The Animator's Survival Kit: Expanded Edition

I've spent the better part of a year working on my first animation project with very little prior experience. Having always been fascinated with the process, working from my own ability has been a long but rewarding task but I finally hit a hard limit where I just wasn't able to easily visualise a way to make my character movements more natural.This book is transformative to the point that I bought sticky tabs to mark important sections and have almost ran out nearly a quarter of the way through the book. It explains core concepts behind traditional animations and how to time them, but most importantly in my case it breaks down walk cycles and assorted character movements, the thought processes to use while visualising them and the methods of presenting them in an easy to read, often humourous and incredibly illuminating way.I can't gush about the presentation enough. It never weighs you down with jargon and the illustrations are divine and immediately informative. If you have any interest in improving your animation ability I just haven't found a simpler way than reading this book.

This is one of those books that every lecturer who teaches any kind of animation will tell you to buy, not suggest, TELL YOU TO BUY. A large section of the book explains animation history and some guide lines (no music!) before breaking down different walk cycles and then moving on to other various things that can be animated. THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE FOR ANY LEVEL OF ANIMATOR (as even the legendary animators rules are altered in this book at some points).Additional edit: Looking back after a few years I can honestly say the book has really stood by me. There are other books I'd recommend such as Eric Goldberg's Animation Crash Course, Frank and Ollie's Illusion of Life and Nancy Beiman's Animated Performance but this still remains an essential book to have. I feel that I should also mention what I found was the best way to read it. Read every page and don't turn to the next until you feel you fully understand the point he is trying to get across to you. Richard Williams does a great job of showing you how something can be done and then showing other ways in which it can be done. It is about making an animation your own, so really try and get a feel for how his examples work and how it may vary from character to character while reading. If you do, you will get so much from this book.

Such a detailed and well thought out book. Gives you so much to learn and practice

Good

Got this for my daughter when she was in collage and she loved it

I'd managed to finish half of the book already. I highly recommended this book. No matter if you are, animator, motion graphic designer, illustrator, hobbyist or change your career. This is the book that you'll need.I'd graduated from fine arts and I'd know nothing about animation.This book might take a while to learn and adjust, but I have always kept re-read them. I got to learn from the basics, like storyboarding, animatics and background art. There is free animation software you can learn from either in Blender, Storyboarder, OpenToonz, Pencil2D etc.Keep learning, imply your knowledge and get serious!

As a keen hobbyist looking to turn pro I thought it about time I started learning from the best, and one of my first stops was this highly recommended manual of esoteric knowledge; ancient secrets noted down by the man who knew the masters of animation personally. As a computer 3D animator, I wasn't terribly sure if it would be of significant use to me, but most of my fears were unfounded, and the info here is helpful whatever your chosen medium.I have to say that the most fascinating part is the historical info provided by Richard, of both his own exploits and those of the master animators he learned from. These guys drew the cartoons we all grew up with and love, the Tom & Jerrys, the Road Runners, the golden age Disney films, and they discovered not only the best ways to bring inanimate oblects to life, but to give them wieght and character at the same time. Richard has distilled their pearls of wisdom so that anyone who wants to can learn the ins and outs of animation.The drawings are nice and clear, the explanations easy to understand and you can practically animate the figures just by moving your eye across the page, they're so well done. While it undoubtedly concentrates on the 'classical' animator using pen and ink to make his mark, his character animation tips, timing sheet info and action design hints are invaluable for computer character animation. The man says himself that you have to be good enough with your chosen tool (pen or computer) to be able to stop worrying about how you're doing something and concentrate on the performance itself, what you're making your character do. Thus, most of his theory concentrates on performance and not drawing technique, a boon for the computer artists among us.Overall I'd say this book was a damn good buy. It's well made, clear, concise, interesting and full of hints, tips and ideas that are obviously gleaned from many years experience in the trade. He himself learned from the masters and applied what they taught him, might we not do the same?