Looks at the history of the medium, charting its progress by looking at specific examples that document the growth and development of the form over the past fifty years.
Basics Animation 03: Drawing for Animation introduces readers to the practice of drawing images for use in animation. It examines the thinking process and techniques involved with drawing characters, composition and movement, narrative and adaptation. Drawing is a fundamental part of the preparatory stages of virtually all design-led projects. It is the core method by which ideas and concepts are envisaged and ultimately shared with collaborators, clients and audiences. Aimed at students and those interested in entering the animation business, this book explores the pre-production work essential for producing great animation. It gives readers a real insight into this work through its outstanding range of images.
Stop-motion Animation explores how all the elements of film-making – camera work, design, colour, lighting, editing, music and storytelling - come together in this unique art form. With tips and suggestions to help you get the most out of your films, and with examples from some of the masters of the craft, Barry Purves shows how to make the most of the movement, characters and stories that typify stop-motion. With dozens of beautiful new examples from around the world, this new edition includes a project in each chapter, with pointers on finding a story and characters, developing a script and storyboard, constructing puppets and dealing with the practicalities of film-making. These projects combine to lead you through the creation of your first one-minute stop-motion animation.
Basics Animation 02: Digital Animation takes a comprehensive look at the history of the medium, its growth and development over the last 50 years. This book features exciting contributions from innovators and pioneers in the medium as well as present day practitioners in the cinema, game, and television industries.
Driven by the demands of research and the entertainment industry, the techniques of animation are pushed to render increasingly complex objects with ever-greater life-like appearance and motion. This rapid progression of knowledge and technique impacts professional developers, as well as students. Developers must maintain their understanding of conceptual foundations, while their animation tools become ever more complex and specialized. The second edition of Rick Parent's Computer Animation is an excellent resource for the designers who must meet this challenge. The first edition established its reputation as the best technically oriented animation text. This new edition focuses on the many recent developments in animation technology, including fluid animation, human figure animation, and soft body animation. The new edition revises and expands coverage of topics such as quaternions, natural phenomenon, facial animation, and inverse kinematics. The book includes up-to-date discussions of Maya scripting and the Maya C++ API, programming on real-time 3D graphics hardware, collision detection, motion capture, and motion capture data processing. - New up-to-the-moment coverage of hot topics like real-time 3D graphics, collision detection, fluid and soft-body animation and more! - Companion site with animation clips drawn from research & entertainment and code samples - Describes the mathematical and algorithmic foundations of animation that provide the animator with a deep understanding and control of technique
The Fundamentals of Animation by Paul Wells offers an illustrated and visually stimulating introduction to the key elements of animation. It discusses the key principles and processes involved in animation, exploring the entirety of the creative process from finding and researching a concept, through the preparation and techniques used, to the execution of the work. Each stage is presented in an engaging visual style, accompanied by examples and analysis of contemporary student and commercial animation. The book also discusses the links between animation and the styles and narratives of other areas of popular culture, aligning theory and ideas to practical advice. It includes a section for aspiring animators examining career paths, portfolios and the structure of the creative industries.
Did you learn the 12 Principles of Animation, thinking it would make you a great animator, only to discover that there was so much more still to learn after that? Have you been frustrated trying to find training on the internet other than just the same old basics? Is an animation school too expensive or difficult a prospect for you? Would you prefer not to spend tens of thousands of dollars? Are you already working in the industry but you're feeling like you will never improve? Do you wish that you could just download the brain of a veteran animator? This informative and easy to read book will teach you how to become a highly skilled professional animator - without having to spend a fortune going to school! By the end of the book, you will have a solid plan for success, including a description of the wide variety of skills you need to learn and how to find the resources to learn it all as inexpensively as possible. It covers ways of discovering your own personalized method of learning, daily training techniques, and a method for fast-tracking your learning to cut years off of your training time. How To Animate is the first of it's kind - a series of 26 books collecting everything I have learned so far in my 30+ year career. It contains all of the advanced techniques that would normally take a lifetime to master! The books are broken into three distinct groups - from techniques to specific challenges to career skills. The first book, Advancing Your Animation Beyond The Basics, is the gateway to all of the others. It will show you what skills you need to learn to become a great animator. The other books in this series will teach you those skills. It doesn't matter what style of animation you do - 3D, 2D, Traditional, Stop Motion - from cartoons to Visual Effects, the techniques, theories and mindset taught in these books directly relate to all of them. Advancing Your Animation Beyond The Basics will lay the foundation for your career in the industry by: * Introducing you to the 4 pillars of Learning Animation - the amazing 4 part system that will allow you to learn, absorb and internalize even the most complex animation skills! * Teaching you all of the important mental skills you will need and how to overcome the mental and emotional roadblocks that are holding you back. * Describing all of the important internal skills you need to clearly visualize your animation in your head - skills like acting, body language, cinematography, interpreting reference and much more. * Planning how you will learn these skills in the best possible method for you as an individual, based on the methods that you personally use to absorb information and skills best! There is no fluff here to pad out the pages and no "history of animation" or other subjects that have already been covered a thousand times in other books. Advancing Your Animation Beyond The Basics will give you the info you want quickly, in a way that you can absorb it and use it immediately. If you're like me, then when you read a book, you are constantly checking your progress to see how much longer it's going to take to get through it. This book is as concise as possible so they can pack as much useful info into as small a space as possible! What's stopping you from taking this one simple step that could change your animation career forever?
The essential fundamentals of 3D animation for aspiring 3D artists 3D is everywhere--video games, movie and television special effects, mobile devices, etc. Many aspiring artists and animators have grown up with 3D and computers, and naturally gravitate to this field as their area of interest. Bringing a blend of studio and classroom experience to offer you thorough coverage of the 3D animation industry, this must-have book shows you what it takes to create compelling and realistic 3D imagery. Serves as the first step to understanding the language of 3D and computer graphics (CG) Covers 3D animation basics: pre-production, modeling, animation, rendering, and post-production Dissects core 3D concepts including design, film, video, and games Examines what artistic and technical skills are needed to succeed in the industry Offers helpful real-world scenarios and informative interviews with key educators and studio and industry professionals Whether you're considering a career in as a 3D artist or simply wish to expand your understanding of general CG principles, this book will give you a great overview and knowledge of core 3D Animation concepts and the industry.