The Animator's Survival Kit
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:48 pm
I don't know anything about animation, other than what I've seen in hundreds of movies and short films over the years. When I started using Anime Studio I figured that it would do all the hard work for me, it would be the expert animator and I could just say "Hey, here's a shape and some bones, make it walk!"
Well, no.
Whenever anybody in this forum asks for animation advice, somebody invariably tells them to get Richard Williams' book "The Animator's Survival Kit." I did, and I'm working my way through it, and I can't recommend it enough.
To begin with it's a beautiful book. Most of it is hand-lettered, with hundreds upon hundreds of clear illustrations. You can just enjoy looking at the pictures...there's enough variety, clarity, and humour in them to make it a great read even if you DON'T care about animation.
The animation anecdotes are priceless as well. Williams learned from key animators from the '30s and '40s -- Ken Harris, Milt Kahl, Chuck Jones -- so the book is full of their anecdotes, quirks, innovations, and insights. Want to know WHY a certain technique was developed (or later discarded)? This book tells you all about it.
But then there's all the information about space and timing, weight and arcs, and a wealth of little tricks that animators have been using for years: breaking joints for dynamic effect, adding punch to movement with a single "contact" frame, and -- literally -- 111 pages devoted to every detail of walk cycles, run cycles, sneaks, jumps...how do you start? What do you draw first? How long should the cycle be? How do you make the movement distinctive? Pleasing? Clear to the viewer?
My point is that this is a really cool book and it's actually USEFUL. After struggling for a week on animating a running fox, this book taught me how to make a passable run cycle in a DAY, and it barely even touches on animals...this is because it breaks movement down in a sensible way that you can apply to anything, with a bit of work and thought.
I can't compare it to other books on animation because it's the only one I own, but I CAN say that if somebody tells you it will help you with a problem, they're probably right...AND you'll enjoy reading it (or simply looking at it) as an added bonus.
Cheers,
Muffy.
Well, no.
Whenever anybody in this forum asks for animation advice, somebody invariably tells them to get Richard Williams' book "The Animator's Survival Kit." I did, and I'm working my way through it, and I can't recommend it enough.
To begin with it's a beautiful book. Most of it is hand-lettered, with hundreds upon hundreds of clear illustrations. You can just enjoy looking at the pictures...there's enough variety, clarity, and humour in them to make it a great read even if you DON'T care about animation.
The animation anecdotes are priceless as well. Williams learned from key animators from the '30s and '40s -- Ken Harris, Milt Kahl, Chuck Jones -- so the book is full of their anecdotes, quirks, innovations, and insights. Want to know WHY a certain technique was developed (or later discarded)? This book tells you all about it.
But then there's all the information about space and timing, weight and arcs, and a wealth of little tricks that animators have been using for years: breaking joints for dynamic effect, adding punch to movement with a single "contact" frame, and -- literally -- 111 pages devoted to every detail of walk cycles, run cycles, sneaks, jumps...how do you start? What do you draw first? How long should the cycle be? How do you make the movement distinctive? Pleasing? Clear to the viewer?
My point is that this is a really cool book and it's actually USEFUL. After struggling for a week on animating a running fox, this book taught me how to make a passable run cycle in a DAY, and it barely even touches on animals...this is because it breaks movement down in a sensible way that you can apply to anything, with a bit of work and thought.
I can't compare it to other books on animation because it's the only one I own, but I CAN say that if somebody tells you it will help you with a problem, they're probably right...AND you'll enjoy reading it (or simply looking at it) as an added bonus.
Cheers,
Muffy.