Product Description

Nearly a century before the ground-breaking phenomenon Toy Story, Little Nemo appeared in the New York Herald and ushered in a major new art form. The thrilling journey from such humble origins to the blockbuster movies of today's CGI extravaganzas like Shrek had begun, capturing the imagination of successive generations and embracing the onslaught of an accelerated technological revolution. Covering every aspect of animation (from the movies to MTV) from every part of the world, Animation Art revels in the techniques, the stories, the technology and the personalities which have fashioned the development of this truly modern art form. The list of authors includes producers, animators, voice artists, animation magazine editors, writers, directors, importers, educationalists and enthusiasts. It includes the Head of Artistic Development at Dreamworks, a director/writer/producer for Disney, Warner and Nickelodeon, and one of the animators of the Sixties classic Yellow Submarine.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #458925 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
This book is more a history of animation rather than the art. I certainly wouldn't say that there is too much emphasis on 'cgi' work (about 20 out of the 380 pages) but the poor quality of the printing and lack of quality images is a major disappointment with major omissions as previous reviewer points out. Poor scans and lacklustre printing spoil an already disappointing book. Produced at a budget price I suspect.

Good, but with glaring ommissions...
Just to clarify, I bought the first edition of this book, which had a huge eyeball on the cover instead of that Ice Age thing, so my thoughts about this book may well be null and void with regards to that new edition.

I've been reading Jerry Beck's blog (CartoonBrew) for a couple of years now, and it had greatly expanded my knowledge of the animated world. His newest book, The Animated Movie Guide, is an essential purchase for anyone with even a fleeting interest in the artform, so naturally I was expecting a lot from this book, which cost me TWICE as much(!).

Its merits lie in its content, but that is also where it suffers. Whereas the Animated Movie Guide listed every feature length animated film to be released to American theatres, Animation Art presents a chronological guide to the entire medium, including shorts, independent and international films. Each two-page spread covers a different area, so it's good as a pick-up-and-read-at-any-point type of book. These areas are as diverse as "Disney Goes To War", "The Wise Guys" and "Advertisements". So there's a lot of stuff covered. A lot of stuff I was unaware of somehow (because I'm a genius when it comes to this sort of thing).

The loss of two stars is for these two reasons:

1)There is FAR too much in there about CGI. Personally, I can't stand much CGI other than the Pixar stuff. It just seems so lifeless. The fact that almost a quarter of this book looks at CG animation is a big disappointment. It's not just those boring Shrek films (and the subsequent plague of copycat films that they spawned). It looks at The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Stuart Little and the Scooby-Doo movie. Hardly what I was expecting from a book which, I'm guessing, is aimed at the animatophile market.

2)It is this first fault which makes this second fault seem even worse. Could all the CGI stuff not've been dropped in favour of the following ommissions?

Cosgrove Hall Productions, Vampires In Havana, Twice Upon A Time, The Mouse And His Child, When The Wind Blows...
Even Fantasia and Pinnochio only get passing mentions!

Overall, you could buy this book if you're a fan of the whole animation thing, but if you're as anal as I am when it comes to these things, prepare to be disappointed.

Comprehensive history of animation production and visual styles
Don't listen to the previous review - it is definately not poor quality in terms of printing and the images are excellent. It is not a "how to do it.." book but a comprehensive history of animation production in both TV and film which is quite educational. It covers much material that would be omitted from other books of a more mainstream focus. It is a coffee table book and the images are quite lavish. It is not essntail reading however, if you just want to improve your technique get Tim Whites new book - "Pencils to Pixels" or "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams.