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Category Archives: Technique
Animated Performance
The author of Animated Performance, Nancy Belman, is a professor at Sheridan Institute in Canada and has produced, directed, storyboarded and animated for television commercials, specials and features. Her employers have included The Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers. Nancy has been teaching at college level since 2000. Her previous book on storyboarding has been adopted as a standard text in animation schools around the world. Having read her latest offering , I am sure Animated Performance is going to follow in the footsteps of her first book and become a standard text.
In many ways the book shouts out classroom. It is printed on heavyweight paper that will stand up to a lot of thumbing. Each chapter deals with a specific topic with an exercise to reinforce what is being explained. It follows the golden rule of three; tell people what you are going to say, say it and then tell them what you have said. Each chapter starts with a page in large text explaining what is going to be learnt. For example in chapter 1 we are told “In this chapter you will learn how to stage an animated performance in your own imagination through the use of rapid sketches, or thumbnails, that will allow you to analyse and perform actions that transcend the limitations of the human body or the laws of physics. With this technique you can literally become any creature that you can imagine…” Continue reading
Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model Animation
To make great animation, you need to know how to control a whole world: how to make a character, how to make that character live and be happy or sad. You need to create four walls around them, a landscape, the sun and moon – a whole life for them. You have to get inside that puppet and first make it live, then make it perform.
Susannah Shaw provides the first truly practical introduction to the craft skills of model animation. This is a vital book in the development of model animation which, following the success of Aardman’s first full-length film, Chicken Run, is now at the forefront of modern animation… Continue reading
Timing for Animation by Harold Whitaker
A classic of animation education since it first published in 1981. Copies of Timing for Animation have been sitting dog-eared and spine-split on desks and workstations around the world, wherever animation is produced for more than 25 years. All you need to breathe life into your animation is at your fingertips. All the vital techniques employed by animators worldwide are explained using dozens of clear illustrations and simple, straightforward directions. Learn how animations should be arranged in relation to each other, how much space should be used and how long each drawing should be shown for maximum dramatic effect. Fully revised and updated, the second edition includes timing for digital production, digital storyboarding in 2d, digital storyboarding in 3d, the use of After Effects and much, much more!
Fully revised, in full colour and updated, the second edition includes timing for digital production, digital storyboarding in 2d, digital storyboarding in 3d, the use of After Effects and much, much more… Continue reading
Animation from Pencils to Pixels by Tony White
Award-winning animator Tony White brings you the ultimate book for digital animation. Here you will find the classic knowledge of many legendary techniques revealed, paired with information relevant to today’s capable, state-of-the-art technologies.
White leaves nothing out. What contemporary digital animators most need to know can be found between this book’s covers – from conceptions to creation and through the many stages of the production pipeline to distribution. This book is intended to serve as your one-stop how-to animation guide. Whether you’re new to animation or a very experienced digital animator, here you’ll find fundamentals, key classical techniques, and professional advice that will strengthen your work and well-roundedness as an animator.
Speaking from experience, White presents time-honored secrets of professional animaton with a warm, masterly, and knowledgeable approach that has evolved from over 30 years as an award-winning animator/director… Continue reading
How to Make Animated Films: Tony White
Become Tony White’s personal animation student. Experience many of the teaching techniques of the golden era of Disney and Warner Brothers studios and beyond.all from the comfort of your own home or studio. Tony White’s Animation Master Class is uniquely designed to cover the core principles of animated movement comprehensively. How to Make Animated Films offers secrets and unique approaches only a Master Animator could share. Includes hands-on Tutorials, demonstrations and final sample animations.
Whether you want to become a qualified animator of 2D, 3D, Flash or any other form of animation, Tony White’s foundations bring you closer to that goal. The DVD is invaluable, in that readers are not only taught principles and concepts in the book, they are able to see them demonstrated in action in the movies on the DVD… Continue reading
Animation: A Handy Guide by Sheila Graber
This handy guide is just that. It is small enough to handle and carry around easily, and is a must-have resource for everyone interested in animation history, theory and practice. The whole book is structured round 20 key events in animation history from Cave Art to the development of 3D computer-generated images. Each of the 20 sections is linked to a practical “Stuff for Students” section which gives clever first-hand instructions for animating anything from plasticine to pixels. Furthermore each of these 20 sections is linked to animated examples from the work of the author herself.
The book provides a clearly laid out visual guide to animation at all levels and is further – and most importantly – directly linked to moving examples on a supporting DVD. The DVD also provides a wealth of web links and addresses to steer the user to animated examples of the historical works discussed and more. Although aimed squarely at first year animation students this package could prove equally valuable in the hands of secondary school pupils, MA students or people at home who have ‘always wanted to have a go’ at animation.
From one of the animators who brought us Paddington Bear, this book-and-DVD combination provides an integrated and self-sufficient learn-2D-animation package… Continue reading
The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
During his more than 40 years in the animation business, Richard Williams has been one of the true innovators, and serves as the link between the golden age of animation by hand and the new computer animation successes. In this book, based on his sold-out Animation Masterclass in the United States and across Europe, Williams provides the underlying principles of animation that very animator – from beginner to expert, classic animator to computer animation whiz – needs. Usisng hundreds of drawings, Wiliams distills the secrets of the masters into a working system in order to create a book that has become the standard work on all forms of animatiion for professionals, students and fans. This new Expanded edition includes more on animal action, invention and realism with sophisticated animation examples… Continue reading
Cartoon Animation (Collectors) by Preston Blair
In this comprehensive text, Preston Blair shares his practical knowledge to explain and demonstrate the magic of cartoon animation as well as many of his techniques. It describes how to: create a cartoon character’s shape, personality, features and mannerisms; develop movements such as walking, running, stretching and dancing; construct dialogue and co-ordinate it with movement; and includes familiar and famous sketches, drawings and other artwork… Continue reading