Animation from Pencils to Pixels: Classical Techniques for the Digital Animator

EBook Description: Just add talent. This comprehensive book gives today's digital animators all the lessons they never had - classical animation techniques used by the most original animators of our time. Review "From traditional to computer animation, from film to gaming, a great text for all who teach." - Robert Adams, Walt Disney Productions/Warner Bros "All encompassing" - Brian Martin, FOX NET Animator ". this book is . a well-written, smart tomes that makes you wish the author was one of your teachers in school. Because the book resonates with wisdom that comes with spending years in the trenches of Toon Town, it should be a must-read for anyone who wants to brave the waters of digital animation. Overall, it's a handsome companion to White's earlier primer, The animator's Workbook." Animation, Nov. 2006

What people have said about 'Character Animation' by Steve Roberts. "Animators are fortunate, not for them the limitations of the theatrical stage or the many hazards of a live action film location shoot! Their only limitations are their imaginations and the size of their chequebooks. With the cosmos at their disposal plus all the colours and sounds in the universe - animation can be a daunting prospect! Small wonder some take up gardening or D.I.Y. Steve Roberts (the first time I saw him was at Farnham's Animation course - he was remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a satire) is not easily daunted. He has written and illustrated a remarkable book that actually makes animation easy to understand. Using simple illustrations, he takes the reader through every situation they are likely to come across in their progress towards believable animation. The key to this book is SIMPLICITY. Keep it simple! Keep it simple -parting the red sea is for Cecil. B. De. Mille." Oscar winning animation director Bob Godfrey. "It was surely a matter of time before a publication like this emerged. An understanding of basic animation principles is often overlooked in 3D computer animation. This book will do much to put that right; it is an essential source of knowledge, which will enable 2D and 3D animators to understand each other's purpose". Oscar winning animation director Daniel Greaves of Tandem Films. "Finally! A forthright approach to a complex art form. An inspired text that fuses an essential understanding of fundamental traditional methods and technology". Rita Osei, Animation & Graphics Producer, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Toonami. "A fantastic, comprehensive, but above all practical guide to character animation. The well-pitched progressive exercises at the core of this book make it a must have for all serious animation wannabes." Andrew Lindsay, Senior Animator, Lionhead Studios. "At last! A definitive work on the principles of 3D animation, from a highly experienced traditional animator. Steve Roberts brings his substantial knowledge of teaching the fundamental techniques of animation to this essential reference work - anyone who wants to make a career in CG animation needs this book!" Dr Mike Milne, Director of Computer Animation, Framestore CFC 'This well-written, easy-to-follow book is a fascinating and comprehensive read, and guide into, the world of animation. 'Character animation in 3D is jam packed full with superb illustrations and the animation exercises in this book are as simple as possible so that you are able to build a firm foundation of skills upon which to develop your own ideas. From traditional 2D animation techniques and stills through to learning and improving your 3d animation, the book guides and inspires even the most inexperienced animators to produce eye catching, original and professional looking animations.' David Smith. www.skwigly.co.uk 'Very nice! It's a great resource that I'd gladly recommend to any CG animator. We always grow by learning our animation roots that came before the world of pixels and polygons. Great job!' Award winning animator Keith Lango. www.keithlango.com/ 'COOL NEW BOOK BY STEVE ROBERTS "Character Animation in 3D" (Focal Press, 2004) is an excellent primer as well as a refresher, clearly and effectively presented by a respected teacher. Steve Roberts' love for animation is abundantly clear on every page.

Foundation Silverlight 3 Animation

Silverlight is Microsoft's breakthrough technology for creating rich experiences on the web. This book illustrates the power of Silverlight as a graphics, animation, and game-creation tool. It teaches the fundamentals of computer animation, using trigonometry and vector movement before moving on to more advanced topics such as physics modeling and particle systems.

With full code examples for all types of animation and interaction, this is an invaluable resource for both Silverlight beginners and more advanced users.

* Fully updated for Silverlight 3
* See the power of Silverlight in action
* Learn the building blocks of animation in Silverlight 2

The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917

From the first examples in 1917 to today�s feature-length animated masterpieces like Princess Mononoke, Japanese animation (or anime) has drawn a devoted international fan base. For quite some time, these enthusiasts have needed an all-encompassing, detail-oriented reference work. Fortunately, Clements and McCarthy, who coedited The Erotic Anime Movie Guide and have an outstanding history in anime indexing, translation, and criticism, are just the folks to carry it off.

Choosing the best examples from a field that was about twice the final number of entries, the authors review and detail more than 2000 anime films and TV series. Each entry includes a short synopsis, commentary, details about key creative personnel, and evaluation of the work�s significance. Over 100 illustrations representing major releases are sprinkled throughout. Other notable features include a selective bibliography, a name/studio index, and a title index that makes it easy to go right to the vital information about a particular example. The end product is a huge, exhaustive, timely, and authoritative compendium of information that will be appreciated by anime experts and neophytes alike. Recommended for all libraries and essential for film and media collections.

The Art of Flash Animation: Creative Cartooning

There are a number of manuals available on Flash, but too many of them get bogged down in details about ActionScript or interactivity. Frustrated with wading through such information in other Flash manuals, author/illustrator Mark Stephen Smith set out to make the book he wished he had when he started learning Flash. This book is both a practical primer in the fundamentals of classical, hand-drawn 2D screen animation and a basic introduction to Flash's expert handling of recyclable symbols that make independent, web, and television animation both more affordable and more efficient. It is conveniently divided into two parts. Part I is for those who are new to the terms and techniques of hand-drawn animation, character design, and storyboards. Part II covers scanning and digitizing artwork into Flash, as well as setting up scenes and symbols.

Foundation Flash Cartoon Animation (Foundation)

Whether you are an experienced Flash designer or developer looking for a guide to doing animation in Flash, or a novice to Flash who is looking for an effective way to create and distribute animations, this book will prove invaluable to you.

Covering every aspect of Flash animation, the book is a fast-paced yet thorough review of the Flash animation process.

Written by the Emmy-Award winning team at ANIMAX, this book not only reveals the step-by-step process followed by one of today's leading Flash animation studios, it gives you valuable tips and tricks to take your Flash animation to the next level. Divided into three phases of production (pre-production, animation, post-production) this book breaks the Flash animation process into smaller, more manageable steps. And because the authors approach the animation process from various perspectives (such as producer, animator, and editor) the book balances many of the real-world issues facing today's Flash animators, from artistic to technical to financial. The book starts off by looking at planning and designing an animation project, including working out your goals, and putting together character libraries and storyboards. Next up we look at the production phase, which includes using plug-ins to make your work more efficient, implementing your animation, and adding special effects. Finally, we look at post-production work, including how After Effects can be used effectively alongside Flash for tasks such as camera mechanics, how to make Flash not look like Flash, and tips and tricks from the experts. Whatever the reason, like millions of others around the world you've become interested in Flash animation. And you've come to the right place to learn more. This book is compatible with pretty much any fairly recent version of Flash.

ASP.NET 3.5 Website Online Adobe Flash CS3: ActionScript 3 Animation and GamesUsing C# & VB

Advance your knowledge and use of ActionScript 3 by taking a specific look into Animation and Game Design. Instructed by John Ulliman this series which is available online and on DVD-ROM goes step-by-step through the new ActionScript 3 structure and classes. You'll also get some hands-on experience by building several typical games using Flash CS3 and ActionScript. Plus you will also learn how to build your own ActionScript 3 custom class files.
Running Time: 9.7 Hrs
Project Files: Included
Highlights
Learn how to use the new AS3 display classes f structuring everything that appears in your Flash applications.
Gain insight into several animation techniques including; the EnterFrame Event the new Timer Class and the Transitions package including tweens and easing.
Try out the new Copy and Paste feature f animation and learn how you can bridge the gap between detailed timeline animations and ActionScript.
Create games using a variety of control techniques like mouse and keyboard controls as well as how to handle typical game character animations.
Discover strategies and structures of typical game design including how to create a shooter game keyboard and text entry games a tile based game and a typical game engine.

Blender 2.5 Character Animation

Blender is an open source 3D graphics application that can be used for modeling, rigging, animating, rendering and thousands of other things. While modeling characters isnt the biggest of your worries, animating them to make them feel as good as alive is what differentiates a professional from an amateur.

Orignal Content Provider � epltv.net

This book offers clear, illustrative, and easy to follow recipes to create character rigs and animations for common situations. Bring your characters to life by understanding the principles, techniques and approaches involved in creating rigs and animations, youll be able to adapt them to your own characters and films.

The book offers clear step by step tutorials, with detailed explanations, screenshots and support files to help you understand theprinciples behind each topic. Each recipe covers a logical step of the complete creation of a character rig and animation, so youre not overwhelmed with too much information at once.

You�ll see numerous examples and screenshots that guide to achieve various rigging and animation tasks, logically separated so you can understand each in detail. The rigging topics are divided by each region of the body (torso, limbs, face, eyes), and further separated by the specific topic (neck, fingers, mouth, eyelids, etc) for clarity. All rigging tasks are accomplished with the built in tools in Blender, without the complexity of coding custom Python behaviors or user interface elements.

The animation topics deal with common situations found in real world productions, showing good practices to understand and overcome the challenges.

Digital Character Animation 3

Whether you�re creating animation for television, advertising, games, or multimedia, [digital] Character Animation 3 can help you bring your imagination to life. In this updated classic, both newcomers to digital animation and old hands looking to hone existing skills will find essential techniques for creating lively, professional-quality animation that are applicable to any software application.

Character Animation

Understand and make your characters , so that your audience believes they're alive See common approaches when animating your characters in real world situations Learn the techniques needed to achieve various setups, from IK-FK blending to corrective shape keys and eyes controllers The only book to cover advanced aspects of working with character animation in Blender. In Detail Blender is an open source 3D graphics application that can be used for modeling, rigging, animating, rendering and thousands of other things. While modeling characters isn't the biggest of your worries, animating them to make them feel as-good-as alive is what differentiates a professional from an amateur. This book offers clear, illustrative, and easy-to-follow recipes to create character rigs and animations for common situations. Bring your characters to life by understanding the principles, techniques and approaches involved in creating rigs and animations, you'll be able to adapt them to your own characters and films. The book offers clear step-by-step tutorials, with detailed explanations, screenshots and support files to help you understand the principles behind each topic. Each recipe covers a logical step of the complete creation of a character rig and animation, so you're not overwhelmed with too much information at once. download link

Intuitive Animation With Robert

In this DVD Robert Kuczera guides you through his character animation process from beginning to end. He first describes how to prepare the Maya Workspace to improve and optimize your workflow. Next, he shows how to prepare a scene for animation and animate the character. He discusses the timeline, Graph Editor, Dopesheet, layers, shelves, hot keys and MEL scripts. Robert demonstrates how to use filmed reference material to identify the key poses and place the breakdowns and in-betweens. The lecture is focused on showing you how to animate precisely and quickly through the camera. Robert presents an insider�s view of how professional animators work, showing workflow and techniques with supporting discussions on the principles of animation.
Topic Covered
* Animation Principles
* Fast Animation
* Key Poses
* Breakdowns
* Inbetweens
* Animation Workflow
* Optimizing the Workflow
* Preparing the Maya Environment
* Timeline
* Graph Editor
* Dope sheet
* Layer
* Shelves
* Hot Keys
* MEL Scripts

Chapter
1. Introduction
2. Preparing the Maya Environment
3. Acting out the Scene
4. Staging and Blocking � First Pass
5. Adjusting and Optimizing the Key Poses
6. Breakdown and Inbetweens, Part 1
7. Breakdown and Inbetweens, Part 2
8. Getting into the Details, Part 1
9. Getting into the Details, Part 2
10. Getting into the Details, Part 3
11. Finalizing the Animation

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