Eli Noyes, Stop-Motion Animation Pioneer And ‘Liquid Television’ Director, Dies At 81 [Video]

Eli Noyes, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who had a tremendous influence on the stop-motion animation artform, co-developed Nickelodeon’s Eureeka’s Castle, and directed recurring segments for MTV’s iconic Liquid Television, has died at 81 of complications from prostate cancer.

Noyes was born on October 18, 1942, in Amherst, Massachusetts. His parents were Eliot Noyes, an accomplished architect and industrial designer, and Molly Duncan Weed Noyes, an interior designer.

The younger Noyes received early acclaim for his work, scoring an Oscar nomination for the 8-minute short film Clay or the Origin of Species, which he made while still an English undergrad at Harvard.

The film has influenced generations of stop-motion artists who use clay in their work, including Aardman Animations co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton.Speaking with Variety in 2016, Lord explained that after he and Sproxton saw Clay or the Origin of Species on tv:

That put the idea into our heads that you could animate clay. Drawn animation was …