July 14, 2003
-
How-To-Animate Book List
Here’s a list of recommended books for learning 2D character animation. I wish I had some of these books when I first started out as an Inbetweener/Clean-up artist.
- The Animators Survival Kit - Richard Williams. There is a lot of information in here. Hundreds of walk cycles with detailed frame-by-frame examples, inbetweening tips, lots of personal stories and anecdotes by Dick.
- The Animators Workbook - Tony White. This is a good basic how-to book and is great for any beginner to the 2D industry. Some of the technical stuff is a bit outdated, but the animation examples are really simply and easy to understand.
- Timing For Animation - John Halas & Harold Whitaker.This is a must-have, and before Richard Williams’ fat bible was published, this was the only book of its kind in the world – in terms of explaining timing in animation. The new release is expensive (about AUD$60) but worth it.
- Cartoon Animation - Preston Blair. Another must-have. The character designs maybe old-fashioned Disneyesque, but there are loads of inspiring tips on character construction, posing and acting. Also includes famous animated sequences eg Red Hot Riding Hood.
- Tezuka School of Animation Vols 1 & 2 - Osamu Tezuka. These two volumes are brand new, recently released and are a trully amazing reference for animators who want to animate realistic movement. There are walk cycles for a hundred different animals in Volume 2 – front, side, back, 3/4 angles; and Volume 1 covers human movement and animated effects like smoke, rain, fire etc.
- The Illusion of Life - Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston. This isn’t really a how-to book, but there are some useful and inspiring sections with beautiful animation drawings from Disney’s early features.
There are many many more books on animation, but I think these are the most important ones for the aspiring 2D character animator. Most of these books are available from Kinokuniya Bookstore (Sydney); if not, then online.
-
Comments (2)
Interesting booklist. What exactly is a inbetween/clean-up artist though? (Please excuse my ignorance in this…)
hi lili, oscar from mexico here, the list you have are exelent i have some of em, but i like to share this ones, are from a exelent animator from spain Raul garcia, he have two exelent books about animation , in my opinion very superior to some of your list, the only bad news is they are in spanish
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/raulgarci/myhomepage/book.htm
saludos