[citation needed] During the 1960s, Vinton studied physics, architecture and filmmaking at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was influenced by the work of Antoni Gaudí.
Two more films about student protest followed, Berkeley Games and First Ten Days, as well a narrative short Reply, and his first animation, Culture Shock.
[6] Meeting clay animator Bob Gardiner in the Berkeley, California, area in the early 1970s, Vinton brought him to Portland and they commandeered Vinton's home basement to make a quick 1½-minute test film of clay animation (and the supporting armatures) called Wobbly Wino, completed in early 1973.
Quickly expanding his studio by hiring new animators, Vinton produced dozens of commercials for regional and then national companies.
Still with only a handful of animators, Vinton produced a trilogy of 27-minute films of a short stories like fairy tales in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as Martin the Cobbler (1977), the Oscar-nominated Rip Van Winkle (1978),[9] and The Little Prince (1979).
In 1978, Vinton produced the documentary Claymation: Three Dimensional Clay Animation a 17-minute film featuring the behind-the-scenes technical processes used.
Graduating to 35mm film, Vinton produced other short films during this time: Legacy (1979), Dinosaur (1980),[12] The Creation (directed by Joan Gratz, 1981, Oscar nominated),[13] The Great Cognito (directed by Barry Bruce, 1982, Oscar nominated), A Christmas Gift, and the music video Vanz Kant Danz (1987) for Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty.
Vinton, no longer performing animation himself, later produced special effects scenes for TV shows and movies, including a sequence for Bette Midler's Divine Madness!
Following his work on Return to Oz, Vinton was hired by the Disney studio to produce animation effects for their Michael Jackson Disneyland-EPCOT Center film, Captain EO in 1986 and the Speed Demon music video for Michael Jackson's musical anthology feature-length film, Moonwalker (1988).
Prominent among his hundreds of now international commercial creations were the California Raisins, the Domino's Pizza Noid, and the M&M's Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Crispy (Orange) characters.
A couple of music albums of songs from the specials, produced by Nu Shooz pop rock band leader John Smith were also released.
In 1997, Brandon Tartikoff—in what would be his last substantial contribution to television before his death that year—commissioned Vinton to create a Christmas special, The Online Adventures of Ozzie the Elf.
Ozzie the Elf was originally created as a mascot for America Online's holiday portal, which Tartikoff (who was working for AOL at the time) saw as a potential crossover property.
[20] The Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills represented Vinton for production projects,[21] which included a graphic novel called Jack Hightower produced in tandem with Dark Horse Comics.