Reddit Reddit reviews The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation

We found 42 Reddit comments about The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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42 Reddit comments about The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation:

u/topcheesehead · 824 pointsr/videos

Animation degree here. (Really dont need a degree. My professors who worked in the industry said many dont have degrees still to this day, its all about passion and skill... and being willing to work 16 hour days)


Seriously fantastic animation. All 12 principles of animation are represented.

Your bro just needs to keep uploading and making animation. Its essentially a portfolio.

Animation companies dont care if you have a degee. They want a stacked portfolio. With solid animation.

When your bro starts applying for animation jobs. Make sure he has a solid demo reel. A demo reel is only the best animation hes made compiled in on vid. Its the resume for these places. Its all about skill.

Fyi the #1 and #2 books (no particular order) for learning animation and developing it are priceless. My professors stressed these books every year. They were used in 90% of my animation classes.

This book...

The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators https://www.amazon.com/dp/086547897X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5JSgDb5GHT9WJ


And this book....

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786860707/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OKSgDbZMMJBVE


This would make a fantastic gift for any animator


Tell your bro not to be down about it. The companies dont care about schooling. Skill and passion are all that matters.


Edit: forgot our schools favorite websites!

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/

Cartoon brew keeps animators updated on general cartoons and animation


http://www.11secondclub.com/


We got extra credit for doing the 11 second club. You got an A for that semester in one class if you could break the top animations that month. Few students did that.


Edit: thanks for gold! insert keyframe of me jumping in 80s pose

u/tigerslices · 34 pointsr/videos

https://www.amazon.ca/Sick-Little-Monkeys-Unauthorized-Stimpy/dp/1593932340

here's a book about the making of ren and stimpy. it's mostly about ren and stimpy. but it touches on some things... including sending work overseas to be animated in korea and sending people over to Rough Draft, the company that animates the simpsons (i think still?) and many other shows. the ren and stimpy crew sent people over there because there's a language barrier, and it's Very difficult to get the Performance out of someone who doesn't speak the language. you can't tell when and where to accent words with, say, an eyebrow raise... so you have to have Everything timed out in advance and it allows for very little improvisation from the creative team.

there's a ton of information about animation history out there but not so many documentaries... a lot of sucking off of Frank and Ollie and the disney "9 old men" for having "figured out" animation rules back in the day (as if they were the only ones doing it). -- they released a book called the illusion of life https://www.amazon.ca/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707 that talked about the early days of disney film.

animation used to be this wildly experimental thing. they first were funny rubber hose things, then people started trying to tell better stories and then the disney crew tried to make you REALLY sympathize for the characters by really focussing on "pathos." to this day, every fucking Cal-Arts student has pathos drilled into their fucking head like it's the only way to tie your shoes.

meanwhile, the wb team kept it loose, they were doing animations to show before movies, set to some of the jovial tunes in their music library. they called them looney tunes. and after 15 years of making them, they Also started to get quite good. John Kricfalusi (the ren and stimpy creator) wrote a ton about Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones (but mostly clampett) on his highly educational blog here http://johnkstuff.blogspot.ca/

hanna barbera discovered it was way cheaper to just make a well drawn design that's highly graphic so that the appeal wasn't in the movement but in the image. then you could just animate the mouth or the legs, limiting how much drawing you really needed. with this method, animators were able to produce Much more footage.

other studios started up to try and milk the surge of this new artform, and sell toys and cereal with it. there were TONS of Really Shitty cartoons. i mean, look at this shit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXd-2gVOZFk

anyway... in the early 90s, disney experienced "a renaissance" with their films. there IS a documentary about that... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeoyRjEiUU it might be on netflix...

disney cartoons became enormously profitable again and animation production kicked into high gear. disney put a ton of money into their tv division and nickelodeon, a rather new company at the time, did the same. but while disney's focus was on their IPs, spinning off pre-existing characters into shows, Nickelodeon needed new material, so they put a HUGE focus on the creators. this of course, attracted creators. Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life... etc... it was a huge wave of highly entertaining new material, and it did well.

of course, in the late 90s, animation had sort of ballooned a little too much and films were kinda missing targets despite Enormous budgets, and 3d was this hot new thing people were curious about...

here we are 20 years later and animation is SO FUCKING PROMINENT... tv, films, streams, games, not to mention medical instruction videos, architectural project development, chinese news lol...

rick and morty is animated in canada though. not korea. so there's that.

u/[deleted] · 14 pointsr/tf2

As an animator, I highly suggest you buy The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. It's something of a bible for most animators and contains a wealth of knowledge about the mechanics of motion and emotion. It's also entertaining as it serves as an autobiography of one of the best animators who worked in the industry.

Also, try to thumbnail your actions (draw tiny little rough doodles) of what you want to show - it makes it a lot easier when you plan out your shots, the gags, etc. so when you actually get around to doing it, you have a firm idea of what you intend to do. Plus, the bonus is you'd also be locking down your camera angles this way.

Edit: I just realized I forgot to list another important book that's also an invaluable resource, The Illusion of Life. It documents the combined knowledge of the most prolific and legendary animators who worked on Disney Films and gives you an indepth look at how to make characters "connect" with audiences through emotion. I mostly only use it for acting performances, but still - this is another important book to have.

u/Meronchan · 13 pointsr/MotionDesign

I think the best place to start would be learning some traditional animation skills. Two really great resources are the Animators Survival Kit and The Illusion of Life. I would read the reviews to see what you think might be best. The Illusion of Life goes into a lot of Disney history and the history of animation itself. Once you get a feel for that, I'd check out Ross Plaskow's Youtube Channel. A lot of people say he has one of the best character animation tutorials. There's lots of different ways to animate characters (frame by frame, rigging with the puppet pins in after effects, rigging with duik in after effects, or rubber hose in after effects (a really easy to use way to create rubber hose style animation and my personal favorite), and adobe character animator - just to name a few. Just an FYI, I suck at character animation, I just really enjoy compiling educational resources. Anyways, I would suggest if you aren't feeling too confident, once you get the principles under your belt to invest in rubber hose if you can afford it. It's really simple to use which gets you making things faster, and I think that's one of the most important parts of learning (just having fun messing around and making stuff). School of Motion did a review on it if you wanna check that out, and Ross also shows how to use it for character animation on his channel. But just remember it's not about becoming dependant on the plugin, I just think it's a great way to get making things quickly.

u/oldmankc · 7 pointsr/gamedesign
u/tjl73 · 6 pointsr/anime

A Cintiq isn't really a Windows tablet. It's basically a screen and a drawing tablet in one. But, just like a regular Wacom drawing tablet (e.g., Intuos, Bamboo), it needs to connect to a computer to work. For someone starting out, I'd recommend starting with one of the regular drawing tablets instead. They're just like a specialized mouse that you use with a pen.

I'm also a big fan of The Illusion of Life. It's a book by former Disney animators who worked there at the beginning of the studio. It's a mix of history and a discussion of the principles they used to get the best animation. The price seems to have come down quite a bit. My copy was over $80 Canadian when I bought it several years ago and I had seen it for over $100 since then.

u/evilanimator1138 · 5 pointsr/learnanimation

Start with Eric Goldberg's book "Character Animation Crash Course!"

http://www.amazon.com/Character-Animation-Crash-Course-Goldberg/dp/1879505975

It reads a lot less like the stereo instructions that is Richard Williams's "Animator's Survival Kit" providing for a much more accessible and lighter introduction to animation. If, after you've read through it, you find that animation is still for you then absolutely 110% get Richard Williams's book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/086547897X/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0MV2H6MZNC3HHHH1ED43

Another must have is "The Illusion of Life".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786860707/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1S91BNCH9AFXPJQCA1HH

Always keep in mind that the word animate means "to give life to." You are bringing a character to life be it a drawing or a 3D model. Before even touching paper and pencil (because you thoroughly plan your scene out that way first before touching the mouse ;-) ask yourself "what is the character thinking?" Get inside that character's head. Sketch out exploratory poses. They don't have to be gorgeously rendered drawings. They are your visual notes and can even be stick figures just so long as you can read them. Get away from your desk and physically act out what your character has to do or hit up YouTube for research. Shoot reference with your smartphone (use an app like ProCamera which lets you shoot at 24fps) and analyze how long it takes you to perform an action. Don't sweat the software just yet. That's the technical stuff that comes later. Animators are actors and it's important to understand acting first. That being said, this book is great for learning Maya.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0415826594/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1453026213&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=how+to+cheat+in+maya+2015&dpPl=1&dpID=51IrWwVyubL&ref=plSrch

This book combines learning to animate in Maya while simultaneously teaching the 12 principles of animation. The very best of luck to you in the beginning of your animation journey. Take your time and practice everyday. Think of animation as a muscle. You have to workout everyday for it to get stronger even if you only work on something for 15 minutes a day.

u/ScannerBrightly · 5 pointsr/autism

If you are interested in Animation, there is a book that you just MUST have. It was written by some Disney animators in the 50's or so, and then put out there for sale later. It's called Illusion of Life. It talks about the 12 basic principles of animation

u/specialistdeluxe · 4 pointsr/gamedev

This is super cool stuff, don't get my wrong! I guess what i'm saying is principles of animation apply regardless of software. It's simply a matter of applying animation techniques using whatever software you have available! Don't be shy looking into other software tutorials (For 2D, Flash, AE, toonboom, etc) even if you're not using it. Alot of what you'll find will translate quite easily and you can start building a toolset of your own!


Also, if you're into animation, especially 2D, I would highly suggest picking up "The Illusion of Life." It's considered the bible in animation and even though it was written by old school Disney animators, literally everything in it applies today.



Cool stuff!

u/sculptedpixels · 3 pointsr/computergraphics

It's actually very funny because Southpark uses Maya (a pretty highend animation suite originally for silicon graphics that's now owned by Autodesk) for animating their 'simple' stuff.

To second Hennell - blender would probably be a great place to start. It's free, but not shabby at all in it's capabilities. And while I'm echoing him, yea - learn the basics of character animation before committing to a project - start doing small tests, pencil tests, etc.

I know you're not going to make the next pixar film, but really: if you want to get into animation the RIGHT way, read
"THE ILLUSION OF LIFE" - it'll teach you about the principals of character animation better than anything. This book plus practice = a good grounding in animation.

u/CyricYourGod · 3 pointsr/gamedev

Animation is an art and good animation requires a strong understanding on how things move. A good resource for making both convincing and interesting animation is the Disney Bible: https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707/ and another: https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/. But realistically it takes years to understand and make good animation. That's outside of the learning required with tools (such as Maya).

If he doesn't know the principles of animation he should learn them and then your critiques should be focused around 1) does the animation meet the intention -- ie is it usable and 2) how can the animation be improved to make it more interesting and believable.

u/ford_beeblebrox · 3 pointsr/gamedesign

Starting out is an awesome advantage; not yet set in your ways you can find your own style.

While it is true some complex styles can take a lot of time, pixel art can be super simple and often less is more - like lessmilks's games

Working from something is easier than all at once so keep iterating - i.e. start with your current squares and add just squash and stretch to anticipate motion, or eyes to indicate move direction.

Pedro Medeiros has some great pixel art tutorial gifs

An free browser based sprite editor

Using a dedicated program with layers, pallettes and lighting control makes it much easier - this list of pixel art programs might help (Asesprite is great)

At the other extreme if you need lots of animation use a pixel art shader for blender3D
Or use some of the multitude of Free and Open Source pixel art at OpenGameArt and mod it for your needs.

Submit your stuff to /r/pixelart and request constructive criticism.

The Animator's Survival Kit is a great book (& on youtube)on the art of making drawings come alive as is The illusion of life

Look at spritesheets to see how others break animation down into frames.

Jan Willem of Vlambeer has a great talk on tricks to 'juice up your games'

u/ChaosFearsNone · 3 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

And done!!!

  1. Blue the best for obvious reason.

  2. Summer what’s better than beer pong? Pool beer pong.

  3. Usual Food the best because it’s a local thing.

  4. Gift for another for my love of Disney animation.

  5. Book to read great insight into the human race.

  6. Cheap because yummy.

  7. For the doge because adorable.

  8. Useless yet so awesome.

  9. Movie because it’s my favorite.

  10. Zombie to destroy their brains.

  11. Life changing to adapt to in work life.

  12. Add on because my kids are always getting sick.

  13. Fandom because it’s an awesome show and these are in apparently.

  14. Pricey for when the lights go out.

  15. Sharks because it’s badass and my daughter would love it.

  16. Good smells one of my favorite scents.

  17. Childhood feels spent so many playing games on this.

  18. Writers was helpful for me once upon a time.

  19. Obsessed my life of Disney is strong right now.

  20. Weird because lol.
u/hoover900 · 3 pointsr/gamedev

K there are a couple of thing wrong here. First off, unless you licensed the visual rights to Pixar's Cars, I suggest you change your car models in the game as well as the trailer to the boxier car models you already have. You don't want your product to be confused with Disney, so this change will save you from having to deal with legal trouble with Disney. Second, you can also lose the first 20 seconds of the trailer. You're not showing anything important to the viewer. Does the user even care that the Car is performing in a circus? Is the car upset that he's performing in the circus? Why does he run away and the cops immediately chase him? I highly recommend picking up the The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation and Shot By Shot. Both of these books go over in detail the art of making something entertaining and interesting.

edit: grammar and spelling

u/nonagonx · 3 pointsr/gamedev

>Do it myself

Great idea. Learn to be an animator. There's software (Flash/Photoshop/other) to both draw your animations and then generate sprite sheets, so the process shouldn't take weeks. Here's a list of resources I recommend for animation:

  • The Animator's Survival Guide
  • The Illusion of Life
  • Draw with Jazza

    >but artists (understandably) don't usually donate their time for internet strangers with the promise of a payout down the road

    This wasn't true in my case. I posted an ad on /r/gamedevclassifieds as a coder and got three talented artists emailing me with work they've done.
u/thespite · 3 pointsr/animation
u/Shaaban_And · 2 pointsr/MotionDesign

I’m educating myself through a few different resources ranging from books to online tutorials:

The Illusion of Life (BOOK)


The Animators Survival Kit

Jason Ryan’s fundamentals series of webinars.

Workbench on YouTube

And lots of observation and study. Just look at how things move and behave in the physical world. The dynamics of movement in real life are pretty fascinating.

u/Yung__Buck · 2 pointsr/youtubeanimators

Great starting place, I would also check out this book - http://www.amazon.com/The-Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707

Some history of early Disney animation, and an anecdotal development of all of the principles. Helped me out a lot when I was just getting started.

u/greetingsmoto · 2 pointsr/Atlanta

If he really wants to learn to actually animate, this is still the bible of the industry for character animation and definitely the best place to start. If he is interested more in stuff like quick flash animation, then going the route mentioned below by u/daebro is probably better.

u/brawkk · 2 pointsr/AfterEffects

throwthespoon had excellent advice. if you want to read about the philosophy of animation definitely check out this book by the original Disney animators.

Although you will probably have a different style than them in this day and age, the principles it teaches will still apply.

u/MountainSound · 2 pointsr/animation

Hey there!

Glad to hear there is another potential animator/artist in the world :)
A lot of your question depends on your budget as tablets can get very expensive very quickly based on size and quality. For instance buying something that lets you draw directly on the screen is going to run you several hundred dollars for the lowest tier models (Wacom Cintiq's are currently considered the gold standard but their monitors and tablets start at over $1000 new so that is out of the question for most people and definitely not worth it for a beginner). So if she's just wanting to explore, a drawing app on a samsung galaxy tablet is a cheaper option that works great for beginners and allows them to work directly on screen. Plus is she loses interest you'll still have a tablet to use for other things.

However most people start with something like a Wacom Bamboo tablet. They are high quality, very responsive, and made by Wacom (the current industry leader) for a much more reasonable price. However you're drawing on a tablet placed on a desk while watching your work on a separate monitor and this can take some serious getting used to. Once you've got it figured out though they're great (they come in various sizes and are used by professionals throughout various industries)!

As for software consider these:
Art/Drawing - Sketchbook Pro

Animation - Anime Studio 10
keep in mind animation programs can be tough to learn so she'll definitely need to watch tutorials online. However this is an awesomely priced option with a lot of great features to make jumping-in easy



If she really catches the animation bug there are two books that are wonderful (although they are thick and may be better for when she is a little older? Up to you but they could make great future gifts):
Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams

and

The Illusion of Life by Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas - Two of Disney's original master animators known as the Nine Old Men

Anyway that's a quick rundown of where equipment and resources stand. If I were you I'd probably go for the bamboo tablet and Sketchbook Pro to get started (for drawing) + Anime Studio 10 if animation is definitely something she wants to explore as all these items are an outstanding value for what they offer.

If things get super serious as she gets older prices begin to jump up very quickly (especially on the software side) but I believe the items listed above should suit her perfectly for at least through all her high school years. As she improves and explores you'll naturally learn what all the tools and options are on your own, as well as what her preferences are.

3D animation as a whole is a different beast that is very computer/technical heavy with a steeper learning curve. So if she wants to start trying that it becomes a whole different realm as you'll need a solid PC and a lot of time and patience when it comes to learning one of the various computer graphics programs out there.

Hope this helps at least a little! Good luck, and feel free to PM any time :)

u/orbjuice · 2 pointsr/gamedev

So many things. I was never a competent pixel artist because once I got to semi-proficient I looked at the skill curve and realized that I wasn't making it through all of that.

I really recommend frequenting these two sites:

http://pixelation.org
http://pixeljoint.com

Someone mentioned the classic Disney animator bible:

https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707

It can't be understated how essential this book is to learning the essentials of animation. Further than that there were the Loomis books that were called out time and again as a great art education (palette selection becomes incredibly important in low resolution art). Those books are hard to come by-- scratch that, they used to be now they're just on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1845769287

There's a lot to dive in to. If all of this seems like too much, cribbing from OpenGameArt's better assets is a cheap and easy way to start.

u/leandpoi · 2 pointsr/animation

Okay, first thing to know is that you're not alone. Animation is a pretty time-consuming and daunting skill to try and learn at first, but everyone has to start somewhere - and honestly, drawing skills aside, I think that animation is one of those things where with enough practice you can get the hang of fairly quickly.

I'm guessing you probably aren't out to hear the typical "just keep practicing and you'll get better" so I'll try and stray away from that.

Speaking as a current animation student, the best thing you can do for yourself is to view as many animations from skilled and professional animators as you can.
And I'm not talking just "watching" animations; Sit down and try and critically analyze a piece of animation. Find something where the movement is interesting to you and try and reverse engineer how that animator may have constructed that scene.
After sitting through a bunch of those, find animations from more amateur or beginner animators, could be of your own animations or someone else's. Compare and contrast between what makes these professional animations work and look good, and why these other ones just don't seem to match up.

I've also taken a look at some of your animations and I don't think they're totally awful. It's clear that you're making an effort to show movement and life in the characters, despite your minimal technical understanding.

​

So, educate yourself on the technical side of things.

Read up on the principles of animation, essentially the core rulebook many industry professionals follow when creating animations. Here is a video which has a pretty thorough look at each concept, and here is a considerably shorter summary of each principle with short examples.

The Animator's Survival Kit is one of the most popular books people recommend to people just starting out in animation - it lays out a lot of the key parts of the 12 principles in deeper detail and focuses a considerable amount of the book to timing and walk cycles.
Here's also a playlist to the book in, more or less, a simplified video form.

Some other books you might want to look into are Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair, and The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas.

​

As for the program you're using, I found that Adobe is one of the more simpler and intuitive platforms to use when first learning animation that's still considered an industry standard.
Pushing through and learning the program will help you considerably if/when you decide to move on to a more advanced program.

However, if the difficulty of the software is what's keeping you from animating, I'd recommend using flipbooks and indulging in more traditional forms of animation.
Not only will you be developing a skill in an area of animation not many people today seem to be very skilled in, but it'll keep you from being distracted by all the flashy buttons and options on some digital programs.

​

Hang in there man, and keep animating.

u/RogueStudio · 2 pointsr/writing

Your skills to 'show, not tell' will become more essential. As the previous comment said, you are going to lose most of the 1st person POV prose accommodates (and even if some of it is retained....compare something like Fight Club the novel, to Fight Club the movie or Fight Club 2 the graphic novel....still considerable differences once visuals come into play.). Even dialogue can be a bit of a sticking point - it depends on the genre you're writing for as how much room you have before audiences start to get bored.

If you're writing for film/animation - consider learning about basic camera movements and shot framing (ie ECU, CU, WS, rules like the 180 degree rule). Watch videos on film analysis, one of my favorites is the Every Frame a Painting channel on YT, but there are other series/videos out there that aren't completely boring (and some that go very extensively into worldwide film history, such as A Story of Film: An Odyssey which is streaming on Hulu at the moment, used to be on Netflix)

Animation is a little trickier as a lot of writing is actually done in the storyboard phase (so is more art oriented), but a classic there is Disney's The Illusion of Life book as a starting point even for non-artists.

If you're writing for graphic novels: My favorite beginner reference is the DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, with Will Eisner being another classic author on the genre. Brian Michael Bendis did a book that's pretty good too.

Likewise, stage plays, radio plays, have their own sets of tips and industry tricks, but I'm not as knowledgeable on those topics to offer suggestions. Good luck and have fun!

u/blinnlambert · 2 pointsr/animation

A Light Box is a relatively inexpensive one. The link for that one is above your $30 limit but lots of craft stores have holiday coupons. I bought a large light box from Hobby Lobby for only $40 that was usually $90.

Books are also good gifts that might fit your price range. here are my 2 favs (the Used versions are under $30):

The Illusion of Life

The Animator's Survival Kit

u/btouch · 2 pointsr/movies

Most of the resources I'm readily familiar with that are specific to cel animation are books. Toon Boom has a great YouTube Chanel full of tutorials specific to their programs, which have become the standards in the industry. There’s plenty of good third-party YouTube tutorials for Harmony as well.

However, here are two links specific to the Disney 1990s processes: the 1986 executive summary for Disney's CAPS (Computer Animation Production System), developed for them by Pixar, and a 1994 article giving an overview of the digital production process.

http://alvyray.com/Pixar/documents/CAPS_ExecSummary_AlvyToPixar_4May86.pdf

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/rec.arts.anime/WOkkuV0Yr7w

They’re outdated now, both these two books are great texts for how to do cel animation circa 1999-2002. The principals haven’t changed much if one is looking to do the traditional style:
The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking--From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3- D Animation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0517886022/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_chBoDbV9YV5XM

Producing Independent 2D Character Animation: Making & Selling A Short Film (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240805135/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_rjBoDb11GA302


These books are more foundational; all animators regardless of technique are recommended to study them:

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786860707/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_2kBoDbAQ057T9

The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators https://www.amazon.com/dp/086547897X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ClBoDbS90NX97

u/mr-datter · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

The Illusion of Life is animation focused, but an essential read regardless.

http://www.amazon.com/ILLUSION-LIFE-DISNEY-ANIMATION/dp/0786860707

u/NautyNautilus · 2 pointsr/learnart

Go pick up this.

Draw from life, focus on learning anatomy, you will need line weight control, mastery of form, and a million hours drawing and animating.

This is good for Disney's rules, which can apply across the board to any animation, but in the end you will have to learn 3d, too. Understanding 2d will help you immensely more than not understanding it.

Just draw 24/7, always focus on what's around you and what you see, stay out of what's inside your head. Animation is all about imitating life, stick to that and stay away from imaginative work until you are solid on accurate proportions and physics.

u/jackHD · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

The illusion of Life - Disney art book. Always gets people flipping through.

u/Random · 1 pointr/reddit.com

See also:

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation...

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786860707/701-8120920-9607554

u/wtfmf · 1 pointr/comics

if I remember correctly, it's from The Illusion of Life. It's a classic book for anybody within the field of animation.

u/Dennis_88 · 1 pointr/animation

I don't think they would expect a lot of practical experience regarding animation from you, because they will teach you that, right? I got a illustration test at the animation college I attended, to create a comic.

However, if you want to start practising, a good one to start with is a bouncing ball. This will probably be one of the first examples you will get at that college. And if you want to have theoretical information, as well as examples, I can recommend the animators survival kit to you. It is the de facto book on animation, written by master animator Richard Williams, animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The Illusion of Life is also a great animation book to start with. It is written bij Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of Disney's best animators.

In terms of working in the animation industry, it can be difficult to get a steady job animating, but if it is your passion, it is very rewarding and great to do! Good luck!

u/pilkingtod · 1 pointr/drawing

Well, your one stop book for everything you need to know about learning Disney animation is gonna be The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

But before that I guess you can read Preston Blair's book Advanced Animation to learn the basics of how to draw cartoon characters.

But I guess you can just do a Google search and copy those drawings by breaking them down and constructing from simple forms.

What do I mean by construction? I'll let John K. explain.

Happy cartooning!

u/flameabel · 1 pointr/gamegrumps

I don't know the video you're looking for -
But usually when animators refer to animation books it's the:
"Animators Survival Kit" - Richard Williams
"Illusion of Life" - Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas
These cover the basics, and are helpful for understanding principles in animation.
But online tutorials and blogposts can teach just as much. Epsecially just experimenting on your own.

Of course, Ross could have mentioned completely different books, and I'm sorry, but I hope this helps atleast a little.

u/AaronJessik · 1 pointr/pics

You're welcome.

Begin with taking anatomy, and for the love of god get yourself a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit

https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284

You'll then want this:

https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/143-7725695-3182363?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=191V68K98Y3J7E7TTVE1

and when you say traditional, I really hope you mean 18th century.

I'm glad you're interested in my artistic contributions.

u/911roofer · 1 pointr/BendyAndTheInkMachine

Its a reference to this, although its weird that Joey Drew wrote it. https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Life-Disney-Animation/dp/0786860707

u/Emerald_Triangle · 1 pointr/videos

>I was coming here to say the same damn thing.

​So was I, but I'll actually do it.

Animation degree here. (Really dont need a degree. My professors who worked in the industry said many dont have degrees still to this day, its all about passion and skill... and being willing to work 16 hour days)


Seriously fantastic animation. All 12 principles of animation are represented.

Your bro just needs to keep uploading and making animation. Its essentially a portfolio.

Animation companies dont care if you have a degee. They want a stacked portfolio. With solid animation.

When your bro starts applying for animation jobs. Make sure he has a solid demo reel. A demo reel is only the best animation hes made compiled in one vid. Its the resume for these places. Its all about skill.

Fyi the #1 and #2 books (no particular order) for learning animation and developing it are priceless. My professors stressed these books every year. They were used in 90% of my animation classes.

This book...

The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators https://www.amazon.com/dp/086547897X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5JSgDb5GHT9WJ


And this book....

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786860707/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OKSgDbZMMJBVE


This would make an fantastic gift as well for any animator


Tell your bro not to be down about it. The companies dont care about schooling. Skill and passion are all that matters.


Edit: forgot our schools favorite websites!

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/

Cartoon brew keeps animators updated on general cartoons and animation


http://www.11secondclub.com/


We got extra credit for doing the 11 second club. You got an A for that semester in one class if you could break the top animations that month. Few students did that.

u/chronologicalist · 1 pointr/IWantToLearn

I'd recommend The Illusion of Life and The Animator's Survival Kit as far as far as learning the principles of animation. The principles of animation apply to all the different kinds of animation (stop motion, hand drawn 2D, 3D), so I'd recommend starting there and becoming familiar with those.

Most places that do hand drawn animation these days do their work digitally with a tablet pen in programs like Toon Boom and Adobe Flash. 3D animation is usually done in programs like Autodesk Maya, 3Ds Max, or Cinema 4D. However, I'd suggest learning 2D animation first, since all the principles apply to 3D, but the software for animating in 2D is generally cheaper and easier to acquire.

u/zo34 · 0 pointsr/financialindependence

There are two burgeoning fields that require no sexiness on paper: animation/cinema and computer programming. You can teach yourself both for free.

Just google the computer science stuff. For the animation stuff blender and The Illusion of Life from your local library. Then, many, many hours of practice (about 500 hours of deliberate practice).