Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43952 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 390 pages

Customer Reviews

Ideal for animators
If you are an animator and have not seen this book, then how have you survived this long ?! How many times have you sat there and pondered for a very long time over 'where exactly that leg should go in the third frame' ? I know I used to do it a lot. Characters appeared to limp, or slide across the screen (I animate for computers) and whatever I did seemed to make it worse.

This book solves the problem. Each page contains all the steps in the sequence for walking, running, climbing steps, etc etc. Your characters will suddenly start to move in a believeable fashion, leaving you to worry about the direction of your animation and not your ability to draw it.

I am sure this is a lovely photography book for those who are interested in the history of the subject. But to an animator it is an invaluable reference.

Muybridge's landmark photographic studies of human motion
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was the most significant contributor to the early study of human and animal locomotion, whose extensive studies were acknowledged by such pioneers of motion pictures as the Lumiere brothers and Thomas Edison. If you have ever seen slow-motion photography of a horse galloping and seen how they have all four hooves off the ground at the same time, then you can understand the fascination in the early days of photography of taking a series of pictures of people running, climbing stairs, or dancing. In fact, it was the horse that got Muybridge involved in this work. In 1872 Muybridge was enlisted to settle bet regarding the position of a trotting horse's legs. But using a camera with the fastest shutter speed available only provided a faint image. Five years later Muybridge used a battery of cameras with mechanically tripped shutters to show the what really happens (in fact, a trotting horse and a galloping horse move differently in having all four hooves off the ground simultaneously).

Consequently, Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope, a primitive motion-picture machine, which recreated movement by displaying individual photographs in rapid succession. "The Human Figure in Motion" was first published in 1901 and reflects the work Muybridge did at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had been invited to work at the behest of the painting Thomas Eakins, who painted motion subjects, which explains why art students are even more interested in this book than scientists. Includes are over 160 motion studies of the human figure engaged in everything from dressing to hopping on one foot. There are almost 5,000 photographs in this 390 page clothbound edition. Be warned that most of the models, both adults and children, are "undraped" to use the vernacular of the time. In 1887 Muybridges's most important work, "Animal Locomotion," was published in 11 volumes containing over 100,000 photographs taken between 1872 and 1885. Obviously, "The Human Figure in Motion" is a more accessible way to appreciate Muybridge's groundbreaking work.

ok
You can get alot of stuff for free of the internet so I suppose there is no need to buy this book.Alot of animators say that you need it though,so who am I to argue?