Animation from Pencils to Pixels: Classical Techniques for the Digital Animator 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

I have studied animation for the last several years. I am a Flash designer specializing in E-learning in the Seattle market. I am not just a casual reader of this topic.Why I like this book. When you go to school for animation you have a lot of stuff thrown at you and no matter how good your notes are you can not remember it all. You need to refresh your skills. This book was not only good at that but also much more. It is a fun read, an interesting read.This book covers the complete process from picking up the pencil to marketing/distribution. Tony knows his stuff, he should he has been a professional animator for many years and you have probably seen his works. If you have seen the Pink Panther Strikes Again ("does your dog bite?") you have, he did all the animation for the film.Traditional animation is an art form and it seems like it is finally getting some of the respect it deserves. 3D is the rage these days, Pixel does an excellent job and nobody does it better, unfortunately there are more bad 3D feature films than good. Even Disney is hiring back some traditional animators and creating some old school, that's cool.If you want to learn animation pick up this book and The Illusion of Life and you will learn so very much. But the learning process also requires doing. Like the saying goes, "A dream and a number 2 pencil will take you anywhere".Keith JohnsonManager of the Seattle Flash User GroupFlash Animator/ E-Learning Specialist

This was recommended to me by my animation professor, because it's what I want to do (getting this textbook was optional for our class). Nice book with cool tips and overviews on some basic principles. I used it only a couple times though as I felt it was still a little lacking in some detail and examples, but I suppose some of the things I was looking for were really more specific. I found myself borrowing the Animator's Survival Kit from my professor multiple times because it seemed to serve my needs a little bit better. Then again, I was taking a 2D hand-drawn animation class, so some of the things about digital animation in this book weren't of much use to me in the past semester, hence why Richard Williams' book helped me out a bit more. Still nice to have on hand, though! I do like that it has tips on legalities and production for animated film making for those wishing to do independent work.

If you're looking for a book that covers almost every aspect of the animation industry in as much detail as a book can then this is the book for you. Not only does it cover the process of animating and creating animated films it also covers all the other areas of the industry often barely touched on in other books.With chapters on Project financing, management, copyright issues, production planning and more it has all the information you'll need to plan an independent production to a professional level as well as prepare you for working as part of a studio team.Primarily aimed at classical 2D animation, Tony White takes you through all the different methods of animating 2D characters, from hand drawn on paper right through to digital vector animation concepts and techniques. He then shows you how all that 2D animation knowledge can be applied to animating 3D computer generated character models.Through out the book Tony continually references his own short, animated film, Endangered Species (included on the accompanying CD ROM), using it to show examples of everything from how he wrote up project management charts and dope sheets to how each scene was animated - he also does a scene by scene detailed break down of the films construction.You can't really go too far wrong with a book that even talks about many health issues (on the CD ROM) facing animators as a result of their work and how to avoid them.I found the book easy to follow, very comprehensive and an excellent source for future reference. It's perhaps not the only book you'll ever need but it's an excellent foundation book for any aspiring animator, regardless of the type of animation they're most interested in. Definitely a MUST HAVE.

The long-awaited sequel to Tony White's ANIMATOR'S WORKBOOK is worth the wait.ANIMATION FROM PENCILS TO PIXELS is unique among animation books since artwork from White's short film ENDANGERED SPECIES is used to illustrate most of the sections of the book, though some student work is also included. Some material from THE ANIMATOR'S WORKBOOK is repeated, mainly in the sections that deal with action analysis. White has included valuable chapters on Flash and vector-based 2D animation. While drawing is clearly his first love there are also chapters on CGI '3D' animation written from the perspective of a professional animator.The massive book (over 500 pages long) is readable and easy to navigate. Images are large and well-placed (this has been a notable failing in many animation how-to books.)It's quite ambitious to incorporate preproduction, production, and post in two media into one volume. If you want a good, well written overview of animation production in the 21st century, this is the book to get.I would like to see ENDANGERED SPECIES on a full DVD copy; the PDF format in the original edition is a bit hard to play on this computer.

As a beginner 2d animator (with past experience in 3d), I've been searching for a book that provides soup-to-nuts, clear information regarding every stage of the animation process. Having leafed through books at Barnes and Noble, I found that most books would cover a little something (like discussing squash and stretch technique in classical animation), but nothing thorough enough to give me the comprehensive foundation that I need. While I haven't finished this yet, I've gone through the chapters...and this book has everything (including discussion of film shots, lenses, framing, etc.) *This* was money well spent.

Il librò è molto completo, è proprio un libro, nel senso che non ci sono tantissime illustrazioni, è da leggere ecco. Inoltre è in inglese, il che può rappresentare un ostacolo per chi non ha dimestichezza con la lingua. In realtà con un pò di pazienza si può leggere, anche se il fatto che sia troppo "da leggere" lo rende forse più pesante rispetto all'argomento che tratta, e alle difficoltà della lingua.