ABSTRACT
With apologies to the “Nine Old Men,” they were not what you could call actors. On paper, yes, but in the flesh, no. I used to watch Ollie, Frank, and Milt show each other how they intended to animate a scene. If their acting was any indication of how the scene was going to turn out, you would have worried about the future of Disney's animated features. But they did have a pretty good mental picture of what they wanted to depict, and of course, the drawing skill to get it down on paper. So if you feel awkward or clumsy at acting, don't let it worry you. But if you can't picture a gesture in your mind and draw it on paper, there is work to be done. This goes for story-sketch artists, animators, cleanup artists, and inbetweeners.
