NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/arts/animatio/5742

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Subject: Animation Books (was Re: Animation: anybody ...)
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Organization: St. Mary's University, Halifax, N.S., Canada
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 12:30:31 GMT

Ok there seems to be a thread developing for a request for book titles.
I've posted this before, but here it is again. These are the books in my
personal collection (by no means it is all inclusive):



Robert Corns               [e-mail]        Dept of Physics
Saint Mary's University          Halifax         Nova Scotia     Canada

************************ Historical/Biographical ***********************

1) Leonard Maltin; "Of Mice and Magic --- A History of American Animated
      Cartoons"; printed in Oct 1980; A Plume book --- New American
      Library; ISBN 0-452-25240-7

      This presents a history of many of the pre 1960's studios.
      It gives a detail filmography of the studios in the
      appendix. Good for an overall history of the US animation houses.

2) Chuck Jones; "Chuck Amuck --- The Life and Times of an Animated
      Cartoonist"; printed in Nov 1990; Avon Books; ISBN 0-380-71214-8

      An autobiography of Chuck Jones. Need I say more. It has a
      fair number of sketches, stories etc about the Warner Brother
      studios. Includes a fimography.

3) Joe Adamson; "Tex Avery: King of Cartoons"; printed in 1975;
      A Da Capo Paperback; ISBN 0-306-80248-1

      A biography of Tex Avery. It has a filmography at the back that
      lists the credits and gives a short description and rating of each
      cartoon. There is an interview with Tex Avery and a fair number
      of black and white stills for films, character sheets etc.

4) Patrick Brion; "Tex Avery"; printed in 1986; Schuler;
      ISBN 3-7796-5238-25

      A biography of Tex Avery. This copy is written in German,
      but it has an good collection of colour prints, storyboards
      and production sheets. The filmography also includes a
      description of each short with a small picture or two from
      each. It is not too bad a book, even if you can't read German
      (which I can't BTW).

5) Christopher Finch; "The Art of Walt Disney --- From Mickey Mouse
      to the Magic Kingdoms" concise edition; printed 1975; Abrams
      ISBN 0-8109-9007-5

      A biography of Walt Disney and a history of his studio, parks etc.
      It has a good collection of colour photos.

6) "The Complete KODAK Animation Book"; printed in 1983; Kodak
      Publication No. H-6, CAT 125 7682; ISBN 0-87985-330-1

      This book is a mixture of many different aspect of animation.
      It begins with a short history of animation and then discusses
      the various techniques that are commonly used. The discussion
      here is more about the techniques rather than how to do them.
      It gives a brief overview of the production steps in making a
      film. This is followed by a series of interviews with animators
      and then a short over view of animation around the world. There
      are a lot of nice colour pictures and it has an appendix with
      a list of suppliers of animation supplies and dealers for cel art.



********************* How to Animate Books ***********************

1) Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston; "Disney Animation --- The Illusion
      of Life", 1st edition, 4th printing; printed in 1981;
      Abbeville; ISBN 0-89659-232-4 and 0-89659-233-2 (deluxe edition)

      This book is a mixture of history and practicalities. It gives
      a detailed account of the history of the development of the
      animation techniques and goes into a lot of detail about the
      production aspects of the film making process. It is also
      particularly strong in examining character development and
      does a decent job at explaining many of the fundamental
      principles of animation.

2) Kit Laybourne; "The Animation Book"; printed in 1979; Crown
      Publishers Inc; ISBN 0-517-53389-8 (cloth) and 0-517-52946-7 (paper)

      This book's strong point is its presentation of different
      styles and mediums that can be used in animation. A series
      of exercises in the various styles/mediums are given.
      There are two nice sections examining equipment and resources
      (i.e. books, suppliers, distributers etc). Some of the
      information in these last two sections will be dated.

3) Tony White; "The Animator's Workbook"; printed in 1986;
      Watson-Guptill Publications; ISBN 0-8230-0228-4

      This books specializes as a how-to-animate book. It specializes
      in the cel-animation style and focuses primarily on animation
      principles. IMHO it is one the best books that deals with
      the how to animate.

4) Dr. Roy P. Madsen; "Animated Film: Concepts, Methods, Uses"; printed
      in 1969; Interland Publishing Inc.; Library of Congress Catalog
      Card Number 69-16776

      Although somewhat dated, this book by far is the best at describing
      the technical aspects of animation such as the use of the
      pantograph, the planning of trucks and pans etc. It runs the
      guantlet topics in animation, giving a brief history of it and
      the production sequence. It even has a chapter devoted to the
      rendering cels and special uses that can be made of them. At
      the end there is a glossary of all the specialized terminolgy.
      It is also the only book I've seen which discusses the planning
      of a filmograph. To quote:
          "Filmograph is an animation technique in which still
          photographs or artwork are infused with the spirit
          of life and the illusion of motion by means of optical
          effects, zooms and pans over the pictures"

5) S. S. Wilson; "Puppets and People"; printed in 1980; The Tantivy Press;
      ISBN 0-489-02312-5

      This book is specifically written for how to do puppet animation.
      It gives a good discussion about armatures and the motion
      of the puppet and explains how to combine puppets and live
      action through matte shots and rear projection.

      BTW this is the only book I've ever found that is solely dedicated
      to puppet animation. There is some discussion in the other
      books listed here, but not to the level of information found
      in this book.

6) Shamus Culhane; "Animation --- From Script to Screen"; printed
      in 1988; St. Martin's Press; ISBN 0-312-02162-3

      This is as the title suggests. A book that discusses how to
      make an animated film. It does a fair job at presenting the
      the animation process. Mr. Culhane is certainly more enthusiastic
      than many of the others authors and the book is written on a
      more personal level. He brings home a number of points that
      I've not seen in any of the books listed. For example he
      discusses the attitude the artist should have when starting to
      rough in a new sequence.

7) Preston Blair; "Animation"; Walter T. Foster

      This is an oversized learn-to-draw-cartoons paperback book. The
      text is quite terse but does bring across the message of each
      lesson. The book steps through the fundamentals of how to
      draw and design characters and the basic principles of animation.
      There are lots of example pictures and I refer to it fairly
      regularly. It is an inexpensive book and well worth having.