Vinton Studios lays off its founder

Academy Award-winning animator Will Vinton, creator of the groundbreaking Claymation technique of dimensional characters and a producer of successful commercials featuring the California Raisins and the talking M&Ms;, has been laid off from the studio he founded 27 years ago.

Vinton, 54, was one of five employees at the Portland, Ore.-based Vinton Studios to be laid off Friday in a company restructuring. Philip H. Knight, co-founder of Nike Inc., last November became the majority shareholder of the studio after making a financial investment in the company.

In an e-mail issued Friday, Vinton announced to colleagues and friends that he had resigned from the studio’s board of directors last Monday and would be permanently leaving the company “very soon.”

He had given up his senior management duties several years ago and most recently had been working as a producer and director within the studio’s entertainment division.

Said Vinton in the e-mail: “It has been one amazing 27-year run! And I have no (well, few!) regrets.”

Vinton and studio executives could not be reached Sunday for comment.

In addition to the popular commercials, Vinton Studios were the animators and a key creative forces behind “The PJs,” a controversial series featuring Eddie Murphy set in a housing project that aired on Fox and the WB.

“The PJs” won an Emmy in 2000 for outstanding animated program of one hour or less.

The studio’s entertainment president Jeff Auerbach said in a statement that Vinton Studios “is shifting from prime-time TV to feature animated films -- in particular broad, family-friendly entertainment including computer-animated projects.”

He said the studio will soon announce a deal with a major studio to produce a stop-motion animated feature film.

Studio executives, who indicated they would continue to produce advertising and commercials, added that there are no immediate plans to change the original name of Vinton Studios.