Hey, I never noticed that before....

[Maurice]

In my animation class back in the 70s, our teacher (Richard Protevin), taught us to animate in a stuttering count (God, I can't remember the exact numbers now. It was only 50 years ago! ) Something like two ahead, one back, two ahead, one back... He said it built tension in the viewer. Altho that wasn't necessarily useful for all animation styles, especially if you you were trying to do something cute and friendly. But for his film "Twelve Dancing Penises" it worked well.

The art scene in Greenwich Village in the 70s was a bit of an eye opener to this little suburban NJ boy.

I found a few bits about Protovin.

The New Animators of 1977
RICHARD PROTOVIN‘s films have a naive, story-book quality about them which is definitely not what they’re about. This soft, innocent front, the delicate lines and candy-colored pastels, is an intentional disguise to arouse expectation for a simple story, expectations which he astutely manipulates for very different ends — “to turn things around, to go on the other side of the mirror.” Flamingo Boogy (1974), drawn on paper, starts out in a drive-in movie and ends up in a flock of flamingoes and winged turtles embracing the sun. The ocean itself is drawn into the sun in the mythical epiphany that ends the film. Everything flows and pulsates at the same time, disturbing movement echoing “opposites coming together in a spiritual union.” Heyzeus (1975), reflecting Protovin’s interest in Tantric Yoga, is an orgiastic dance of phallic and vaginal creatures which culminates in the creation of a

Left – Richard Protoviin/self caricature Right – “Flamingo Boogy”​

mysterious bird creature exuding a powerful mystical energy. Like so many experimental animators, Protovin plays on the expectations associated with cartoons, only to turn them upside-down in an unexpected haunting way.

A short film he made with Franklin Backus

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I also found his obituary in the NY Times.

Richard M. Protovin, a painter, film maker and art teacher, died on Dec. 6 at his mother's home in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 46 years old and lived in Pass-a-Grille Beach, Fla.
He died of AIDS, said Laurie Loeb, an assistant professor in New York University's film and television department.
Mr. Protovin founded and headed the animation department at the Tisch School of the Arts at the university, where he was an associate professor from 1979 to 1988. That year, he moved to Florida and became a professor of animation production and cinema studies at the University of Tampa. His films have been shown as part of the New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Best Short Films series at the Seattle International Film Festival, as well as at festivals in Moscow, Cannes and Venice.
His paintings hang in museums and corporate collections around the world and have been seen in solo shows at the Peter Flannagan Gallery, the Animator's Gallery and the Raimundo Gallery in New York, as well as the Art Center in Turin, Italy.

In addition to his mother, Doris Protovin, he is survived by a sister, Jody, also of St. Petersburg.

 

[Forbin]

I found a few bits about Protovin.


A short film he made with Franklin Backus

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I also found his obituary in the NY Times.

Oh, man, thanks for finding that. He was good guy and quite a character. I was stunned when I saw his obit in Premiere Magazine. I had him for drawing and animation classes. The first words I ever spoke to my now-wife were asking if she knew where his class was .

My favorite memory: the school was so tiny that we had 150 students with parking for 50, so we were always interrupting classes to ask people to move their cars. One day in 1976 we were in the middle of class when someone popped their head in and asked "Does anybody here own the orange Gremlin?" Richard did a devilish grin and said "I am an orange Gremlin!"