The multi-talented artist’s innovative 1964 student Oscar nominated clay animation film ‘Clay, or the Origin of Species’ remains a classic of stop-motion filmmaking.
AWN was saddened to hear of the passing of Eli Noyes, a member of the animation community and the filmmaking community at large. His partner of 21 years at Alligator Planet, Ralph Guggenheim, has shared the following (AWN added images and video embeds):
The film community has lost a talented documentary filmmaker, animator, and interactive media creator as we announce the sad passing of Eli Noyes at age 81. The son of Modernist architect Eliot Noyes and Mary "Molly" (Weed) Noyes, Eli grew up in an environment imbued with art and music. In 1964, while an undergraduate at Harvard, Noyes was nominated for an Academy Award for his 8-minute animated short film, Clay, or the Origin of Species. It is credited as establishing the genre of clay animation and remains a classic of stop motion filmmaking. Subsequent animated films employed diverse techniques: sand animation (Sandman, 1973), pixelated stop-motion (Peanut Butter & Jelly, 1976).
In the early 1970’s Noyes and Claudia Weil filmed a number of documentaries, many of which are still shown in film schools today, including This Is the Home of Mrs. Levant Graham (1970). Accompanying his father to the Aspen Design Conference, Noyes and Weill documented the confrontation between established architects and the new generation of socially conscious young talents of the era in Aspen: 1970.
An independent artist and animator, Noyes brought his playful creative talents to shape the look and spirit of children’s programming in the early days of cable TV, especially for the Nickelodeon network. Eli was one of the first creative contributors to Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon’s first show, Pinwheel, featured Noyes’ animated pinwheels made with sand. In 1983, Eli and Kit Laybourne started Noyes & Laybourne Enterprises, an independent studio located in NYC’s Soho. In the early 80’s Nickelodeon was filled with content it acquired, with a variety of styles and looks. Packaging was the only way to express a personality. Noyes & Laybourne contributed to the look of Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite with playful network IDs. They subsequently created the original shows, Eureeka’s Castle and Gullah Gullah Island.
In 1988 Noyes and Laybourne joined Colossal Pictures. For MTV, they jointly developed a showcase of independent animation in Liquid Television, which launched series like Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead and Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux. Known for the variety of special effects and animation techniques, Colossal was the ideal home for the wide-ranging curiosity that Eli brought to projects.
Other clients included HBO, IBM, Scholastic, ABC Sports, Reebok, and Xerox.
In 1991 Eli Noyes and family moved to San Francisco, where he directed animation projects at Colossal Pictures. Always early to embrace technology, Eli created Ruff’s Bone (1994) at Colossal, a groundbreaking interactive CD-ROM product for Broderbund Software. He moved on to work on interactive projects at Pixar, and with programmers at the Disney Channel and The Disney Imagineers to create one of the first program blocks that combined TV and the internet, ZOOG Disney. Eli subsequently brought that experience to the first “convergence network” Oxygen, as creative director in the late 90’s.
Noyes partnered with Toy Story producer Ralph Guggenheim in 2003, forming Alligator Planet, where he created film, print and media works including short films, and animated segments for documentary films including Oscar nominee The Most Dangerous Man in America (2003). His 2011 Go Green stamps for the US Postal Service featured simple actions everyone can take to conserve natural resources and promote the health of the environment.
Eli loved music, mastering the oboe, accordion and – most of all – Jazz piano. He is survived by his wife Augusta Talbot, son Isaac, daughter Abigail and granddaughter Esme.
Source: Ralph Guggenheim
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
