Stop Motion from the 1960's to 1970's

In 1965, animator Eliot Noyes Jr. released the film "Clay" which was also known as the origins of the series of films "Species", he later released a second film in 1975 by the name of "Sandman" and this was based on a music video about sand laying on a piece of glass.

In 1975, animator and film maker Will Vinton joined with sculptor Bob Gardiner to create an experimental film by the name of "Closed Mondays" and this became the worlds first film to win an oscar, Will Vinton soon decided to follow up the success of this film with several other smaller projects called "The Great Cognito", "Creation" and "Rip Van Winkle", these were each nominated for Academy awards. 

Soon after the release of his separate smaller films, he released a documentary explaining the process and development of his animations and the work that goes into them, this documentary was given the name "Claymation" and although it may be a very famous term throughout the industry, the name is actually trademarked by the company Laika Entertainment. Twenty claymation episodes featuring a clown named Mr. Bill were a feature of Saturday Night Live and the original aired on February 1976. 

Sand coated puppets were then utilised in the award winning animation "Sand Castle" in 1977, produced by a Dutch-Canadian animator Co Hoedeman. One of the many animators that were taken under the wing of the National Film Board of Canada, a film arts agency that has supported animators for decades. 

Italian stop motion films include "Quoq Quao" (1978) by Francesco Misseri, this was the first animation to utilise origami. "The Red and the Blue" and multiple animations based on clay kittens by the name of "Mio and Mao". The main European animation, however, would be the stop motion animation series of Tove Jannson's The Moomins in 1979.

Disney soon began experimenting with several stop motion techniques by hiring independent animator/director Mike Jittlov to do the first animation of Disney's Mickey Mouse toys produced for a short animation by the name of Mouse Mania to commemorate Disney's 50th birthday in 1978. Jittlov produced multiple multi-technique stop motion animation a year later as promotion for Disney's latest film "The Black Hole", Jittlovs work stood out as the best part of the special. He then later released a new film by the name of "The Wizard of Speed and Time" along with four other short multi-technique animations, these all eventually became their own full feature length films. The film was released to cinema in 1987 and then to video in 1989.