Award-winning artist Winston Hacking is capturing millions of views with his groundbreaking animation technique called "tonermorphs" – a unique fusion of printing, clay manipulation, and stop-motion photography that creates kaleidoscopic creatures unlike anything seen before. The DAD Wood Pencil, Clio Gold, and Libera Award winner has developed this experimental process to explore how far he can push the surface of an image before it completely breaks down, resulting in bizarre animations that resemble the evolution of entirely new life forms.
Hacking's innovative work has attracted high-profile clients including Flying Lotus, Run The Jewels, and Animal Collective, along with custom visual projects for major brands like Vice, Netflix, Warp Records, and Adult Swim. His tonermorphs represent a fully developed artistic concept that shows no signs of slowing down, combining industrial printing techniques with hands-on craftsmanship in ways that challenge traditional animation boundaries.
The artist's fascination with tactile art-making traces back to his childhood experiences with his father's work in a printing and packaging factory. "My dad worked in a printing and packaging factory, designing product labels. I remember the rhythm of the presses, the smell of ink, and an early mac computer next to his drafting table covered in colored markers," Hacking shares. "That mix of industrial print culture and hands-on art-making has stuck with me ever since." This early exposure to both mechanical precision and creative expression laid the foundation for his current artistic approach.
Drawing inspiration from experimental artists like Martha Colburn and Bruce Bickford, Hacking has channeled their practical approaches to develop his own strange, personal worlds through clay animation. His process involves printing images directly onto clay surfaces, which he then shapes and photographs frame by frame to create a sense of shifting, tactile movement. The resulting animations focus on themes of memory, found imagery, and the tension between analog imperfection and digital control.
The visual results are both fascinating and unsettling – subjects bloom and curdle into lumpy clay creatures through tendril-like movements, with some resembling distorted human forms while others take on plant-like characteristics. The tactile contrasts between Polaroid lifts and image transfers combined with psychedelic mounds of clay are designed to elicit equal measures of discomfort and fascination, bringing Hacking's childhood wonder to life in unexpected ways.
Hacking's physical presence is unmistakable throughout each tonermorph, with visible finger smudges that drag facial features and complexions into each other, creating wonderful spectrums of color and texture. His human touch shapes the narrative arcs of the clay's endlessly repeating growth cycles, lending the subjects an analog authenticity that contrasts sharply with the symmetrical perfection typically found in digitally created work.
"For me, touching every frame of clay is a way to stay connected to the work. It's a slow, hands-on process that feels playful and alive," Hacking explains. "Each small movement leaves a trace of human energy in something that would otherwise be static. It reminds the viewer that what they're seeing is handmade, an illusion grounded in craft rather than automation." This philosophy emphasizes the importance of maintaining human connection in an increasingly automated creative landscape.
The tonermorphs have gained significant traction in the animation and art communities, representing a unique approach that bridges traditional craftsmanship with contemporary visual storytelling. Hacking's work demonstrates how experimental techniques can push the boundaries of what's possible in moving image art, creating entirely new forms of expression that couldn't exist through conventional digital or analog methods alone.
