Learning Animation Buy The Books
Here is a question from the email bag that is a joy to answer. Someone wanting to learn how to animation without a giant school program and lots of student loans. Love it. This is the way animation started. Nobody knew how because it had never been done before.
Jun,
The best way to learn how to animate is to animate. Jump in and start making animations. The first ones may well suck and the movement will be crude. But they will get better. That is how the founding fathers of animation created our art form. Here are some books that will give you a working understanding of the process. Then it is up to you and your camera to make it real.
THE HUMAN FIGURE IN MOTION by Eadweard Muybridge: the images are 120 years old but the knowledge is timeless. This is a book that every animator who deals with characters in motion simply has to have.
CARTOON ANIMATION by Preston Blair ISBN 1-56010-084-2: for 40 years this was the only book we could get to learn animation. There are some serious flaws due to a rushed last minute recreation of almost all of the example drawings due to a law suit but still an okay book.
RICHARD WILLIAMS’ THE ANIMATOR’S SURVIVAL KIT ISBN 0-571-20228-4: This is the new must have book for anyone learning animation. If there is a choice between this book and Blair, go with this book.
TIMING FOR ANIMATION by Harold Whitaker ISBN 024051310X: This is not a beginner`s book. The beginner will be at a complete loss when attacking this text. You have to more than know the basics before you can even understand what they are talking about. But once you reach a certain level this book opens the doorway into a bigger world and the mastery beyond.
HOW TO WRITE FOR ANIMATION by Jeffrey Scott: Some people say that Scott is a bit of a hack TV animation writer, (which breaks down to the fact that he has worked out a system to work quickly) writing to formula. Maybe so but this book lays out the formula for creating a story and is therefore something a beginner storyteller really, really needs. You have to know the formula before you can go beyond the formula. I love this book for teaching beginning storytelling.
FILM DIRECTING SHOT BY SHOT by Steven D. Katz ISBN 0-941188-10-8: Animation is filmmaking and this is one of the best books on the filmmaking process ever. Got to have this one.
SETTING UP YOUR SHOTS by Jeremy Vineyard ISBN 0-941188-73-6: Another must have book on filmmaking. This book shows every possible camera angle in storyboard form and gives a breakdown of what it is used for. It also gives examples of movies where it is used. I refer to this book all the time when I am setting up scenes.
ANIMATION ON A SHOESTRING, BUILDING A LOW COST ANIMATION STUDIO WITH YOUR HOME COMPUTER (version 7) by Larry Loc: Far be it from me not to plug my own product when I get the chance.
You need to animate to learn how to animate. The question then becomes how to get started. My ebook goes into how to set up your studio so that you can start learning. Lots of sources and tricks for setting up an animation studio in the cheapest, quickest ways so you get up and running. It has interactive links to products and hardware, plans on building animation camera stands and animation wheels, a big stop motion section, a section on copyright law for creators and a whole lot of other stuff like tips and tricks.
EXAMPLE: The best way to understand movement is to look at it a different way. In fact, upside down. We look at people moving all the time but we never really see because it is so common place. That makes it hard to study the mechanics of movement. With a video camera held upside down film people in action. Go to a softball game or a park. On play back the upside down image will let you really see the workings of gravity in a way that you never would have. Because you are not use to seeing people jump off the ceiling you will be able to study the movement. With the upside down image you will see the push off in a run cycle and the arc as gravity pulls the runner back to earth.
The order page for my ebook is here: http://www.agni-animation.com/shoestring.html and an interactive sample of the book is here http://www.agni-animation.com/blog/shoestringsample7.pdf.
Hi Larry,
I saw your website and wanted to know if I wanted to take up animation as a hobby, where would I be able learn the know how.
Thank You
Jun Hwang
Jun,
The best way to learn how to animate is to animate. Jump in and start making animations. The first ones may well suck and the movement will be crude. But they will get better. That is how the founding fathers of animation created our art form. Here are some books that will give you a working understanding of the process. Then it is up to you and your camera to make it real.
THE HUMAN FIGURE IN MOTION by Eadweard Muybridge: the images are 120 years old but the knowledge is timeless. This is a book that every animator who deals with characters in motion simply has to have.
CARTOON ANIMATION by Preston Blair ISBN 1-56010-084-2: for 40 years this was the only book we could get to learn animation. There are some serious flaws due to a rushed last minute recreation of almost all of the example drawings due to a law suit but still an okay book.
RICHARD WILLIAMS’ THE ANIMATOR’S SURVIVAL KIT ISBN 0-571-20228-4: This is the new must have book for anyone learning animation. If there is a choice between this book and Blair, go with this book.
TIMING FOR ANIMATION by Harold Whitaker ISBN 024051310X: This is not a beginner`s book. The beginner will be at a complete loss when attacking this text. You have to more than know the basics before you can even understand what they are talking about. But once you reach a certain level this book opens the doorway into a bigger world and the mastery beyond.
HOW TO WRITE FOR ANIMATION by Jeffrey Scott: Some people say that Scott is a bit of a hack TV animation writer, (which breaks down to the fact that he has worked out a system to work quickly) writing to formula. Maybe so but this book lays out the formula for creating a story and is therefore something a beginner storyteller really, really needs. You have to know the formula before you can go beyond the formula. I love this book for teaching beginning storytelling.
FILM DIRECTING SHOT BY SHOT by Steven D. Katz ISBN 0-941188-10-8: Animation is filmmaking and this is one of the best books on the filmmaking process ever. Got to have this one.
SETTING UP YOUR SHOTS by Jeremy Vineyard ISBN 0-941188-73-6: Another must have book on filmmaking. This book shows every possible camera angle in storyboard form and gives a breakdown of what it is used for. It also gives examples of movies where it is used. I refer to this book all the time when I am setting up scenes.
ANIMATION ON A SHOESTRING, BUILDING A LOW COST ANIMATION STUDIO WITH YOUR HOME COMPUTER (version 7) by Larry Loc: Far be it from me not to plug my own product when I get the chance.
You need to animate to learn how to animate. The question then becomes how to get started. My ebook goes into how to set up your studio so that you can start learning. Lots of sources and tricks for setting up an animation studio in the cheapest, quickest ways so you get up and running. It has interactive links to products and hardware, plans on building animation camera stands and animation wheels, a big stop motion section, a section on copyright law for creators and a whole lot of other stuff like tips and tricks.
EXAMPLE: The best way to understand movement is to look at it a different way. In fact, upside down. We look at people moving all the time but we never really see because it is so common place. That makes it hard to study the mechanics of movement. With a video camera held upside down film people in action. Go to a softball game or a park. On play back the upside down image will let you really see the workings of gravity in a way that you never would have. Because you are not use to seeing people jump off the ceiling you will be able to study the movement. With the upside down image you will see the push off in a run cycle and the arc as gravity pulls the runner back to earth.
The order page for my ebook is here: http://www.agni-animation.com/shoestring.html and an interactive sample of the book is here http://www.agni-animation.com/blog/shoestringsample7.pdf.
posted by Larry Loc @ 9:59 AM
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