Google is paying homage to filmmaker and animator Oskar Fischinger with a new Doodle

Google is celebrating what would have been the 177th birthday of influential filmmaker and abstract animator Oskar Fischinger with a new interactive Doodle.

Google's homepage features the company's logo redone in a colorful font that allows users to create their own visual music by clicking dots on an 11x16 grid. Each dot represents a musical note that when combined form a musical composition that is played on a loop.

"In the world of design, Fischinger is a towering figure, especially in the areas of motion graphics and animation," wrote Google's Leon Hong. "He is best known for his ability to combine impeccably synchronized abstract visuals with musical accompaniment, each frame carefully drawn or photographed by hand. A master of motion and color, Fischinger spent months -- sometimes years -- planning and handcrafting his animations."

"Although mostly known for his films, Fischinger was also a prolific painter, creating numerous works that capture the dramatic movement and feeling of his films within a single frame," Hong continued. "Unsatisfied with traditional media, he also invented a contraption, the Lumigraph, for generating fantastic chromatic displays with hand movements -- a sort of optical painting in motion and a precursor to the interactive media and multi-touch games of today."

Fischinger, who passed away in 1967 at the age of 66, was also known for producing animated sequences found in Disney's Fantasia and Pinocchio.