Feature: The Animation Bible by Maureen Furniss, Abrams $30US, 340 pages
Idea:A Practical Guide to the Art of Animation, from Flipbook to Flash

The book publisher, Henry N. Abrams, are no strangers to fine arts and the world of animation having published the definitive tome lavishly illustrating Walt Disney Studio's wonderful history of pioneering animation. So I should have known when they released the Animation Bible it would be top notch. But having seen so many Computing Bible's that were long on specifics but short on insights, I was skeptical.

But not to worry, but for one notable exception, The Animation Bible is a wonderful source of history, design ideas, and innovative artistic techniques and methods available to animators - this is a must have book.

Concept, Medium and Style

The first chapter sets the the table and quickly. Running along the bottom of the pages throughout the book is a pictorial timeline of animation illustrations. Its is here and in the descriptions of the various animation methods that is entwined the history of animation medium and methods. Rather in this chapter and Storytelling Strategies one is rapidly introduced to the basic design methods of animations. Style in the form of textures, line and finish is explored as a differentiating and expressive device to bring out classic styling thru edgy quirkiness to dramatic shadings and forms. As always the creative ideas are rolling out at many idea frames per second.

But there are also lost of pragmatic advisories ranging from a solid list of some of the contemporary selling venues for animation to the pragmatics of structuring your narrative with storyboards and back up sheet master-timelines. There are two great sections on the gamut of color and sound effects and how they impact the storytelling.

Pre- through Post-Production Values

Chapters 3 and 4 are like a storyboard of how to do animation projects. I was surprised to see a)the use of computer animation software as an expected tool and b)not just designing but also marketing the animation project as a major theme in these two pragmatic chapters. The chapters have a little cart-before the horse aspects because assumptions are being made about what core animation methods are being used before they have been discussed in any detail. But the oversight is made up for by the next 5 chapters.

Animation Methods 101

Starting with Early Motion Devices, the author really starts to discuss animation methods in detail. As well, she opens the animation history books on some of the old but still innovative methods used to score animation sequences. Magic lanterns, slides and kaleidoscopes are just a few of the methods used to illustrate some of the early animation methods

At this point the book also picks up two very strong teaching techniques. At the end of each of the next 5 chapters will be a case study examining how a distinguished animator has used the previously discussed methods. In addition, there are one or more application exercises in which readers are shown step by step how to do the methods just described. For example in the chapter on early motion devices - there are exercises describing how to create your own thaumatrope or flipbook.

Then in succession there are chapters on direct filmmaking, mixed media drawing followed by water and oil based methods. Each chapter has the illustrated timeline at the bottom of the page showing visually some of the key people, methods, and finished results for each of these techniques. One can see why these various methods have strong cross fertilized animation - film being turned into stylized features like the Polar Express while computer-based storyboards guide claymation antics. Again the application exercises again are key aids to get readers to tryout the techniques and see what they can do for their creative work.

Stop Motion and Flash Techniques

Chapters 10 through 12 describe the most popular methods of contemporary movie animation. Again we are treated to cel by cel examples of the rudiments of the methods used by some very impressive commercial movie animation shops. Also the case studies provides insights of how animators worked the methods to meet their creative design goals. Here we are treated stop motion filmmaking, pixilations, and claymation among others to create a changing storyline. The artistic touches revealed in the case studies are very helpful.

However, the next two chapters, Digital Media and Computer Animations are the weakest of the book. They start of well with an overview of the advantages of computer methods and several case studies by distinguished computer animators. However, the chapter misses the enormous influence of gaming, simulation programs, and 3Dgraphics tool chests on the whole field of animation. This shortfall is reflected the application exercise with Adobe's Flash tool. It is barely a tinkertoy example of wealth of design and programmatic tools available to animators. And this does not even suggest the wealth of other distinguished software tools available from the likes of Toon Boom Studio, Soft Image, and Autodesk to name just a few. One could do better by taking a look at the Friends of Ed book on Flash Math Creativity.

Summary

All through the book there is a playful construct as the chapter numbers slowly morph from 1 thru 13 - so the book becomes a clever self-example of flipbook animation methods. And that is an example of the book's overall cleverness - especially when linked with the illustration timeline running at the bottom of every page along with the case studies and application exercises. This book is simply an immersive hands-on experience of the full gamut of the techniques that have made animation such a rich and entertaining artistic media for the past 80++ plus years. If you are into animation - do not miss out.