The Animator's Survival Kit: A Working Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Computer, Stop-motion, Games and Classical Animators (Applied Arts)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Richard Williams Our price £18.00 (£30.00) New from £13.42 Used from £11.99 Pages: 352 (Paperback) ISBN: 0571202284 Pub: Faber and Faber Pub date: 2001-11-05 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1795

Reader Reviews:

Every animator or character artist should have a copy! (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is the one, the daddy, the absolute MUST-HAVE for anybody with an interest in animation, character design, or concept art. Richard Williams is a genius and he shares his observations on the difficult life of a trainee artist as well as giving the benefit of his huge amounts of talent and experience.

This book is full of easy to follow hints and tips covering character posing and animation of all sorts. There's no hiding from the fact that even if you use computers to create 3D animation you still need a solid grounding in the fundamentals of motion, weight and timing and this is what Williams helps to explain. Everything is accompanied with detailed illustrations and sketches to help you work through to basic character setups through to complex walk cycles.

I've seen a lot of art books in my time but this is the one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Invaluable advice from a master of his art.

Fantastic even for the younger artists (1/1 people found this helpful)

I bought this book as Xmas present for my 11 year old (animation mad )son having read the reviews. In his own words "I havn't got through all of it but it is extremely helpful for my animation".

Apart from the digital blue camera we bought, this has been his most used and loved present. He finds the wording and pictures understandable, and the moving charactor pages fascinating. I have stumbled across a treasure that may well turn out to give him advancement for when he gets to high school (where they finally teach this stuff!)

Beyond price and yet totally affordable (10/12 people found this helpful)

Don't be fooled by the fact that this a paperback - this is an arm-wrenching book that more than justifies the effort needed to lift it. A humungously fantabulostic whizzbang of a book.

Other reviewers have pretty well said it all - but one comment I just have to repeat and add to is this -

If you're a newcomer to animation, this book is utterly essential.
If you're an experienced amateur or professional, this book has no other purpose than to enrich your life and extend your talents.
If you're just interested in animation, this book will have you reaching for a pencil in double-quick time.

The only book I've ever enountered that comes close to being this good is a slim (and now sadly out of print) little book by Bob Godfrey and originally published by the BBC. That was called 'The do-it-yourself film animation book' and this new book by Richard Williams is very much in that mould. This book is a 'how-to-do-it-yourself-book' of the highest order and covers just about every style, technique and idea you care to think about. More importantly, it will open your mind to the power and possibilities of traditional pencil-based animation.

After all, not everyone has the time, talent, inclination (or software) to learn computer animation, but almost everyone can use a pencil or brush (even amputees!) - and that is all you need. You don't even need to be a good artist to make animation work. Naturally, it does help - but it isn't essential, and this book will show you so many ideas and ways to go about making images move that you'll soon be itching to find your own solutions and ways forwards.

And THAT is the overpowering impression you get from this outstanding book - it makes you want to explore and to find out just what as-yet undiscovered worlds lie out there, a fraction of a millimetre beyond the tip of your pencil.

A Must Have (5/7 people found this helpful)

This is one of those books that every lecturer who teaches any kind of animation will tell you to buy, not suggest, TELL YOU TO BUY. A large section of the book explains animation history and some guide lines (like don't listen to music! lol) before breaking down different walk cycles and then moving on to other various things that can be animated. THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE FOR ANY LEVEL OF ANIMATOR (as even the legendary animators rules are altered in this book at some points).

Official Guide! (4/6 people found this helpful)

I remmber back in college where I had to take this book out and borrow it to study them at home. But then I managed to take it with me when i finished college lOl... That's because this book is sooooooo great, it covers the most importances of animation. It demonstrate the in between drawings, the movements of a character, describing the weight of an objects and how to exagerate your character. But by saying this, there is much more to this. Buy this book. This is the only book you need!

Similar Products

Timing for Animation

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation

The Animator's Workbook

How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS3, (How to Cheat in): The Art of Design and Animation (How to Cheat in)

Cracking Animation: The Aardman Book of 3-D Animation

Categories

Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories: