it is not quite as bad has having the Happy Tree Friends theme blasted at you all weekend, not quite. But this dance, dance what ever is close.

Thursday I took no photos. Too busy with 4 different panels.

I sold enough of my ebooks to pay for my comic con, which is what I do them for.

Tomorrow night is Jerry Beck`s worst cartoons ever. Great, cant wait on that one.

To bed now, I'm back on the road reall early in the AM.  ¶ 9:58 PM   

 
preview night  ¶ 9:51 PM   

 
set up Wednesday  ¶ 9:50 PM   

  Going off line:

I will no longer be available by e-mail contact for the diration of the comic con. If you want to get in touch with me use the phone number listed here: contact number

The comic con schedule at the same link is updated only to Wednesday morning. For any other info, call the same contact number.

Thanks
Larry Loc  ¶ 5:51 AM   

 

Blogger control panel is massivly intercoursed today. Let`s see if I can sneak this in the back door using Hello:

Tom Sito just shared this with me to share with you guys.

Question From a Fan:

Hi Mr. Sito,
I hope you don`t mind my trying to reach you. I am 27 years old and just recently graduated from the School of Visual Arts as an animation major in Manhattan. I know you are old-school Disney and I would love to get some advice from you.

I am finding very quickly that the animation industry today is not what it was when I started school. It is so computer oriented and not the paper and pencil industry I so dearly wanted to work in years ago. What I am mainly concerned about is the lack of mentor/apprentice learning. I want to really LEARN how to animate, not plug in a key frame here and there and let the tween tool do the rest. I went to school hoping to learn enough to get a job somewhere and allow my REAL education to happen through the mentoring that I was under the impression would happen there. I want to learn the skills the old animators at Disneys passed onto you guys when you started.

Do you have any advice as to where I can find that now? It`s difficult to be so passionate about an art form that is changing right before your eyes and not always for the good, before you even got to take a shot at things. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Warm Regards,

Patrick Costa


Dear Patrick,

Thank you for your note. I understand your feelings. The animation business is not the same business I joined way back in 1975. But if it is any comfort, back then when me and my friends like Eric Goldberg wanted to do full Disney-Warners animation, we were told we were crazy. We were told animation, as such, was dying. That the films we loved so much like Pinnochio and Blitz Wolf were done with Depression Era budgets. That we would never see that kind of quality ever again. Back then, no one could see The Little Mermaid or the Simpsons in the future.

The lesson learned is no one can predict how this business may change. We may evolve like computer music. When the Moog Synthesizer was invented people said there would be no more orchestras, no more garage bands, no more jazz quartets. So audiences got their fill of synthesizer, then wanted to hear the brass of the trumpet and the gut of the strings. Orchestras and garage bands are fine.

There is a danger that the original skills of character animation and cinema technique are going to be lost while everyone is so busy learning the latest software. I`ve discussed with other educators the issue that too many classes have an overemphasis on modeling, as though animation is merely a dreary step until lighting. To stay with the musical metaphor, it`s as if an orchestra spent most of their time building their instruments rather than playing.

My best advice is to be stubborn in what you want. When Jim Henson was trying to make it in the late 50s, early 60s he was told "Sock puppets? Why are you wasting your time?" He made his Muppets something people wanted to see. If you desire to learn full 2D animation you are going to have to explore beyond the borders of your home town to see who is doing the good stuff. Animation of that sort is still best learned master-to-apprentice, and I say that as a university faculty. You have to find out who is still doing the good old stuff and how you can get on it. In my career I had to move first to Nelvana in Toronto, then to London for Richard Williams. We used to be called animation gypsies. Out here in LA there are still small pockets of resistance to the Digital Invasion. Around the world the argument 2D vs.3D is not as extreme as it is in the US and the UK.

Quality 2d went underground in the 60s and 70s and it may have to again. But it is becoming less likely to do a full time career strictly with a pencil. You will have to know some 3D for gigs between the ones you want to do. I don`t think the 2D fat years of the 1990`s will come back, but the major studios overemphasis on 3D as the only magic formula won`t last either. It will evolve and grow, as you will. So keep your ear to the ground and your eye on the prize. Success doesn`t go always to the best draftsman or the best hustler, it goes to the stubbornest.

Tom Sito

  ¶ 8:03 PM   

  Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!:

So here it is the first day of new classes here at Brooks College. My first class is at 10 AM. I came in early to get copying done, get stuff ready for my sub, and get a parking place. No paper in the copy room.

Tomorrow is the first day of comic con, set up and preview night. I will be trying to keep up with these pages during San Diego but know already that I will miss a few days.

Rumpus! Rumpus! Rumpus!  ¶ 8:58 AM   

 
I Dreamed Last Night . . . But It Weren`t No Boat to Heaven

One of the cool side effects of coming down off of deadline sleep depravation is the quality of dreams that come on afterwards. So last night I was driving around in a stop motion car ala Norman McLaren`s Neighbors or that McLaren inspired short Viscous Cycles that I saw on Jack Paar. Sliding along the road on my butt cutting in an out of traffic with Fred Ladd in the back seat giving me directions that got us even more lost.

I was worried about crashing into other cars because I was out there in the open sliding on my butt over the pavement at very high speeds and everybody else was driving Hummers and other UAVs. For some reason I was not worried about wearing out the seat of my pants but then it was a dream.

I am definitely ready for Comic Con, are you?

We are in Booth 5473 way down on the left end of the convention center. Come by and buy Cels and books and DVDs and join ASIFA-Hollywood or renew your membership or even have your caricature drawn. Or just stop by and see who is around.  ¶ 9:46 AM