All The Animation

A blog about animation and illustrated art.

Animation history book – “Eat, Drink, Animate” (CRC Press, 2019) – Tom Sito interview

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Tom Sito has been a film animator for decades and has worked on some of Disney’s biggest films. He teaches animation and is also a member of the Motion Picture Academy where he is also works in the short films and animation division. He’s written a cookbook that collects together various recipes from animators that Tom has known, met or simply admired.

2:02 – Tom talks about how he came about to write the animators’ recipes cookbook.

5:20 – Tom talks about how animators incorporated food in their animation.

8:19 – Tom talks about the history of computer animation.

11:30 – Tom talks about the theater experience versus seeing a movie on a small screen.

14:03 – Tom talks about what new computer animation techniques are being developed.

18:10 – Tom talks about animation cinematography.

24:37 – Tom talks about experimentation in short films.

27:13 – Tom talks about Japanese animation and other international animated films.

30:15 – Tom talks about computer animated film budgets.

46:29 – Tom talks about mixing live-action and animation. They’re referred to as hybrid films.

48:30 – Tom talks about stop-motion animation.

54:04 – Tom talks about the proliferation of short films. He also discusses how people can have success getting their short films seen for notice or awards.

1:00:10 – Tom talks about possible major changes in computer animation.

1:03:32 – Tom was a website at tomsito.com

 

Links of interest

https://www.crcpress.com/Eat-Drink-Animate-An-Animators-Cookbook/Sito/p/book/9780815399766

http://anim.usc.edu/faculty/tom-sito/

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Tom Sito

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: art, artist, disney, chapman, clampett, chef, chili recipe, chasons, fantasia, how to train your dragon, toy story, Ridley Scott, Bladerunner, Duellists, light, storyboard, manga, Russian animation, Chinese animation, India, samurai jack, burton, harryhausen, jurassic park, cameron, speilberg, film festivals, Simpsons

Disney animation history – “Drawing the Line” (University Press of Kentucky, 2006) – Tom Sito interview

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Tom Sito has been a film animator for decades and has worked on some of Disney’s biggest films. He’s written a book on Disney history based on interviews with Disney animators who were working there during the 1941 strike and we spoke about the book.

2:15 – Tom Sito talks about his animation career with Disney Studios. He explains how he ended up writing this book on the Disney strike of 1941.

4:00 – Tom talks about the layout of the book and how animation works.

7:03 – The book covers labor issues from the early days through modern day.

9:00 – The labor movement in animation caused changes in how animation was produced. UPA represents some of these changes.

15:14 – Tom talks about animators approached being in unions.

20:20 – Tom used 75 first person interviews and archives for the book research. He also knows the Disney family and they liked the book.

22:30 – The history involves the mob and communists. The Disney strike was one of the few without violence.

24:30 – The most dramatic day of the strike was the first day the picket line went up. The depression was still happneing for many people on that May 1941 day.

32:45 – The studios would use off-duty LA police to break up strikes. The mob coulnd’t make inroads into LA because the LA police would rough up mobsters who came into town.

38:00 – Tom talks about Don Bluth and how he left Disney and formed Don Bluth Studios in competition with Disney.

41:44 – Tom talks about Jakob Kirtzberg who left animation after a strike and went into comic books under the name Jack Kirby.

42:54 – Tom talks about the importance of the book among animators.

49:24 – Tom talks about the animation revival in the 1980s and 1990s.

50:35 – Tom talks about computer animation and its early development and rise. Flight simulators were a big part of this development.

57:30 – Tom talks about special effects used in 2001.

1:01:26 – He has a website at tomsito.com.

 

Links of interest

Tomsito.com

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Tom Sito

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: art, artist, animation, Disney, los angeles police, mobsters, mob, communists, UPA, studios, Hollywood, Snow White and the seven dwarves, Don Bluth, Don Bluth studios, marvel comics, Jack Kirby, Paramount studios, Star Trek, Genesis effect, 2001, special effects, cookbooks,

Cartoon development – Bob Camp interview

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Bob Camp is a cartoonist and cartoon developer who co-created the iconic Ren and Stimpy Show. He worked for Rankin Bass, Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers and has worked on numerous well-known animation projects. He currently teaches Visual Arts in NYC. I spoke to him about his past work, inspirations, process and future goals at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con.

1:26 – Bob Camp got into animation in the 1980s while working at Marvel Comics. He started with Thunder Cats and other Rankin Bass shows. Then he moved to LA to do animation full-time when Rankin Bass closed down.

3:29 – Bob isn’t an animator and is self-taught in everything he does. He considers himself too lazy for animation. He studied film in school and then did caricatures and portraits for rodeos and such. He met Gary Holgren who got him into comic art for Marvel Comics. He inked for John Buscema and then was doing fixes on just about every Marvel comic while he was there.

6:18 – In LA, he worked for the studio Deke who [doing] did Captain Planet and Inspector Gadget. Bob worked on an animated Alf series and then a Ghostbusters piece.

7:35 – Then he began working on Tiny Toons for Warner Brothers. He began doing other work and then worked on Your Gang and Ren and Stimpy were minor characters in that show. Then they teamed up with Nickelodeon and began doing their cartoon show. Ren and Stimpy started as a theatrical cartoon.

10:59 – Bob was inspired by the cartoons from the 1940s that were created for theatrical release. Those cartoons were for entire families.

13:44 – The reboot of Ren and Stimpy poisoned the well of the original series. Ren and Stimpy could have gone on for a longer time if it hadn’t had the troubles they had.

15:59 – Bob is an actor and did a bunch of the voices for Ren and Stimpy. He’s in the Screen Actors Guild. His favorite part of creating cartoons is the development. He likes show running too. He also likes to fix scrip ideas.

18:09 – Bob teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He teaches storyboard creation and critiques his students’ work as if he were the director. He likes taking ideas and making them better.

20:20 – Bob likes using Pinterest to inspire himself. The images there give him new ideas.

22:19 – The comic business is tough though. It’s a hard and stressful life which you need to love.

23:49 – He’s been inspired by Bob Camplett, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Harvey Kurzman, and a slew of others. He loves the Three Stooges.

25:19 – Comics are an incubator business for movies. The artists don’t make the money. The studios and the executives make the money.

27:43 – Bob has a sci-fi epic project he’d love to do. He has a little kid show that takes place in New York he’d like to do. He has lots of ideas and plenty of sketches.

28:59 – Bob said the way to succeed in this business is to just start making films and don’t wait for money. Get a youtube channel, teach yourself the skills you need. Do it yourself. You don’t need college.

30:17 – He’s on Bob Lab Studios on facebook and instagram. Michelle Fire is his partner and she has sites on facebook and instagram.

Links of interest

https://www.facebook.com/boblabstudios/

https://boblabshop.com/

http://boblabstudios.com/

https://twitter.com/boblabstudios?lang=en

https://twitter.com/michelefire

 

For more of the podcast “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guest: Bob Camp

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: cartoon, art, animation, rankin bass, ren, stimpy, nickelodeon, marvel comics, john buscema, ghostbusters, alf, tiny toons, crazy