Internet search giant Google is tipping its hat to what would have been the 90th birthday of artist Arthur “Art” Clokey, with an interactive and animated Google Doodle on its homepage.
The Google Doodle features what look like round balls of plasticine, that, when clicked on, take shape into various animated Gumby characters: The Blockheads, Prickle and Goo, Gumby himself, and Pokey. Then they roll back into balls.
Clokey is considered a pioneer in the popularisation of stop motion clay animation. A film experiment titled Gumbasia led Clokey and his wife, Ruth, to create Gumby. The character and his sidekicks went on to appear in an American TV series.
Clokey Productions Premavision studios, led by animator Anthony Scott, created the Google Doodle, PCMag.com reported. Nicole La Pointe-McKay, a Gumby lead puppet maker, modelled the characters for the Doodle.
Clokey was born on 12 October, 1921, in Detroit, Michigan, US. He studied at the University of Southern California, where he made his first student film, Gumbasia.
He died on 8 January, 2010, in Los Osos, California, at the age of 88.