Character Animation Crash Course!

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
This title includes a book and CD. This book is a veritable Genie's lamp filled with everything the aspiring animator could wish for! Renowned animator Eric Goldberg's detailed text and drawings illuminate how to conceive characters 'from the inside out' to create strong personalities. Classic animation techniques are analyzed and brought to life through this unique book and its accompanying CD that offers readers animated movie examples that show, in real time or frame-by-frame, the author's principles at work. Add to this Goldberg's discussions of classic cartoons and his witty, informative observations based on the wealth of knowledge he's gained during his 30-plus years in professional animation, and you have a tour-de-force guide to character animation with the classic touch. It includes a CD of animated movie files.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-11 rating:
Enjoyable
The book really provided a lot of good insight into animation that other books missed. The writing makes it easy to follow and understand. A great book for beginners.

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review by: Sir Books A Lot date: 2008-11-09 rating:
So so
I expected a lot more of this book, based on the review that I read.

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review by: date: 2008-10-22 rating:
Great book
Well...so far so good...i mean i received the book yesterday and ive read already the half of it!!!!It is a very good book...i would have loved much more examples but i can understand that the subject is so wide that would have needed an entire encyclopedia^__^
Its a 'must' for everyone who love animation!!!

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review by: date: 2008-10-19 rating:
Yeah, Get This One Too
Animation is an insanely broad topic. Far too huge to ever cover in one book. Listening to master animators on "The Animation Podcast" and else reveals that everyone's approach to this artform is different. And yet most animation books cover the same content.

For many years, Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival Kit has been the gold standard of animation books, and rightfully so. Lucky for us, fellow animation guru Eric Goldberg's "Character Animation Crash Course" isn't just overlap from Williams' work and teaches us different aspects of animation that other books haven't covered.

Goldberg covers aspects of animation far less academically than Williams and rather focuses on things from a character standpoint, how you could apply a technique to a specific character. He also list several classic cartoons (most if not all of which are on DVD) for examples of each particular technique.

He also covers how control the overall shape volume of what's moving, even for flat, graphic characters, and goes in depth on animation "gimmicks" like smear drawings, zip lines, staggers etc... that are often mentioned, but never properly explained.

Probably the most informative part of the book for me was the section on character construction, covering many of the ins and outs of designing an animatable character that I haven't seen in other books.

"Character Animation Crash Course" also has the one big thing "Animator's Survival Kit" doesn't: A CD-ROM of the animations shown that you can watch and frame through to better understand the lessons in the book.

Hopefully someday other master animators will do what Eric Goldberg's done with "Character Animation Crash Course." Write an animation book that has unique outlook on the artform and that imparts some new pearls of knowledge on the subject. Until then, you have to at least add this book to your shelf. Right next to The Animator's Survival Kit of course.


review by: Animator date: 2008-09-20 rating:
Great Book!
Even if you've been in the animation industry for a long time and think you know it all, this book is full of great techniques and tips. Any artist needs to review these techniques from time to time. Well written, well illustrated, this is a welcomed addition to anyone's art arsenal with emphasis on animation.

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