September 15, 1941
Yuri Norshteyn, director, animator, and creator of the character "Hedgehog in the Fog," was born in the village of Avdeevka in the Penza region.
The highest skill is not the ability to draw. The highest skill is finding the right balance of warmth and light within the image to give the film frame a sensual quality.
He spent his childhood evacuated with his mother. His father was at the front. The family then returned to Moscow. There, in 1961, after completing a two-year animation course, Norshteyn got a job at Soyuzmultfilm. He worked with the animation artist and later as a co-director. Ivan Ivanov-Vano.
Everything that can be explained lies beyond the mystery of creativity. As soon as an artist introduces it into an analytical system, he will begin to repeat himself. And he shouldn't be able to repeat what he's drawn.
He made his debut as a director and screenwriter in 1968, filming with Arkady Tyurin An animated poster for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. The film was based on the works of Soviet artists. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Aristarkh Lentulov, Nathan Altman.
He treated the "needle screen" technique with reverence. Alexandra AlekseevaThousands of needles were positioned on a vertical plane, extending as needed. Pointed toward the lens, the needles were invisible. But the shadows they cast created a three-dimensional effect.
Norshteyn himself uses a multi-tiered, proprietary machine and—often—a technique of interlacing. He dislikes computer animation, achieving three-dimensionality through techniques devised for each individual frame.
All art is conditional because it uses signs. A writer is given words, a musician—sound, a director—this entire spectacular world, its materiality, which must be transformed into a flow of action. But an artist is given form, light, the contours of the action, the contours of the plastic frames—with all of this he must live and work, assembling his world according to the laws he discovers for himself.
The author of Hedgehog in the Fog, The Tale of Tales and The Overcoat turns 82 today.
