Stainton Labs

Stainton Labs is a laboratory and experimental tech company located in Chicago, Illinois, on the Stainton Ranch. It was founded by Robert Stainton in 1975, initially to produce animatronics. It became known for two early computerized animation methods, the 1986 Rotanimation and the 1989 Vivamation. Both Rotanimation and Vivamation were used extensively by Argosy Media during the 1990s, as Stainton was hired by Argosy in 1991; Argosy later acquired Stainton Labs in 1999. Despite currently being owned by ArgosyMTM Group, Stainton Labs is still a Stainton family outlet; Robert’s daughters Crystal Stainton and Marina Stainton currently run the lab, but Robert is still involved with some projects.

History
Robert Stainton created Stainton Labs in 1975, initially as a company to produce animatronics. However, it soon changed focus to costumed characters with animatronic parts, due to competition from companies such as Cyberamics and Creative Engineering making the animatronic market crowded.

In 1986, Rotanimation was released. It uses a special machine, and is essentially a form of cel animation made using an Unix box. Rotanimation was originally intended for the production of station idents, but it was also used for early computer-animated television shows, including Jeff Jones, which aired on cable-access TV in Chicago during the late 1980s. In 1989, Vivamation was released as a slightly-more-traditional method of computer animation; in Vivamation, all objects are drawn by hand on one layer, colouring is done during the animation process, and all in-betweening is manual. As a result, animation made using Vivamation has a “scribbled” and “messy” look, and no object in two frames looks exactly alike.

After Robert Stainton was hired by Argosy Media, Argosy began using both Rotanimation and Vivamation in its television shows. Rotanimation was used on The Aaron Show (1993-2006, created by Ellen Peck), Foxy (1993-1996, created by Terry Ward), and Catgirl and the Clawed Crusaders (1998-2001, created by Stainton’s then-preteen daughter Crystal). Vivamation was used on Mercy and Friends (1993-2006, created by Jeremy McAbee), AuldTopia Kids (1993-2006, created by Andrew Auld), and Snuffy (1993-2006, created by Elijah Cintron at Argosy’s satellite studio in Puerto Rico). Argosy bought Stainton Labs outright in 1999.

From 2006 to 2011, Stainton Labs worked on the UltraStorage Disc (USD) format, a “worthy successor to DVD and CD”. USDs can be used for home video (up to 4K and DRM-free, competing mainly with Blu-Ray and its various variants, starting a “third format war”); physical copies of PC games and software; physical music (coexisting with the “Vinyl Revival”); and as a means of burning files from your PC (as both a successor to CD-ROM, and coexisting with USB sticks). The first USD releases (consisting of home video releases, albums and singles, software, and PC games) came out in 2013. Because computers at the time were starting to abandon disc drives, several Bluetooth and USB USD drives were also released.