The classic guide to animation, from timing and spacing to walks, runs and acting, by an Oscar-winning master
The animator's essential manual
Richard Williams, the animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, spent decades learning from the great Disney and Warner Bros. animators. In this book he passes their methods on. With hundreds of his own drawings, he explains the core principles of movement, from timing and spacing to walks, runs, weight and acting, for hand-drawn, computer, stop-motion and game animators alike.
Who will enjoy it
Animation students, professional animators of any medium, illustrators and anyone curious about how movement is brought to life.
What you will get
The essential animation handbook, packed with clear drawings and practical lessons from a master, valuable for beginners and professionals in every style of animation.
The Animator's Survival Kit Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Nonfiction · Animation · Drawing · Filmmaking
Length
392 pages · ≈ 12 h
More about this book
Williams was a celebrated animator who won Academy Awards for his work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and spent many years on his own feature, The Thief and the Cobbler. Early in his career he sought out veterans of the golden age of animation, such as the Disney animator Milt Kahl and the Warner Bros. animator Ken Harris, and studied their methods. He then ran intensive masterclasses for animators around the world, and this book grew out of those classes.
The book starts with the basics: why timing and spacing matter, how to plan key drawings, extremes and breakdowns, and how to use charts and in-betweens. It then works through the walk in great detail, with many variations, before moving to runs, jumps, flexibility, weight, overlapping action, anticipation and accents. Later chapters cover dialogue, acting, animal movement and directing. Almost every page is illustrated with Williams's lively drawings and practical tips, and the advice applies just as well to computer animation as to pencil and paper. The expanded edition added more material on animals and realistic movement.
Practical, encouraging and often funny. About 392 pages in the expanded paperback edition.
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