illumineerima

Elbert Tuganov, the father of Estonian animation, died on March 22, 2007. He was 87.

Tuganov was actually born in Baku, Azerbaijan (1920), and began his animation career in Germany. When Hitler took power, Tuganov returned to Estonia.

He joined Estonia’s state film studio, Tallinnfilm in 1946. For 11 years, Tuganov shot, drew and painted titles and credit sequences. During this time, Tuganov built an animation stand that would allow the studio to do frame-by-frame shooting. A visiting Moscow official was impressed by the new apparatus and suggested that Tuganov make animation films.

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