An Email from Tom Sito

Before I shut down my last blog, I manage to salvage this from it (actually I salvaged it from my own e-mail, but details, details). So here is part of an email I recieved from Tom Sito (shown right) sometime back. I wrote to him awhile back when I was just beginning in animation, and this is part of the response given to me:

“In terms of what to study, it sounds like you are off to a great start with studying Frank & Ollie, Loomis, Vilpu and the others. I would add Richard William’s Animators Survival Guide. Dick Williams was a great student of the old Disney greats like Milt Kahl and a lot of his ideas are adopted from the animation lectures of Art Babbitt we attended in 1973. Dick also gave the first breaks to punk kids like James Baxter, Eric Goldberg and me.

If I could also suggest extras to your curriculum I would take a class in acting: and or mime. Some can move shapes , but as Glen Keane said” Don’t move a character before it wants to.” Meaning, learn to express thinking in your character, not just move it from point A to point B. Milt Kahl was not just a great draughtsman, he had an innate sense of acting. Dick said he could boil a scene down to two key poses. Amazing stuff. Babbitt and Tytla reccomended the book ACTING: THE FIRST SIX LESSONS by Richard Boleslavsky, Theater Arts Books. Reprinted every year since 1935, it’s a fast read but it has some good ideas about an approach to a performance. Also, Michael Caine did some videos on acting technique for the screen that are top notch. Try some Stanislavky as well. He’s the classic guru of Method Acting, like DeNiro, Pacino and those folks.

The best animators never stop learning, they never think they know it all. I’ve seen both Glen and Andreas not be too proud to still grab a newsprint pad and sit down in front of a life drawing model.I hope this is he answer you wanted. Thanks again for writing and best of luck in your studies." Sincerely,

Tom Sito

Definitely helped me along the way, mainly because Tom was always a big influence for me. Anyways, Thought this would be an interesting little tidbit (and reminder) to read!