"Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn"
Norman McLaren, was a Canadian animator first born in Scottland. Known for numerous works in areas of animation and filmmaking, including abstract film, visual music, drawn on film animation and combining graphics with sound.
McLaren dedicate his whole life to experimenting the art of cinema within animation. Many of the styles, tricks and effects of animation that we're used to seeing in todays world of motion and animation were results of this artist's experimentation.
McLaren was born on April 11 in Stirling Scotland. As a young boy he had always been passionate about visual arts and design. Thus he went on to study at Glasgow University, where he then got involved with Glasgow Film Society where he discovered the role cinema and film played in the world of design.
Because of his low budget and lack of income, he began animating and playing with negatives and film. In 1934 two of his handmade films won the Scottisch Amateur Film Festival.
After this he was offered a job in the general Post Office Film Unit in London. He worked as a camerographer during the spanish civil war which left such a horrible impact on him that he chose to flee to the US and became part of Canada's National Film Board.
Some consider him to be a "poet of animated film" by the way in which he correlated image, color and sound.
His first films created in Montreal were "Five for five", "Dollar Dance" both of which deal with the war.
He found the National Film Board's department of Animation.In his work, music always played a very important role. He created the first 3d films. He would apply animation to everything he could and anything he knew. He created a technique called "Pixelation" which he applied to his Oscar winning animation "Neighbours", as well as other animations where he continued to scratch film and paint over the celuloid. Such as "Caprice in colors"
Another important element that he employed a lot in his animations was the art of dancing. In his last years of animating he created a series of phenomenal shorts "Adagio, Narciso and Pas de deux"
all of which bring out a unique sensation of dance that had never been experienced before by the viewers. Almost as if he had truly grasped the essence and feeling of the dancers.
He also created a series of films called Animated Motion together with Grant Munro. This series was a compilation of many of his works where he analyzes the notions of time and space in function with frame by frame filming.
Norman McLaren received numerous awards for his works. He was influence by idols such as Einstein and Newton. He himself has influenced endles number of artists and we see how many of today's animations use this artist's principals and style to recreate their own animations or give it their own personal twist.
He was also able to participate with works in Asia, making his name well known within other nationalities. This is a man that left a print wherever he went, and how even years after his death he is still recognized as the poet of animation.
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