Tom Sito
Tom Sito (born May 19, 1956) is a well-known American animator, animation historian and teacher. He has been called a "key figure in the Disney Renaissance", and one of the One Hundred Most Important People in Animation.
Early life
Tom Sito was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He first learned animation while attending cartooning classes at the High School of Art and Design. He continued his studies in animation at The School of Visual Arts with Howard Beckerman, cartooning under Harvey Kurtzman, Gil Miret, Howard Beckerman and Robert Beverly Hale. Sito graduated from SVA in 1977 with a BFA in Media Arts. He met his wife, Pat, at SVA. He also studied life drawing at The Art Students League of New York under Robert Beverly Hale.
Career
Sito worked on cartoons for Dixie Cups early in his career and also did some gag writing for Playboy magazines Little Annie Fannie under his instructor Harvey Kurtzman. Sito assisted retired Disney animator Shamus Culhane on one of his final projects, a 1977 education short entitled Protection in the Nuclear Age. His first big break was when in 1976 he was hired by legendary animation director Richard Williams to work on his film Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. There he met and worked with animation luminaries like Eric Goldberg, Art Babbitt,and John Canemaker. After several years doing commercial animation work in New York and Toronto, Sito relocated to Los Angeles and worked on TV projects like Super Friends for Hanna-Barbera (1978), He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1983–1985).