I learned to, well I didn't learn to animate. I was watching these animators working. I says I uh wanna learn to animate now, you know, and uh, 'cause I knew everything about the sheets.  It's a complicated thing. But when I say sheets and all that cause I mean I had to get the drawing and get all the numbers down for camera levels and so on. And so I said, "I can do that."  And so these Disney guys who laughed at me said I gotta have at least 15 years as an assistant.  You know I says, "I can do it."  Just, just draw the bloody thing, you know, just draw the drawings and make them move. You know, he says, "No you can't do that."  

So anyway I borrowed a disc, took it home, and with paper and everything,  and I animated my first film, my first short film.  And it was, uh, I did the storyboard and called it "Banner of Teruaki," you know.  And uh this samurai story with an arrow and a for-fortress thing.  And I animated the thing and I painted it all myself with Magic Markers and stacked the drawings up, you know, and put...used the sheets and everything.  And I put it on the box and brought it to UPA and asked the camera to shoot it.  And he laughed at me.  He says, "Jimmy, what are you talking about? I can't, I can't shoot this.  I mean, it's not part of my job and I'm, I'm...we only have one camera and it's working 24 hours a day with two shifts of cameramen, you know?  And I, uh, we can't shoot that."  So I took it home and burned it. You know? And it took me months to, to do.  

About a few minutes after that the word got around that I had done this kind of interesting film, short film.  They wanted to put it onto Columbia Pictures' short films, you know, what they call a pair of shorts -- two, two short films. I was called in by Steve Azusu, who was the owner of UPA.  He said "Jim, Jim we'd like to pay you $500 for your story and whatever you did, animated.  You know we have a scene" And I said, "You know, well, I can't. I don't have it.  It's all burnt." He goes, "What!?" You know? And he says, "You can't do..." And I says, "Well he didn't shoot it." He says, "You should come to me," he says.  I say, "Well I wouldn't come to a boss and ask him to shoot a tape.