Subject: Re: The Disney Book??
From: [email-masked] (Timothy Albee)
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 10:31:54 -0500

>
>
>On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, Adam Ives Chrystie wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, RICK CATIZONE wrote:
>>
>>
>> > I assume you are talking about THE animation book by Ollie Johnston and
>> > Frank Thomas,DISNEY ANIMATION THE ILLUSION OF LIFE.  There is also a new
>>
>>   I just read that for a reasearch paper..whata co-inky-dink.
>>
>>
>> > version of the ART OF WALT DISNEY.  i missed the original post, but can
>> > only assume the first book is the sought after one. It's now on gloss
>> > stock, although I don't the the images are as sharp as the original
>> > printing.
>>
>>   There is a new book of "Disneys Art Of Animation Mickey-Beauty and The
>> Beast"...Is this the one that has gone
>> in to reprint? I'd rather get the older version...O'well
>>
>> This book came out at the time of B&Beast.  I don't think there is a
>reissue, but is still available.  Of course, it's hard to keep up.
>Perhaps the softbound edition is what you're referring to as a reprint.
>
>However, ILLUSION OF LIFE is the one that has been out of print for
>sometime. ISBN on my version was 0-89659-498-X.  That's for the
>softbound; I'm not at the studio yet, and that's where my hardbound copy is.
>Hope this helps.
>
>Rcik Catizone/Anivision
>

Hyia everyone!

THE animation book, Illusion of Life, has been out of print for some time,
and yes, it is in print once again.  I never thought It would hapen; it
illustrates a lot of 'secrets' that Disney has developed through the years
in all areas of production, and I mean ALL areas.  I've got the first
printing of the origional book, and recently purchased the new printing of
the hardcover.  Both copies are virtually identical (except paper stock is
different, thinner in the new one, and the binding is now blue instead of
red) every page is there, nothing is left out.  It is WELL worth the $60
you will spend for it.  It isn't the be-all and end-all of animation books,
and the 'history' in it has some interesting ommissions.  Other books I'd
reccommend are the J. Preston Blair books, and The Animator's Workbook.
The Blair books are packed with information in an easy-to-digest format,
and are relatively inexpensive.  The 'Workbook is again filled with more
information (you can never get too much >heh<) and has a lot of technical
info about x-sheets, field guides, reading camera moves, and actually
putting the production process to work.

The BEST way to get better at animating (aside from doing it constantly) is
to watch animation.  The best animation to learn from is the old stuff, the
'30's and '40's things where the animators were still just learning about
movement, weight, anticipation, squash/stretch etc...  You get to see how
they learned to do things, and when they got things right, and when they
get things wrong.  Watching modern Disney/Bluth/Amblimation ect.  they're
so good now, that you have anticipation for a given action beginning
seconds before the action takes place, and that anticipation overlapps with
several other actions, so that unless you're sitting at home with a
LaserDisc player and want to jog-shuttle your heart out for hours, there's
no way to easily find out how 'they' did things.

Well, I'm offa my soap box now. ;)  Good luck!

Timothy

--   /-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\
     Timothy Albee            |           Media Station Inc.
     [email-masked]    |  Traditional and 3d animator
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