Oskar Fischinger was born in Germany in the early 1900s. He was an animator who spent his whole life working to perfectly synchronize sounds and movement in his short animations. Despite his drive to perfectly pair the two medias his only interactions with music were violin lessons while in school and his apprenticeship at building organs.
Fischinger was more than just an animator and music enthusiast he was also an engineer. He used his skills in that field to build a machine that would revolutionize abstract animation, the wax machine. Early models of this machine had pipe-shaped mixtures of colored wax and clay slowly fed into a slicer with a rotating blade. In front of this device would be a camera that was synchronized with each cut of the blade. You can see the wax veins morph and change in the video I have linked below. Despite his invention being used in amazing films like The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Fischinger didn’t see a cent from the venture since his partner, Ruttmann had legally licensed the wax machine for use in films and commercial work. Fischinger’s bad luck only seemed to continue as he moved to the United States and had big companies like Disney and Paramount discredit him and under pay him for his work.
LeAnn Schmitt
ANIM223 - HISTORY OF ANIMATION - FALL 2019 