[BOOK] Animation; The Global History

Animation: The Global History is a fantastic and comprehensive look into the history of international animation. It focuses on both the artistic achievements and the technical achievements from around the world. It delves into a variety of different areas, from the development of animation, animation in World War II, experimental animation, television animation, international animation and modernist animation plus many many more.

The book is written by Maureen Furniss, a program director of experimental animation. She teaches a range of animation history courses at CalArts and is the founding editor of Animation Journal and is also author to many other books about animation.

One of the main reasons that this book is a huge influence on my work is that it delves deeply into many major studios, particularly the Fleischer studio, a huge influence for When Dreams Became Data. It talks about the animation process the studio use, their character development over the years of animating and the entire timeline and history of the studio.

Overall I found this book to be a fantastic read, it is insightful and very informative, easily one of the best books I have read. I highly recommend this book to any animation enthusiast who is at all interested in the history of animation.

[BOOK] Cartoon Animation

Cartoon Animation is a fantastic book written by the legendary Preston Blair. Preston Blair was a character animator who worked for the Walt Disney Company, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department and Hanna-Barbera. This book is a sort of "how to draw" book with information about how to animate and draw using classic methods.

The book is incredibly useful to me as it has many areas where it discusses how to draw classic hands, faces and expressions. This is something that will be very useful when I begin animating Max the Cat, who uses these classic examples. 

This book is interesting compared to other books like this as it focuses specifically on work from around the 50s to the 70s. Although Max is to be set around the 30s, the principles would still apply to Max. Overall this book is very interesting and a great read, I believe that it will be very useful to me when I begin the production of the Max the Cat frames of animation and will help me even after I finish my MA.

[BOOK] Animation 101

Animation 101 is a fantastic insight into the world of animation. Written by Ernest Pintoff, an Oscar winning filmmaker who has taught animation throughout the world, he is an animation innovator who has influenced many and will continue to for years to come. His book introduce us into the industry of animation with insights from animation legends, such as; Noel Blanc, Bill Hanna, John Lasseter, Nick Park and many more.

The book talks about Ernest's life through animation, the animation he has worked on previously and stories about his experiences. He also discusses how animation has evolved through the ages and where it is now.

Animation 101 was cheap, I bought it for 1p with £2.80 postage, however the book has inspired me greatly. Ernest talks about his remarkable journey and celebrates animation throughout. Ernest has won The Winsor McCay award for lifetime achievement in the field of animation, in  his book he talks about his experiences from that award. The Winsor McCay award is something that one day I hope to get, a sort of dream if you will. To hear Ernest's view point for recieving this sparks my dream even more than it ever had been. 

This book is a great read, and it is dirt cheap. I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested at all in animation, it's entertaining and enlightening.

[BOOK] Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist

Chuck Amuck is an incredibly fantastic book, the way it is written is as if it is a script taken from one of the Looney Toons shorts. Chuck Jones is an American animator, filmmaker and cartoonist who is best known for his work with the Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes series.

The book is an autobiography on Chuck's life, it delves into his entire work and the characters he not only created, but also contributed to. The book isn't only an autobiography, it is written in such a way that also aids animators understand character development. It is sort of a biography into the development of Looney Toons as well.

The book is very fun to read, and it is enlightening and entertaining filled with images and drawings from early production, fully drawn and coloured cels and even photos of the animation team in production of one of the Looney Toons shorts. The book discusses each of Chuck's directed Looney Toons episodes and how it made an impact, how it was produced and what the response to the animates short was.

Overall, the book is incredibly insightful, a fantastic read for anybody who loves Warner Bros, Animation as much as myself. It is great to read about the life of Chuck Jones and how he contributed to animation, I would recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in animation and to anyone who enjoyed early Warner Bros. animation. 

[BOOK] Elemental Magic: The Art of Special Effects Animation

Elemental Magic is a fantastic book which explores special effects in animation and how to draw them. There are currently two books in the series and they each explore how animators recreated fiery blazes, rippling water, booming explosions, gusting winds, magical incantations, and magical transformations. This book is a must have for any animator who wishes to do more than just character animation, this is a book which can make the world you create come alive.

Not only is it instructional on how to create these effects, but it explores the theory and philosophy behind the creation of these special effects. Joseph Gilland has worked in the animation industry for over 30 years and has worked on feature hits such as Lilo & Stitch, Mulan and Tarzan and explains the entire process from blank page to final animation and also provides a website featuring videos where he creates these animations himself. The book breaks up each effect into chapters; from natural effects to man-made effects.

Overall the book is fascinating to read and a great book to study, it is filled with niche animation techniques that aren't normally addressed in other animation books, I hope these effects will aid me into the creation of my future animations, including the animation I am creating for my Masters.

[BOOK] The Animators Survival Kit

The Animators Survival Kit is one of the first animation books I ever bought back in 2012, it was incredibly useful to me back then when I was getting my feet with animation, and to this day it continues to be a huge help. The book is quite possibly the best source for animation references I or anyone could ask for, it has a vast amount of walk-cycle examples, expression and lip-syncing techniques and how weight can affect these characters. The author of the book, Richard Williams, who was the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit gives incredible insight into animation as a whole.

The best thing about the book, by far, are the walk-cycle examples. I would not even know where to begin with a walk-cycle without this book, it has over 100 pages dedicated to different variations of walk-cycles, run-cycles, jog, sprint and skip-cycles. These references will be incredibly useful now that I am in production of When Dreams Became Data, as particularly for Max the Cat, there are a good few walk and run-cycles located throughout the animation. Even as I read through the book now, 5 years after purchasing it, I have learnt something new which will greatly improve the traditional animation process, using animation charts to see where each movement will be on the animation paper.

Out of all the books I have purchased, along with The Illusion of Life, I cannot recommend it enough and I consider it one of the best books I own. It is insightful and tailored towards animators who already have the base knowledge of animation, most animation books or "how to animate" books are usually tailored towards people just starting out in animation, or people who have just taken interest, this book is certainly not that, it is written as if to help animators who understand the concept and principles of animation and make their lives so much easier.

"Many cartoonists and animators say that the very reason they do cartoons is to get away from realism and the realistic world into the free realms of the imagination. They'll correctly point out that most cartoon animals don't look like animals - they're designs, mental constructions. Mickey ain't no mouse, Sylvester ain't no cat."

[BOOK] Warner Bros Animation Art: The Characters and the Creators

Warner Bros Animation Art is a fantastic book which features artwork, character profiles and many many more wonderful bits of information about the Warner Bros animation. The book doesn't focus only on the Looney Toons, it focuses on all of their creations, such as Tiny Toons, Animatiacs and many spin offs, making this an all around book about the Warner Brothers universe. 

The book not only teems with information about the Warners universe, but also has so much art work, concept art and stills from episodes. As I have previously stated, I am influenced greatly by the Warner cartoons, as they have a very distinct wackiness that isn't found in Disney classics. Max the Cat has many things taken from Warner Bros animations, from the aesthetics of the character to how he acts, Max is self aware that he is an animated character, as are the Warner Bros in many of their animated cartoons, especially in Animaniacs and Tiny Toons.

Overall, this book is a brilliant read and I would recommend it to anyone, it has lots of information about the history of the studio as well as the history of the Warner cartoons. The character artwork in the book are brilliant references for Max the Cat and will be useful when I begin production of the animation.

"If the decades and decades of everything that was ever great about the Warner cartoons could be distilled into a single character, it would be Bugs Bunny."

[BOOK] The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation

The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation is a brilliant book which takes us through the history of Peanuts Animation, from A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965 to Happiness is a Warm Blanket in 2011. Although I have never really mentioned Peanuts animation before during the animation process, it is a big influence for the animated characters in my story, Peanuts animation is very simplistic as it follows the traditions of the comic strips, simplistically.

One of the great things about this book is that it not only talks about the stories that have been animated, but it also shows the pre-production, such as scripts, storyboards, concept art and character models, to the post production of more recent Peanuts animated films. I want May the Cat to have a simplicity to her that is often seen in the Peanuts animated features, I personally believe that Peanuts creates simplicity very well, as sometimes, simplicity can be the downfall for an animation. One of the great things about this book is that it has examples of character walk-cycles, this is something I have been searching for for a while as Peanuts have very distinct and very simplistic walk-cycles for their characters, this sis something I will study alot during the production of my animation.

Overall, this is a fantastic book and a great read, it is lighthearted and is a brilliant trip down memory lane. The art which is featured in the book is perfect, ranging from concept art from the first ever peanuts animation, to some of the scripts with all the notes intact.

"You can watch one-hundred-million-dollar movies that espouse the virtues of humility and simplicity, but in A Charlie Brown Christmas, you have something that actually is simple. Everything about the production of the cartoon espouses the virtues of the cartoon. That's an incredibly rare thing." - Doug Sweetland (2012)

[BOOK] Masters of Animation

"The Felix films contained a huge number of visual gags which played upon the basic genre of the animation medium itself. When Felix used a question mark as a fishing hook and caught a fish, the animator was seen to be commenting on a functional metamorphosis which was only possible with animation."

Masters of Animation is a fantastic delve into the history of animation, however rather than focusing on the history of the medium itself, it focuses on the animators from all over the world. Because the book was released in 1987, it focuses on very early forms of animation, which to me is useful as it only delves into digital animation only slightly, because it was newly developed. 

The chapters in the book focus on specific animators, a few in particular are Pat Sullivan, Max Fleischer, Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. It talks about how animation was developed at specific times and also talks about studios and development across the world, one specific thing I took from this book is why rubber-hose animation was popular, and why animation moved away from the rubber-hose style. One thing the book states is that "Psychologically, the audience became virtually addicted to the comic relief of watching cartoon characters perform or survive feats which they themselves could not have enacted.", however "after the initial period of exploration and expansion, the once ambitious and challenging outlook became somewhat stagnant, which the emphasized increasingly falling on a cute-but-realistic style which was instantly accessible to popular audiences." Because companies were shifting direction, namely Disney, artists were rebelling and leaving the company; notably was John Hubley who left to form UPA (United Productions of America).

Overall, the book is a fantastic read, and although similar to other History of Animation books, this one focuses on a specific area, and because of its age, doesn't delve into different medums other than traditional.

[BOOK] Animators Unearthed - A Guide to the Best of Contemporary Animation

"Mainstream Animation are usually made for a market place. Their content and style are researched and tailored towards a gender or age group. They're often genre-based, story/character driven and made as episodes with recurring characters... Independant avoids genres and are generally written, animated, directed and designed by a single artist. These films are usually self-contained and often use techniques rarely seen in mainstream animaion. These films are usually funded, owned and distributed entirely by the animator." (Chris Robinson, pg.2)

Animators Unearthed is a fantastic read about some of the most underrated animators in the world, we delved into interdependent animators lives and learn about who they really are and what they do. Independent animation is fighting for an audience, so this book is a real breath of fresh air as it allows us to learn more and more about the unheard animators. The book opens on what independent animation actually is and the history of independent animation, giving us an insight of the struggles that animators have been through. The book has interviews and information about some more known animators in the independent industry to foreign independent animators.

As I am progressing through my research, I am learning more and more about independent animation and why they are independent, I feel that this could be a huge part of my research considering the amount of hand-drawn animation that is in independent cinema. I will continue to read this book as I feel that this could open up as to why we aren't seeing hand-drawn animation in mainstream cinema.

Robinson, Chris. Animators Unearthed: A Guide To The Best Of Contemporary Animation. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, 2010. Print.

[BOOK] Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon

"An animated cartoonist must be able to talk English, Irish and Swedish, must know the Ten Commandments, the law of gravitation, locomotion and it's uses, mind over matter, psychology and its actions on cheese, the rules of the world, "cohesion," and it's lifting capacity, navigation, [be] a strong believer in Darwin, [know] the art of tuning a bass violin, the internal combustion engine and its use in the home, how to fry an egg, many innumerical things touched upon so lightly by our famous men and, above all, the animated cartoonist must have a one-track mind." (Klein pg.254)

Seven Minutes is a critical and historical look into American animation focusing on animation created in 1928 to 1963. The book tells the history of a variety of studios in this time, from Fleischer Studios to Warner Brothers, animation's role during the war and it's affect on the animation industry and the development and phases of different drawing styles, comedy styling and story-lines of this time.

The book is intriguing, although it focuses on the history of studios, it talks about the development of animation techniques, one in particular is the Pop and Smear style of animation, where characters pop from pose to pose with a few smear frames inbetween, as seen in The Dover Boys at Pimento University (1942). There is so much information about classic animation in this book, some of which I will be able to use when animating the traditional character, such as the screwball style of animation, which uses a sardonic and fast movements which moves the character from pose to pose using slapstick gags, a favourite for cartoons of the 1920s to 1950s.

Overall the book is a fantastic read, it has a great history of animation studios other than Disney and has great examples of animation styles and their development over time.

Klein, Norman M. Seven Minutes. London: Verso, 1993. Print.

[BOOK] Thinking Animation - Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CGI

"2D has a kind of freedom that is difficult to reproduce in CG. In 2D, the artist can draw what he/she wants. He can make use of squash and stretch techniques that are easy to draw in 2D but hard to duplicate in CG. In CG you are bound to physical restrictions. You can only work on an enclosed, controlled environment. Facial in a character is probably the hardest thing to duplicate in CG, In 2D, the artist usually deforms the face in ways that are physically impossible." 

Thinking Animation is a book which explains how animators of today can utilize techniques of traditional animators and incorporate them with computer generated animation. This book is useful for me as it gives explanations of the ups and downs of both Hand-drawn animation and CGI, while also explaining the history of the field of animation. It delves into the studios of today and compares them to studios of the twentieth century and also has interviews with a variety of animators from various backgrounds of animation. One of the most useful things about this book for me is that it compares the box office for 2d animation to CGI animation and how well they each did from 1994 - 2005. Overall this is a fantastic book with lots of useful information, which will help me over the course of my Masters.




Jones, A. and Oliff, J. (2007). Thinking animation. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology.

[BOOK] Makin' Toons - Inside the Most Popular Animated TV Shows and Movies

"Animated feature films will continue to provide jobs not only for computer programmers, but for animators, designers, painters, writers, directors, producers, composers, editors, voice actors, and all the other human talent integral to the creative process. Factor in Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, and television's voracious appetite for programming in general, and it's clear that cartoons will be around for a long, long time." (Neuwirth, 2003)

Makin' Toons is a very interesting read, as it gives insight into how cartoons have been created, pitched and produced ranging from The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy to Ice Age and Shrek. It's nice to read how each show was created, pitched and more than not turned down by studios until one day they are green lit. Allan Neuwirth has created a very informative and entertaining book which has opened my eyes to the creative industry, and just reading about how animation studios and voice actors start out to the behind the scenes of some of the biggest animated shows and films could make anyone more excited about animation.

Neuwirth, A. (2003). Makin' toons. New York: Allworth Press. p.261.

[BOOK] The Illusion of Life - Disney Animation

The Illusion of Life is an incredibly good book if you are wanting to read about the history of Disney animation and all the techniques the pioneering animators used. The book is interesting as it follows the history of Walt Disney and his company from before and after his death and shows concept art never before seen from various Disney films. I've wanted to get my hands on this book for a very long time for one particular chapter; The 12 Principles of Animation. These 'principles' are what the animators followed when animating their characters, below are the 12:

• Squash and Stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
• Follow Through and Overlapping Action
• Slow in and Slow Out
• Arc
• Secondary Action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid Drawing
• Appeal

[BOOK] Re-imagining Animation - The Changing Face of the Moving Image

“Digital tools do certain things very well and film cameras do other certain things very well. One will never be “better” than the other, they’re just different, but there’s a herd mentality in the industry. Digital is everywhere today not because it is a fundamentally better format, but because it is cheaper and easier. When everybody stampedes in one direction you start hearing meaningless statements such as ‘film is dead’ or ‘2D is dead’, and all the old stuff just gets thrown out.” (Wells and Hardstaff, 2008)

Re-Imagining Animation is a book which discusses the place of contemporary animation. Frame-by-frame animation used to be the go to medium, however with technology forever advancing we are seeing less and less hand-drawn animations, this book has short case studies and are supported by images and captions, it talks about the current production of animations and various mediums and it supports what I am researching currently.

Wells, P. and Hardstaff, J. (2008). Re-imagining Animation. Lausanne: AVA, p.61.