A Warren artist and animator was recently honored with a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Motion Design for her work on the Amazon MGM docuseries Octopus!
The two-part series, narrated by Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge, intertwines Hayley Morris’ handcrafted visuals into a documentary that follows the life cycle of the giant Pacific octopus.
Morris directed and constructed 10 minutes worth of stop-motion animation featured in the documentary, with help from a team in New York.
I think we were just really excited that the Television Academy recognized a handmade animation made by real artists, working tirelessly, crafting everything by hand.Hayley Morris
The Television Academy informed Morris and her team that they had won the award a month before the actual ceremony happened earlier this month. This is Morris’ first Emmy award.
“I think we were just really excited that the Television Academy recognized a handmade animation made by real artists, working tirelessly, crafting everything by hand, especially with AI,” Morris said. “And you know how that's evolving so quickly.”
Morris is the founder of Shape & Shadow, an animation studio that specializes in mixed media and stop-motion storytelling. Morris said she loves repurposing and finding materials to use for the projects she’s working on.
These found materials help her determine the direction and design of a specific project, she said.
The bright orange Octopus puppet viewers meet — named Doris — was constructed and inspired by the material Morris found at a fiber store in Williston. The puppet was composed out of felt, yarn, hand-dyed chiffon and other materials.
Unbeknownst to viewers, literal parts of Vermont are also present in the documentary.
Morris and her daughter went into the woods in Vermont and collected seed pods, moss, stones and other textures that she packed into a huge suitcase to New York City.
“I had the team in New York making the sets incorporate these things from the woods into the rock formation, like, transform into underwater flora and coral and stuff like that.” Morris said. “I feel like Vermont is such an inspiring place with nature. And [has] so many materials that I can find, like, right outside in my backyard.”
Morris has a lot of projects she said she’s looking forward to, including an experimental clay animation project that she plans to do with the Vermont Creation Grant she recently received.
Morris said she’s looking to replicate a project she did in Denver, where she projected her animation on a building. Her goal would be to project her clay animation on different surfaces and landscapes in Vermont.
