--- title: Google Honors Oskar Fischinger With Interactive Doodle description: Google marks the birthday of German-American artist Oskar Fischinger with an interactive Doodle letting users create their own masterpieces canonical: https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/ author: Ryan Kilpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-22T05:51:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:56.222Z og:title: Google Honors Oskar Fischinger With Interactive Doodle og:description: Users can create their own audio-visual masterpieces og:url: https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6917012807745b4b/6988d2ce0b72e3ef996ee59b/e89ea2e5b995e5bfabe785a7-2017-06-22-e4b88ae58d889-26-59.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Honors Oskar Fischinger With Interactive Doodle twitter:description: Users can create their own audio-visual masterpieces twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6917012807745b4b/6988d2ce0b72e3ef996ee59b/e89ea2e5b995e5bfabe785a7-2017-06-22-e4b88ae58d889-26-59.png?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Honors Animator Oskar Fischinger With This Amazing Interactive Doodle ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_ by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Jun 22, 2017 5:51 AM UTC  Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle. Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle.Google by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Jun 22, 2017 5:51 AM UTC Google is marking what would be the 117th birthday of German-American artist Oskar Fischinger with an interactive new [Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/oskar-fischingers-117th-birthday) that lets users create their own audio-visual masterpieces in the abstract animator’s distinctive style. Fischinger fled Hitler’s Germany for the U.S. in 1936, when many artists and intellectuals — labeled as degenerates by the Nazi Party — fled amid the regime’s crackdown on cultural modernism. And he was among the modernest of modernists. Fischinger was a trailblazing animator and painter, producing abstract film graphics decades before the advent of digital post-production. From his new office at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, Fischinger produced [entrancing animations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=they7m6YePo) synched to popular and classical music, and he contributed fantastical sequences to Walt Disney’s _Fantasia_ and _Pinocchio_. Long before the age of computer-generated graphics and animation software, Fischinger’s short films were frame-by-frame, stop-animation labors of love that could take months or even years to complete. Leon Hong, the creative lead for the new interactive Doodle, hopes that it “inspires you to seek out the magic of Fischinger for yourself.” The visionary émigré passed away in Los Angeles in 1967, aged 66. \[[Google](https://www.google.com/doodles/oskar-fischingers-117th-birthday)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/"},"headline":"Google Honors Animator Oskar Fischinger With This Amazing Interactive Doodle","datePublished":"2017-06-22T05:51:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:56.222Z","description":"Users can create their own audio-visual masterpieces in the style of the great modern animator","url":"https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Google Doodle","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6917012807745b4b/6988d2ce0b72e3ef996ee59b/e89ea2e5b995e5bfabe785a7-2017-06-22-e4b88ae58d889-26-59.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Kilpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6917012807745b4b/6988d2ce0b72e3ef996ee59b/e89ea2e5b995e5bfabe785a7-2017-06-22-e4b88ae58d889-26-59.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle","caption":"Oskar Fischinger Google Doodle","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/","name":"Google Honors Animator Oskar Fischinger With This Amazing Interactive Doodle"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4827886/google-doodle-oskar-fischinger-animation/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```