Books I'm reading
Since we have a break from HW I thought it would be a good time to catch up on some of the reading I haven't gotten a chance to keep up on.I just finished Acting for Animators by Ed Hooks, foreword by Brad Bird, this was a great book that really spelled out the basics us animators need to know to begin to get our heads around the art of acting. I especially liked the parts about character center, what parts of the body the character leads with, and the chapter about associating your character with an animal that demonstrates a similar personality. Another major breakthrough I learned is that your character should always be playing an action in persuit of an objective, ALWAYS, they should never be doing nothing. Even in Toy Story when the people are in the room, the toys aren't doing "nothing" they are trying with every effore to keep still so as not to spill the beans. I can't wait to move on to Acting in Animation, a look at 12 animated films, by Ed Hooks.
Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation, by AM's own Wayne Gilbert. I so enjoyed the class on Force that Wayne taught to the Body Mechanics class, it was one of my favorites so far. He is really a genius when it comes to conveying believeable weight and force in a character. This book is laid out in a very clear and easy to understand way. Also reading Force, The Key to Capturing Life Through Drawing, by Michael Mattesi.
I just started a book called Unmasking the Face by Paul Ekman, I haven't gotten too far yet but this book is about understanding the facial expressions that convery emotion. Of course there is no way to scientifically nail down all this stuff but this book goes through much of the different types of emotions as well as covering of emotions, pretending NOT to feel certain emotions. Another book on this subject is Manwatching by Desmond Morris, this is a huge, time tested book on the subject with many great pictures.
Ongoing Reading: Still trying to get through The Illusion of Life, and The Animator's Survival Kit.
Just for fun: Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami
posted by anthea @ 2:31 PM
4 Comments:
Man, I looooove that Force book. That and Wayne's book have been huge for me lately.
I am still waiting for "Animating Squishy" by A. Kerou to come out. I hear it is the definitive book on animating the North American Hairless Kitty! :)
And oh man, I can't believe somebody spammed your blog! Boooooo!!!
i hate spam, it's like i have a spaming stalker or something...
i am drowning in good books lately, there's so much good stuff out there. this week i'm pouring over as much as possible.
:)
the animated squishy vol 1, out this christmas.
Spammm??? From whom??
I'll take three copies of The Animated Squishy. Does a free Squishy come with every purchase? Cause Libbey wants a Squishy. She's good with small critters! A tiny Boston Terrier came up to her in the dog park yesterday, and she was soooo patient with it! She stood still while it licked her face! She never stand still!
So, in conclusion, Libbey would like to meet Squishy.
;-)
HA!You've got some
chocie books there.
Those are tops on
my stack laetly too.
I haven't read the
second Hooks book though.
sorry to hear about the spammer...
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