Bob Gardiner (animator)

James Robbins "Bob" Gardiner (March 19, 1951 – April 21, 2005) was an American artist, painter, cartoonist, animator, holographer, musician, storyteller, and comedy writer.^[1][2] He invented the stop-motion 3-D clay animation technique which his collaborator Will Vinton would later market as Claymation, although Bob preferred the term Sculptimation for his frame-by-frame method of sculpting plasticine clay characters and sets.

Bob Gardiner
Gardiner, c. 1978
Born	James Robbins Gardiner (1951-03-19)March 19, 1951 Torrance, California, US
Died	April 21, 2005(2005-04-21) (aged 54) Grass Valley, California, US

He and Vinton shared the 1974 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Closed Mondays.^[3] The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.^[4]

Gardiner committed suicide on April 21, 2005, while living at the Everhart Hotel in downtown Grass Valley.^[5]

Filmography

• Closed Mondays (1974), writer, art direction, and sculptimation
• Mountain Music (1975), art direction and sculptimation (uncredited)^[6]

Graphic art

1979 advertising posters by Bob Gardiner

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  Advertising poster for Bob Gardiner's multi-media event, January 25, 1979, at Strutters' Hall, Portland, OR.
• 
  Advertising poster for Bob Gardiner's multi-media event, February 1, 1979, at Strutters' Hall, Portland, OR.
• 
  Advertising poster for Bob Gardiner's multi-media event, July 27-29 & August 3-5, 1979, at The Alligator Palace Vaudeville Theatre, La Conner, WA.
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  Advertising poster for Bob Gardiner's multi-media event, October 25,1979, at Merchants' Public House, Portland, OR.
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  Advertising poster for Bob Gardiner's multi-media fundraiser event on behalf of The Food Front, November 28, 1979, at The Earth Tavern, Portland, OR.

Lost mural by Bob Gardiner

• 
  Lost mural painted by Bob Gardiner on exterior wall of a Portland repertory theater no longer in business, circa early 1980s.

Accolades

Gardiner and Vinton won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1975^[7] for Closed Mondays (1974).^[8][9]