craig Bartlett created his short film Arnold Escapes From Church (1988) and generated two more clay-animated short films, The Arnold Waltz (1990) and Arnold Rides

357-421: A "hot set," then no one is allowed to touch the set or else the shoot would be ruined. Certain scenes must be shot rather quickly. If a scene is left unfinished and the weather is perhaps humid, then the set and characters have an obvious difference. The clay puppets may be deformed from the humidity or the air pressure could have caused the set to shift slightly. These small differences can create an obvious flaw to

476-490: A CCR reunion and even brought the urn containing her husband's ashes to the ceremony. Furious, Cook and Clifford, who were seated with their families at a table across the room from Fogerty's, walked out of the ballroom just as the performance began, and would later write separate letters to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's board of directors, saying it was "hurtful" and "insulting" to allow the performance to continue without them. In

595-429: A Chair (1991), each would later spawned Hey Arnold! , a cel-animated series for Nickelodeon in 1996. The mid-1990s also saw Vinton adding computer animation to his output, used most visibly for his M&M's character commercials. A short CGI film, 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

714-472: A July 2011 interview with the Calgary Herald , John admitted that he would at least be willing to consider reuniting with Cook and Clifford: Years ago, I looked at people and I was so full of some sort of emotion and I'd say, 'Absolutely not!' ... But I have to admit, people have asked me more recently, and even though I have no idea how such a series of events would come to pass, I can tell that there isn't

833-399: A Staircase , filmed in 1992. Another Vinton animator, Craig Bartlett , developed a technique in which he not only used clay painting but sometimes built up clay images that rose off the plane of the flat support platform toward the camera lens to give a more 3-D stop-motion look to his Hey Arnold! films. Nick Park joined Aardman in 1985. Early in his career, he and Aardman helped make

952-431: A choice to make. At that point in time we were just a one hit wonder, and "Susie Q" hadn't really been that big a hit. Either this [the new album] would be a success, something really big, or we might as well start working at the car wash again. There was a big row. We went to an Italian restaurant and I remember that I very clearly told the others that I for one didn't want to go back to the car wash again. Now we had to make

1071-693: A consumer-grade computer animation application called Playmation , developed by Hash, Inc., a computer animation company in Vancouver, Washington. Vinton and associates also dabbled in animation for the internet with a series called Ozzie the Elf . During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Vinton Studios produced the animated series The PJs for the FOX TV network. The series was conceived and executive-produced by actor and comedian Eddie Murphy . Another animated series

1190-500: A distinctive visual style. Probably the most spectacular use of model animation for a computer game was for the Virgin Interactive Entertainment Mythos game Magic and Mayhem (1998), for which stop-motion animator and special-effects expert Alan Friswell constructed over 25 monsters and mythological characters utilising both modelling clay and latex rubber, over wire and ball-and-socket skeletons, much like

1309-507: A flat surface and moved like wet oil paints (as on a traditional artist's canvas) to produce any style of images, but with a clay look to them. A sub variation claymation can be informally called "clay melting". Any kind of heat source can be applied on or near (or below) clay to cause it to melt while an animation camera on a time-lapse setting slowly films the process. For example, consider Vinton's early short clay-animated film Closed Mondays (co produced by animator Bob Gardiner ) at

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1428-505: A great deal of money, and Fantasy built a new headquarters building in 1971 at 2600 Tenth Street in Berkeley, California . Zaentz also used his wealth to produce a number of successful films, including Best Picture Oscar winners One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , Amadeus , and The English Patient . In 2004, Zaentz sold Fantasy to Concord Records . John Fogerty then purchased from Concord

1547-476: A group's established level of performance, the worst album I have ever heard from a major rock band". The sales of Mardi Gras were weaker than previous albums, ultimately peaking at No. 12, though it still became the band's seventh consecutive studio album to be certified Gold. Fogerty's " Someday Never Comes ", backed with Clifford's "Tearin' Up the Country", also cracked the U.S. Top 40. By this point, Fogerty

1666-433: A later interview: Yes, the people that owned Fantasy Records also owned all my early songs, and they would do all kinds of stuff I really hated in a commercial way with my songs. Then one day somebody from the L.A. Times actually bothered to call me up and ask me how I felt, and I finally had a chance to talk about it. And I said I'm very much against my song being used to sell pants. So my position got stated very well in

1785-697: A live album and television special. In February, CCR were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone , although only John was interviewed in the accompanying article. In April 1970, CCR were set to begin their first European tour. To support the upcoming live dates, John wrote " Up Around the Bend " and " Run Through the Jungle "; the single reached No. 4 that spring. The band returned to Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco in June to record Cosmo's Factory . The album contained

1904-706: A majority stake in the global rights to the Creedence Clearwater Revival songs he had written. In 2005, the label released The Long Road Home , a collection of CCR and Fogerty solo classics. After Revival came out on the Fantasy label in October 2007 but before his following album Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again (a sequel to his 1973 album) was issued in 2009, Fogerty switched from Fantasy to his own label, Fortunate Son Records, distributed by Verve Forecast Records . The original CCR lineup reunited just once for

2023-478: A new term for this process, Foamation . The studio also produced an unaired pilot for Slacker Cats in 2001. 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., founder Phil Knight and his son, Travis, who had worked at the studio as an animator. In spring of 2001, the studio's animated shows, The PJs and Gary and Mike , were cancelled, with

2142-431: A nice idea twenty years ago, but it's too late." In May 2013, Fogerty once again said he would be open to a reunion, but he does not see Cook and Clifford being willing to change their stance. He told Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning : "From time to time, I'll say something and it'll get in print that maybe that will happen, and then immediately I'll hear back stuff that doesn't sound like it's possible... I think it's

2261-460: A performance after their breakup, at Tom Fogerty's wedding on October 19, 1980. Six years prior, all four members were present on the song "Mystic Aisle Avalon" on Tom's 1974 album Zephyr National , but John recorded his parts separately from everyone else. John, Cook, and Clifford played at their 20th El Cerrito High School reunion in 1983, but as their original incarnation, the Blue Velvets. In

2380-582: A possibility in the future, you know. It's not something I'm actively seeking, but I'm not totally against the idea either." In September 2017 Clifford again ruled out any chance of Cook and himself reuniting with John, restating, "It would have been great twenty, twenty-five years ago. It's way too late now." Despite hailing from California, CCR "mythologized the American South with an exotic mixture of blues , New Orleans R&B and rockabilly ," according to NPR . According to AllMusic , CCR "created

2499-484: A quick 1½-minute test film of clay animation (and the supporting armatures) called Wobbly Wino , completed in early 1973. Gardiner refined his sculpting and animation techniques while Vinton built a system for animating his Bolex Rex-5 16mm camera and they began work in mid-1973 on an 8-minute 16mm short film about a drunk wino who stumbles into a closed art museum and interacts with the paintings and sculptures . Completed in late 1974 after 14 months of production,

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2618-545: A recognizable character throughout a shot, as in Art Clokey 's and Will Vinton's films. One variation of claymation is strata-cut animation , in which a long bread-like loaf of clay, internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within. Pioneered in both clay and blocks of wax by German animator Oskar Fischinger during

2737-509: A short sequence. J. Stuart Blackton 's Chew Chew Land; or, The Adventures of Dolly and Jim (1910) features primitive claymation in chewing-gum inspired dream scenes. Walter R. Booth 's Animated Putty (1911) featured clay molding itself into different shapes. Willie Hopkins produced over fifty clay-animated segments entitled Miracles in Mud for the weekly Universal Screen Magazine from 1916 to 1918. He also made artistic modeled titles for

2856-515: A sitting old lady. On 15 February 1908, Porter released the trick film A Sculptor's Welsh Rabbit Dream that featured clay molding itself into three complete busts. No copy of the film has yet been located. It was soon followed by the similar extant film The Sculptor's Nightmare (6 May 1908), directed by Wallace McCutcheon Sr. and photographed by Billy Bitzer with cameo appearances of D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett . The busts are also animated to blink, speak, drink and turn left and right for

2975-677: A special effects Oscar. In May 1985, Will Vinton Productions released their first and only theatrical film The Adventures of Mark Twain . Following his work on Return to Oz , Vinton was hired by the Disney studio to produce animation effects for their Michael Jackson Disneyland - EPCOT Center film, Captain EO in 1986 and the Speed Demon music video for Michael Jackson's musical anthology feature-length film, Moonwalker (1988). Prominent among his hundreds of now international commercial creations were

3094-417: A tainted blood transfusion he received while undergoing back surgery. Tom and John barely reconciled before Tom's death, and in the eulogy that he delivered at Tom's funeral, John said, "We wanted to grow up and be musicians. I guess we achieved half of that, becoming rock 'n roll stars. We didn't necessarily grow up". Junior high school friends Doug Clifford and Stu Cook continued to work together following

3213-564: A time bomb. We'd had decent successes with our cover of "Susie Q" and with the first album , when we went into the studio to cut "Proud Mary." It was the first time we were in a real Hollywood studio, RCA's Los Angeles studio, and the problems started immediately. The other guys in the band insisted on writing songs for the new album, they had opinions on the arrangements, they wanted to sing. They went as far as adding background vocals to "Proud Mary," and it sounded awful. They used tambourines , and it sounded no better. That's when I understood I had

3332-939: A trio. In the spring of 1971, John Fogerty, frustrated with his remaining bandmates' constant complaining that they were not allowed to write and produce their own songs, relented and informed Cook and Clifford that CCR would continue only by adopting a "democratic" approach: each member would now write and perform his own material with each band member contributing three songs apiece to the next album. Fogerty would only contribute guitar parts to his bandmates' songs. There are conflicting views regarding Cook and Clifford's reaction to this proposed new arrangement, although everyone seemed to acknowledge that Cook and Clifford had wanted more input in CCR's artistic and business decisions. For his part, Fogerty recounts that Cook and Clifford were initially excited about this new opportunity to write and perform their own songs free of his meddling, since they had been

3451-562: A unique synthesis of punchy rock & roll , swamp pop , blues, and country ." CCR has been cited as pioneers of swamp rock and country rock . The band also played roots rock , blues rock and Southern rock . The band often utilized lyrics about bayous , catfish , the Mississippi River and other elements of Southern United States iconography. The band's songs rarely dealt with romantic love, concentrating instead on political and socially conscious lyrics about topics such as

3570-403: A viable animation material where a particular aesthetic is desired. Claymation can take several forms: "Freeform" claymation is an informal term referring to the process in which the shape of the clay changes radically as the animation progresses, such as in the work of Eli Noyes and Ivan Stang 's animated films. Clay can also take the form of "character" claymation, where the clay maintains

3689-399: A wire skeleton, called an armature, and then arranged on the set, where it is photographed once before being slightly moved by hand to prepare it for the next shot, and so on until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film. Upon playback, the viewer perceives the series of slightly changing, rapidly succeeding images as motion. A consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain

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3808-451: Is produced by recording each frame, or still picture, on film or digital media and then playing the recorded frames back in rapid succession before the viewer. These and other moving images, from zoetrope to films and video games , create the illusion of motion by playing back at over ten to twelve frames per second . Each object or character is sculpted from clay or other such similarly pliable material as plasticine , usually around

3927-735: The Avalon Ballroom , and the Fillmore West . Later that year, the band began touring nationally across the US and made their first appearances in New York City at the Fillmore East . By 1968, AM radio programmers around the U.S. took note when CCR's cover of the 1956 rockabilly song " Susie Q " received substantial airplay in the San Francisco Bay Area and on Chicago 's WLS-AM . It

4046-655: The Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs , before settling on Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1967. The band's most prolific and successful period between 1969 and 1971 produced fourteen consecutive Top 10 singles (many of which were double A-sides ) and five consecutive Top 10 albums in the United States, two of which – Green River (1969) and Cosmo's Factory (1970) — topped the Billboard 200 chart. The band performed at

4165-719: The California Raisins , the Domino's Pizza Noid , and the M&;M's Red, 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 the California Raisin Advisory Board . They became such a media phenomenon that they went on to star in their own pair of primetime specials for CBS television, Meet

4284-1046: The Chevron Cars ads (Aardman). The PJs (1999–2001) was a sitcom featuring the voice of Eddie Murphy , produced by Murphy in collaboration with Ron Howard , the Will Vinton Studios and others. Many independent young filmmakers have published claymations online, on such sites as Newgrounds . More adult-oriented claymation shows have been broadcast on Cartoon Network 's Adult Swim lineup, including Robot Chicken (which uses claymation and action figures as stop-motion puppets in conjunction) and Moral Orel . Nickelodeon 's Nick at Nite later developed their own adult show, Glenn Martin, DDS (2009-2011). Several computer games have been produced using claymation, including The Neverhood , ClayFighter , Platypus , Clay Moon (iPhone app), and Primal Rage . The surrealist role-playing video games Hylics (2015) and Hylics 2 (2020) both utilize claymation to achieve

4403-481: The Grammy -winning Blue Moon Swamp . Fogerty still tours frequently and now performs CCR classics alongside his solo material. Tom Fogerty released several solo albums, though none reached the success of CCR. His 1974 solo album Zephyr National was the last to feature the four original CCR band members on the track "Mystic Isle of Avalon", although John recorded his parts separately. Several tracks sound very much like

4522-532: The U.S. Army Reserve while Clifford joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve . Speaking of his experience in the US Army Fogerty has said: "I would become delirious and go into a trance. And I started narrating this story to myself, which was the song ' Porterville '." John Fogerty eventually took control of the group by singing lead vocals and blossoming into a multi-instrumentalist who played keyboards, harmonica, and saxophone in addition to lead guitar. By 1967, he

4641-460: The Vietnam War . CCR's catalog of songs has frequently been used or referenced in popular culture, partly because John Fogerty signed away legal control of his old recordings to the band's record label, Fantasy Records. In an NPR interview, Fogerty objected to what he regarded as a misuse of his music: Folks will remember Forrest Gump and that was a great movie, but they don't remember all

4760-517: The Woodstock Festival . Their set was not included in the Woodstock film or soundtrack because John felt the band's performance was subpar. Four tracks from the event (out of a total of eleven) were eventually included in the 1994 commemorative box set Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music . Cook, however, held an opposing view, saying, "The performances are classic CCR and I'm still amazed by

4879-411: The 1920s and 1930s, the technique was revived and highly refined in the mid-1990s by David Daniels, an associate of Will Vinton , in his 16-minute short film "Buzz Box". Another clay-animation technique, one that blurs the distinction between stop motion and traditional flat animation, is called clay painting (also a variation of the direct manipulation animation process), wherein clay is placed on

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4998-574: The 1969 Woodstock festival in Upstate New York , and was the first major act signed to appear there. CCR disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. Tom Fogerty had quit the band the year before, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in lawsuits among the former bandmates. John's disagreements with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz led to more court cases and John refused to perform with

5117-478: The 1980s and 1990s, new rounds of lawsuits between the band members, as well as against their former management, deepened their animosities. By the time CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, John refused to perform with Cook and Clifford. The pair were barred from the stage, while John played with an all-star band that included Bruce Springsteen and Robbie Robertson . Tom's widow Tricia had expected

5236-616: The 1980s as Festival of Claymation and Son of Combo II . Vinton, no longer performing animation himself, later produced special effects scenes for TV shows and movies, including a sequence for Bette Midler 's Divine Madness! movie (1980), an Emmy-winning sequence for the Moonlighting TV series (1987), and the opening & closing title sequences for the feature comedy film Brain Donors (1992). His company's animation effects for Disney 's Return to Oz (1985) were also nominated for

5355-556: The Army Reserve. After their breakthrough, CCR began touring and started work on their second album, Bayou Country (released January 1969), at RCA Studios in Los Angeles. A No. 7 platinum hit, the record was their first in a string of hit albums and singles that continued uninterrupted for two years. The single " Proud Mary ", backed with " Born on the Bayou ", reached No. 2 on

5474-619: The Blue (1976 - Italy) and Pingu (1990-2000 - Switzerland, 2003-2006 - U.K.) In 1972, at Marc Chinoy's Cineplast Films Studio in Munich, Germany, André Roche created a set of clay-animated German-language-instruction films (for non-German-speaking children) called Kli-Kla-Klawitter for the Second German TV-Channel; and another one for a traffic education series, Herr Daniel paßt auf ("Mr. Daniel Pays Attention"). Aardman Animations

5593-411: The Blue Velvets, the trio played instrumentals and "jukebox standards", and backed John's older brother Tom at recordings and performances before he joined the band. The band had also released three singles, the second of which was picked up by Casey Kasem , who worked at KEWB, Oakland . In 1964 they signed with Fantasy Records , an independent jazz label in San Francisco. The band was attracted to

5712-505: The CCR style, particularly the aptly titled "Joyful Resurrection". His album Excalibur featured all four members of The Jerry Garcia Band (who recorded live albums for Fantasy)... Garcia played lead guitar to Tom's rhythm guitar, and has since become a popular cult album. Tom Fogerty died at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona , in September 1990 of an AIDS complication, which he contracted via

5831-546: The Cobbler (1977), the Oscar-nominated Rip Van Winkle (1978), and The Little Prince (1979). These films were later released theatrically under the umbrella title Trilogy , and later to video as The Little Prince and Friends . In 1978, Vinton produced the documentary Claymation: Three Dimensional Clay Animation a 17-minute film featuring the behind-the-scenes technical processes used. The term "claymation"

5950-592: The Corner" the only top ten CCR single registering the same peak position (No. 3) on the Hot 100 and on WLS. Other cuts on the Cosmo's Factory album included an 11-minute jam of Marvin Gaye ’s 1968 cover of " I Heard It Through the Grapevine " (a minor hit when an edited version was released as a single in 1976), and a nearly note-for-note homage to Roy Orbison 's "Ooby Dooby". The album

6069-582: The M.G.'s , with whom the members of the band had jammed. The single's flip side, "Hey Tonight", was also a hit. Around this time, an overwhelming perception among the other band members that John was being overly controlling and domineering was approaching a boiling point. Tom Fogerty decided he had enough and resigned from CCR in early 1971 after the recording of Pendulum , with his departure being made public in February of that year. The remaining members initially considered replacing him but ultimately continued as

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6188-683: The Poor Boys at number 392. The following year, on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, Rolling Stone included " Fortunate Son " at number 99, " Proud Mary " at number 155, " Who'll Stop the Rain " at number 188, and " Bad Moon Rising " at number 355. "Fortunate Son" was added to the Library of Congress ' National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" in 2013. "Fortunate Son", "Proud Mary", and Cosmo's Factory have all been inducted into

6307-643: The Portland branch of The Art Institutes and maintained an office there as an artist in residence. Vinton created a musical titled The Kiss , an adaptation of The Frog Prince with music by David Pomeranz that premiered on March 24, 2014, in Lake Oswego, Oregon . The Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills represented Vinton for production projects, which included a graphic novel called Jack Hightower produced in tandem with Dark Horse Comics . In 2006, Vinton

6426-532: The Rain ", in January 1970. The speedy "Travelin' Band", with a strong Little Richard sound, however, bore enough similarities to "Good Golly, Miss Molly" to warrant a lawsuit by the song's publisher; it was eventually settled out of court. The song ultimately topped out at No. 2. The band also recorded its January 31, 1970, live performance at the Oakland Coliseum Arena , which would later be marketed as

6545-556: The Raisins (1988), The Raisins Sold Out (1990), and a cel-animated show, The California Raisins Show . A couple of music albums of songs from the specials, produced by Nu Shooz pop 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), and Claymation Easter (1992). Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration and Claymation Easter won

6664-677: The U.S. alone. The compilation album Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits , originally released in 1976, is still on the Billboard 200 and reached the 600-week mark in August 2022. It has been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for at least 12 million copies sold in the U.S. John Fogerty , Doug Clifford , and Stu Cook met at Portola Junior High School in El Cerrito, California . Calling themselves

6783-591: The Were-Rabbit (2005). Wallace and Gromit spin-off Shaun the Sheep has also proved hugely successful with long-running television series (since 2007), theatrical movies and its own spin-off Timmy Time (since 2009). Aardman's Chicken Run (2000) became the highest-grossing stop motion animated film in history . Aardman's Flushed Away is a CGI replication of claymation. Alexander Tatarsky managed to get work at Multtelefilm division of Studio Ekran with

6902-569: The addition of stop tricks , and with early cinematic animation in Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906). A similar form of "lightning sculpting" had been performed live on stage around the turn of the century. Segundo de Chomón 's Sculpteur Moderne was released on 31 January 1908 and features heaps of clay molding themselves into detailed sculptures that are capable of minor movements. The final sculpture depicts an old woman and walks around before it's picked up, squashed and molded back into

7021-480: The album which was released on Warner Bros. in 1974. Clifford continued to perform and record with Sahm through the 1980s. Following a relatively long period of musical inactivity, Cook and Clifford formed Creedence Clearwater Revisited in 1995 with several well-known musicians. Revisited continues to tour globally performing the original band's classics. John's 1997 injunction forced Creedence Clearwater Revisited to temporarily change its name to "Cosmo's Factory", but

7140-405: The animation technology Gardiner had developed for their animated short Closed Mondays . Quickly expanding his studio by hiring new animators, Vinton produced dozens of commercials for regional and then national companies. Still with only a handful of animators, Vinton produced a trilogy of 27-minute films of a short stories like fairy tales in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as Martin

7259-570: The artisans of soul at Motown and Stax . In so doing, Creedence Clearwater Revival became the standard bearers and foremost celebrants of homegrown American music. After Woodstock, CCR were busy honing material for a fourth album, Willy and the Poor Boys , their second top 3 LP, released in November 1969. " Down on the Corner " and " Fortunate Son ", both of which they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on November 16, 1969, climbed to No. 3 and No. 14, respectively, by year's end. The album

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7378-424: The award-winning animated video for Peter Gabriel 's song " Sledgehammer " in 1986. Park would become the most successful claymation director, receiving a total of six Academy Award nominations and winning four with Creature Comforts (1989) (the first Wallace and Gromit film A Grand Day Out was also nominated), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of

7497-432: The band's lead vocalist and primary songwriter. In Tom's words: "I could sing, but John had a sound!" For their work with this band, Tom took on the name "Rann Wild", and John became "Toby Green". Both sides of each of the group's first six singles (issued between 1964 and 1966) were credited to the writing team of Wild/Green. In 1966, John Fogerty and Doug Clifford were drafted into the U.S. armed forces ; Fogerty joined

7616-604: The band's nine-minute live-show closer, "Keep On Chooglin ' ". Months later, during April 1969, " Bad Moon Rising " backed with " Lodi ", was released and peaked at No. 2 in the US. In the United Kingdom, "Bad Moon Rising" spent three weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart during September and October 1969, becoming the band's only number one single in the UK. The band's third album, Green River , followed in August 1969,

7735-597: The best band in the world. That was after the Beatles split , but still. ... And I was the one who had created all this. Despite that, I don't think they understood what I was talking about. ... They were obsessed with the idea of more control and more influence. So finally the bomb exploded and we never worked together again. In 1973, John Fogerty began his solo career with The Blue Ridge Rangers , his one-man band collection of country and gospel songs. Under his old CCR contract, however, Fogerty owed Fantasy eight more records. In

7854-419: The best possible album and it wasn't important who did what, as long as the result was the very best we could achieve. And of course I was the one who should do it. I don't think the others really understood what I meant, but at least I could manage the situation the way I wanted. The result was eight million-selling double-sided singles in a row and six albums, who all went platinum. And Melody Maker had us as

7973-404: The bombast in my voice, in the denial, in the refusal. It's more like, 'Well, I dunno.' Never say never is I guess is what people tell you. In this life, all kinds of strange things come to pass. Realizing that it doesn't really kick up a big firestorm of emotion, it kind of suggests that at least if someone started talking I'd sit still long enough to listen. When asked again in October 2011 about

8092-502: The cel method became the preferred method for the studio cartoon. Cel animation can be more easily divided into small tasks performed by many workers, like an assembly line. In 1921, claymation appeared in a short sequence in the Out of the Inkwell episode Modeling , a film from the newly formed Fleischer Brothers studio. Modeling included animated clay in eight shots, a novel integration of

8211-524: The courts later ruled in Cook's and Clifford's favor. After CCR, Fantasy Records released several greatest-hits packages such as 1972's Creedence Gold , 1973's More Creedence Gold and 1975's Pre-Creedence , a compilation album of the Golliwogs' early recordings. Fantasy also released the highly successful double album Chronicle , a collection of Creedence's twenty hit singles, in 1976. Several years later,

8330-613: The demise of CCR both as session players and members of the Don Harrison Band . They also founded Factory Productions, a mobile recording service in the Bay Area. Clifford released a solo record, Cosmo , in 1972. Cook produced artist Roky Erickson 's The Evil One and was a bassist with the popular country act Southern Pacific in the 1980s. Clifford also produced Groovers Paradise for former Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados frontman Doug Sahm . Both Clifford and Cook played on

8449-453: The demise of CCR in a 1997 edition of the Swedish magazine Pop : I was alone when I made that [CCR] music. I was alone when I made the arrangements, I was alone when I added background vocals, guitars and some other stuff. I was alone when I produced and mixed the albums. The other guys showed up only for rehearsals and the days we made the actual recordings. For me Creedence was like sitting on

8568-487: The designs of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen . Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Clearwater Revival , commonly abbreviated as CCR or simply Creedence , was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California . The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty , his brother, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty , bassist Stu Cook , and drummer Doug Clifford . These members had played together since 1959, first as

8687-542: The distinction of having had five No. 2 singles without ever having had a No. 1 on the Hot 100 , the most of any group. Their five No. 2 singles were exceeded only by Madonna (six), Taylor Swift (seven), and Drake (nine), and tied with Elvis Presley and the Carpenters . Conversely, on station WLS-AM the band had three No. 1's, four No. 3's, and two No. 4's, but no No. 2 singles, with "Down on

8806-542: The earlier Top 10 hits "Travelin' Band" and "Up Around the Bend" plus popular album tracks such as the opener "Ramble Tamble". Cosmo's Factory was released in July 1970, and it was number one in the US for nine weeks. It was released along with the band's fifth and final No. 2 national hit, " Lookin' Out My Back Door "/" Long as I Can See the Light ". Although they topped some international charts and local radio countdowns, CCR have

8925-458: The end of the computer sequence. A similar technique was used in the climax scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark to "melt" the face of one of the antagonists. The term "hot set" is used amongst animators during production. It refers to a set where an animator is filming. The clay characters are set in a perfect position where they can continue shooting where they left off. If an animator calls his set

9044-545: The end, he refused to work for the label. The impasse was resolved only when Asylum Records ' David Geffen bought Fogerty's contract for $ 1 million. In 1975 he released his only Asylum album, the self-titled John Fogerty . His next major hit was Centerfield , a chart-topping success in 1985. On tour in 1986, however, Fogerty suffered complaints over his steadfast refusal to perform CCR songs and suffered with recurring vocal problems which he blamed on having to testify in court. Fogerty's explanation for not playing CCR material

9163-455: The figures for the frames; a full-length (90-minute) movie, 64,800—and possibly many more if some parts were shot with "singles" or "ones" (one frame exposed for each shot). The object must not be altered by accident, slight smudges, dirt, hair, or dust. Feature-length productions have generally switched from clay to rubber silicone and resin cast components: Will Vinton has dubbed one foam-rubber process "Foamation". Nevertheless, clay remains

9282-667: The film combined Gardiner's sculpting skills and comedy writing talent with Vinton's camera skills. Closed Mondays won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 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 Music completed 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

9401-524: The four members' renewed commitment to their band. Rejected contenders for the band's name included "Muddy Rabbit", " Gossamer Wump ", and "Creedence Nuball and the Ruby"; however, the last was the starting point from which the band derived their final name. Cook described the name as "weirder than Buffalo Springfield or Jefferson Airplane ". In early 1968, the band began appearing regularly at local San Francisco area clubs and venues including Deno and Carlo's ,

9520-438: The golden era of rock and roll, they broke ranks with their peers on the progressive, psychedelic San Francisco scene. Their approach was basic and uncompromising, holding true to the band members' working-class origins. The term "roots rock" had not yet been invented when Creedence came along, but in essence, they defined it, drawing inspiration from the likes of Little Richard , Hank Williams , Elvis Presley , Chuck Berry , and

9639-478: The help of Eduard Uspensky who wrote the screenplay for Tatarsky's first director's effort — Plasticine Crow (1981), which also happened to be Soviet first claymation film. After the enormous success Tatarsky was offered to create new opening and closing sequences for the popular children's TV show Good Night, Little Ones! also made of plasticine; they were later included into the Guinness Book of Records by

9758-594: The iconic character Gumby that would feature in segments in Howdy Doody in 1955 and 1956, and afterwards got his own television series (1957-1969, 1987-1989) and a theatrical film (1995). Clokey also produced Davey and Goliath (1960–2004) for the United Lutheran Church in America . Claymation has been popularized on television in children's shows such as Mio Mao (1970-1976, 2002-2007 - Italy), The Red and

9877-460: The illusion of continuity : objects must be consistently placed and lit. Producing a stop-motion animation using clay is extremely laborious. Normal film runs at 24 frames per second (frame/s). With the standard practice of "doubles" or "twos" (double-framing, exposing two frames for each shot), 12 changes are usually made for one second of film movement. Shooting a 30-minute movie would therefore require making approximately 21,600 stops to change

9996-590: The label after hearing Vince Guaraldi 's instrumental " Cast Your Fate to the Wind ", which the label had released to national success. For the band's first release, Fantasy co-owner Max Weiss renamed the group The Golliwogs (after the children's literary character Golliwog ). Prior to the Golliwog name, Weiss had renamed them Vision. Bandmembers' roles changed during this period: Cook switched from piano to bass guitar and Tom Fogerty from lead vocals to rhythm guitar; John became

10115-586: The label released a live recording entitled The Royal Albert Hall Concert . Contrary to its title, the 1970 performance was recorded in Oakland, California , not at the Royal Albert Hall in London . Subsequent issues of the original 1981 album have been retitled simply The Concert . Another double album of their best material was issued in 1986 as Chronicle: Volume Two . The success of CCR made Fantasy and Zaentz

10234-450: 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 as Laika . Premiere stop-motion animator/director Henry Selick joined

10353-450: The movie Everywoman (1919). New York artist Helena Smith Dayton , possibly the first female animator, had much success with her "Caricatypes" clay statuettes before she began experimenting with claymation. Some of her first resulting short films were screened on 25 March 1917. She released an adaptation of William Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet circa half a year later. Although the films and her technique received much attention from

10472-435: The name "The Golliwogs" from day one, the band decided on their own name, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), which they took in January 1968. According to interviews with the band members 20 years later, the name's elements came from three sources: Tom Fogerty's friend Credence Newball, whose name they changed to form the word Creedence (as in creed ); a television commercial for Olympia Brewing Company ("clear water"); and

10591-500: The national Billboard chart. The former would eventually become the group's most-covered song, with some 100 versions by other artists to date, including the No. 4 1971 hit by Ike & Tina Turner , two years to the week after the original peaked. John cites this song as being the result of high spirits on gaining his discharge from the Army Reserve. The album also featured a cover of the rock & roll classic " Good Golly, Miss Molly " and

10710-476: The newspaper, and lo and behold, Wrangler to their credit said, "Wow, even though we made our agreement with the publisher, the owner of the song, we can see now that John Fogerty really hates the idea," so they stopped doing it. Rolling Stone ranked CCR 82nd on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time . In 2003, Rolling Stone ' s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list included Green River at number 95, Cosmo's Factory at number 265, and Willy and

10829-478: The number of broadcasts. It was followed by two other claymation shorts: New Year's Eve Song by Ded Moroz (1982) and Last Year's Snow Was Falling (1983). Garri Bardin directed several claymation comedy films, including Break! , a parody on a boxing match for which Bardin received a Golden Dove award at the 1986 Dok Leipzig . Television commercials have utilized claymation, spawning for instance The California Raisins (1986-1998, Vinton Studios) and

10948-489: The number of people who don't even know we were one of the headliners at Woodstock '69." John later complained the act that preceded them, the Grateful Dead , had put the audience to sleep; as John scanned the audience he saw a " Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all intertwined and asleep, covered with mud". Creedence Clearwater Revival ... were progressive and anachronistic at the same time. An unapologetic throwback to

11067-467: The ones who asked for it in the first place and they only soured on the concept after the record's lack of success (Fogerty also mentions a time while recording the album when he refused Cook's request to "fix" one of his (Cook's) songs to make it sound more like other Creedence material, which may have also played a role in the band members' attitudes toward the project). However, other sources imply that Cook and Clifford were resistant to this approach from

11186-557: The plasticine product would become the favourite product for clay animators, as it did not dry and harden (unlike normal clay) and was much more malleable than its harder and greasier Italian predecessor plasteline. Edwin S. Porter 's Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902) shows a single shot of a baker quickly transforming a patch of dough into different faces. It reflects the vaudeville type of "lightning sketches" that J. Stuart Blackton filmed in The Enchanted Drawing (1902) with

11305-573: The press, it seems she did not continue making films after she returned to New York from managing a YMCA in Paris around 1918. None of her films have yet surfaced, but the extant magazine articles have provided several stills and circa 20 poorly printed frames from two film strips. By the 1920s, drawn animation using either cels or the slash system was firmly established in the U.S. as the dominant mode of animation production. Increasingly, three-dimensional forms such as clay were driven into relative obscurity as

11424-512: The prospect of a reunion, he said: "I'm saying it's possible, yeah. I think the call [laughs] would maybe have to come from outside the realm. Somebody would have to get me to look at things in a fresh way." However, Cook and Clifford both stated in the February 2012 edition of Uncut magazine that they are not interested in a CCR reunion. "Leopards don't change their spots. This is just an image-polishing exercise by John. My phone certainly hasn't rung", Cook said. Added Clifford: "It might have been

11543-416: The really poor movies that Fantasy Records stuck Creedence music into: car commercials, tire commercials. I'm remembering a paint thinner ad at one point, the song " Who'll Stop the Rain ." Oh, boy. That's clever, isn't it? Of particular interest was the use of his protest song "Fortunate Son" in a blue jeans commercial. In this case, the advertiser eventually stopped using the song, as Fogerty related in

11662-466: The relatively poor reception of Mardi Gras and deteriorated relationships among the remaining band members, CCR embarked upon a two-month, 20-date U.S. tour. However, on October 16, 1972—less than six months after the tour ended—Fantasy Records and the band officially announced its disbanding. CCR never formally reunited after the breakup, although Cook and Clifford eventually started the band Creedence Clearwater Revisited . John Fogerty later commented on

11781-695: The rights to "Run Through the Jungle" and sued Fogerty essentially for plagiarizing himself. While a jury ruled in Fogerty's favor, he did settle a defamation suit filed by Zaentz over the songs "Mr. Greed" and "Zanz Kant Danz". Fogerty was forced to edit the recording, changing the "Zanz" reference to "Vanz". On February 19, 1987, at the Palomino Club ( North Hollywood ) in Los Angeles, Fogerty broke his self-imposed ban on performing CCR hits. Bob Dylan and George Harrison (along with Taj Mahal and Jesse Ed Davis ) had joined him onstage, admonishing, "If you don't,

11900-418: The scene. To avoid these disasters, scenes normally have to be shot in one day or less. William Harbutt developed plasticine in 1897. To promote his educational "Plastic Method" he made a handbook that included several photographs that displayed various stages of creative projects. The images suggest phases of motion or change, but the book probably did not have a direct influence on claymation films. Still,

12019-503: The start. Allegedly, Fogerty at one point insisted they accept the arrangement or he would quit the band. Despite the conflict, the trio put its new work ethic to the test in the studio, releasing the Top 10 single " Sweet Hitch-Hiker " in July 1971, backed with Cook's "Door To Door". The band toured both the U.S. and Europe that summer and fall with Cook's song a part of the live set. In spite of their continuing commercial success, relations among

12138-511: The studio as a supervising director. The studio currently produces theatrical films such as Coraline , ParaNorman , The Boxtrolls , Kubo and the Two Strings , and Missing Link . Vinton later founded a new production facility, Will Vinton's Free Will Entertainment, also based in Portland. In 2005, Vinton produced The Morning After , the first short film under the new company. The film combines CGI and live action . He also taught at

12257-461: The technique into an existing cartoon series and one of the rare uses of claymation in a theatrical short from the 1920s. The oldest known extant claymation film (with claymation as its main production method) is Long Live the Bull (1926) by Joseph Sunn . Art Clokey 's short student film Gumbasia (1955) featured all kinds of clay objects changing shape and moving to a jazz tune. He also created

12376-565: The three had become increasingly strained. The band's final album, Mardi Gras , was released in April 1972, featuring songs written by John Fogerty, Cook and Clifford, as well as a cover of " Hello Mary Lou " (a song Gene Pitney had originally written for Ricky Nelson ). Each member sang lead vocal on the songs written by that member. The album was a critical failure, considered by critics to be of inconsistent quality and lacking in cohesion. Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau deemed it "relative to

12495-438: The time. Two more films about student protest followed, Berkeley Games and First Ten Days , as well a narrative short Reply , and his first animation , Culture Shock . Vinton received his bachelor's degree in architecture from UC Berkeley in 1970. Meeting clay animator Bob Gardiner in the Berkeley, California , area in the early 1970s, Vinton brought him to Portland and they commandeered Vinton's home basement to make

12614-460: The two other surviving members of the band — Tom had died in 1990 — at Creedence's 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Though the band has never publicly reunited, John continues to perform CCR songs as part of his solo act, while Cook and Clifford performed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited from 1995 to 2020. CCR's music remains popular and is a staple of U.S. classic rock radio airplay; 45 million CCR records have been sold in

12733-457: The whole world's gonna think 'Proud Mary' is Tina Turner 's song." At a 1987 Independence Day benefit concert for Vietnam veterans, Fogerty finally ran through the list of CCR hits, beginning with "Born on the Bayou" and ending with "Proud Mary". In 1986 he also released his second Warner Bros. album, Eye of the Zombie . Fogerty retreated from music again in the late 1980s but returned in 1997 with

12852-407: Was producing the group's recordings, although without credit. The group's final single, "Porterville", failed to chart (like every other Golliwogs recording) but the exact same recording was very shortly thereafter issued as a track by Creedence Clearwater Revival on that group's first album. In 1967, Saul Zaentz bought Fantasy Records and offered the band a chance to record an album. Having hated

12971-405: Was CCR in standard mode, featuring Fogerty originals and two reworked Lead Belly covers, " Cotton Fields " and " Midnight Special ". The year 1969 had been a remarkable chart year for the band: three Top Ten albums, four hit singles (three charting at No. 2 and one at No. 3) with three additional charting B-sides . CCR released another double A-side hit, " Travelin' Band "/" Who'll Stop

13090-601: Was a well known state senator in Oregon, representing Portland. During the 1960s, Vinton studied physics, architecture and filmmaking at the University of California, Berkeley , where he was influenced by the work of Antoni Gaudí . During this time, Vinton made a feature-length documentary film about the California counter-culture movement titled Gone for a Better Deal , which toured college campuses in various film festivals of

13209-787: Was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and retired in 2008 from producing films. He died in Portland, 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 film Claydream , which was directed by Marq Evans and released at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival . The moving image collection of Will Vinton is housed at the Academy Film Archive . The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Vinton's films, including Closed Mondays , The Creation , The Great Cognito , Dinosaur , Legacy , and A Christmas Gift . Claymation Traditional animation , from cel animation to stop motion,

13328-599: Was founded in 1972. In its early years, the studio mainly produced segments for television shows, with for instance the popular character Morph (appearing since 1977). Claymation has been used in Academy Award -winning short films such as Closed Mondays (Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner, 1974) and The Sand Castle (1977). Pioneering the clay painting technique was one-time Will Vinton Studios animator Joan Gratz , first in her Oscar-nominated film The Creation (1980), and then in her Oscar-winning Mona Lisa Descending

13447-522: Was later trademarked by Vinton, and has become synonymous with clay animation in general. Graduating to 35mm film, Vinton produced other short films during this time: Legacy (1979), Dinosaur (1980), The Creation (directed by Joan Gratz , 1981, Oscar nominated), The Great Cognito (directed by Barry Bruce, 1982, Oscar nominated), A Christmas Gift , and the music video Vanz Kant Danz (1987) for Creedence Clearwater Revival 's John Fogerty . VHS video compilations of these films were released in

13566-405: Was not only at direct odds with his bandmates but he had also come to see the group's relationship with Fantasy Records as onerous, feeling that Zaentz had reneged on his promise to give the band a better contract. Cook—who held a degree in business—claimed that because of poor judgment on Fogerty's part, CCR had to abide by the worst record deal of any major U.S. recording artist. Despite

13685-612: Was produced for the UPN TV network by the Vinton studio, Gary and Mike . Gary and Mike was 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

13804-587: Was that he would have had to pay performance royalties to copyright holder Zaentz, and that it was "too painful" to revisit the music of his past. With the Centerfield album, Fogerty also found himself entangled in new, tit-for-tat lawsuits with Zaentz over the song " The Old Man Down The Road " which was, according to Zaentz, a blatant re-write of Fogerty's own 1970 CCR hit "Run Through the Jungle". Since Fogerty had traded his rights to CCR's songs in 1980 to cancel his remaining contractual obligations, Fantasy now owned

13923-503: Was the band's second single, its first to reach the Top 40 (No. 11), and its only Top 40 hit not written by John Fogerty. Two other singles were released from their May 1968 debut self titled album: a cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins 's " I Put a Spell on You " (No. 58) and "Porterville" (released on the Scorpio label with writing credited to "T. Spicebush Swallowtail"), written during Fogerty's time in

14042-644: Was their biggest seller, going to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts and No. 11 on Billboard's Soul Albums chart. Pendulum , released in December 1970, was another top seller, spawning a Top 10 hit with " Have You Ever Seen The Rain? " John played the Hammond B3 organ on many of the Pendulum tracks, notably in "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?", in recognition of the deep respect and influence of Booker T. &

14161-561: Was their first album to top the Billboard 200 , and went gold along with the single " Green River ", which again reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts. The B-side of "Green River", " Commotion ", peaked at No. 30 and the band's emphasis on covers of their old favorites continued with " Night Time Is the Right Time ". CCR continued to tour constantly with performances in July 1969 at the Atlanta Pop Festival and in August 1969 at

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