John Coates is best known as the producer of The Snowman, When the Wind Blows, Wind in the Willows, Willows in Winter, and Famous Fred, and as the man behind the Beatles film Yellow Submarine. This intimate biography takes the reader on a journey through Coates's early life, his years as an army officer in the 11th Hussars in World War II, and his postwar life as a distributor for Rank films throughout Asia, before returning to England and eventually taking over TV Cartoons. With a foreword by R...
Walt Disney Animation Studios - The Archive Series: Design
by Disney Artists
Featuring the concept art that went into the film's creation; from character studies and sculpts to colour scripts, storyboards and more, The Art of Monsters University also includes behind-the-scenes interviews with the film's many artists.
Zombies continue to morbidly fascinate, through books, film and also TV. Major current film releases such as World War Z and television series such as 'The Walking Dead' and 'In The Flesh' are evidence of the public's insatiable hunger to watch, from the comfort of their sofas, these lurching, shuffling, horrifying flesh eaters. This exciting new book wittily takes the reader through the rise of the zombie, from its vampire-like beginnings in early literature, through the birth of Romero's walki...
If you are just starting out, or are moving over to new technology, this book will help you achieve the essential 2D computer animation techniques in the shortest possible time. Hedley Griffin writes in a way that is sympathetic to your needs and guides you though each technique in a simple step-by-step manner. The introductory chapter shows you how to achieve different animation styles on the computer, as well as essential skills such as storyboarding, the preparation of drawings and scanning...
Expressive Spaces in Digital 3D Cinema (Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television)
by Owen Weetch
This book puts forward a more considered perspective on 3D, which is often seen as a distracting gimmick at odds with artful cinematic storytelling. Owen Weetch looks at how stereography brings added significance and expressivity to individual films that all showcase remarkable uses of the format. Avatar, Gravity, The Hole, The Great Gatsby and Frozen all demonstrate that stereography is a rich and sophisticated process that has the potential to bring extra meaning to a film’s narrative and them...
Single frame film-making has been around as long as film itself. It is the ancestor to modern day special effects and animation. Despite its age-old practice, Single frame film making and stop-motion animation continues to influence media and culture with its magic. Current advances in technology and classic stop motion techniques, such as pixilation, time-lapse photography and down shooting have combined to form exciting new approaches. Tom Gasek’s Frame-By-Frame Stop Motion offers hands-on exp...
Since Steamboat Mickey, animators have been creating characters and films that are charming, warm and humorous, allowing people to connect with the animated medium. Animation fans love the characters for a lifetime. This is the legacy of the countless animators and artists who created the classic characters and fun stories, and it is the legacy of Disney Legend, Floyd Norman. Written with wit and verve, Animated Life is a guided tour through an entire lifetime of techniques, practical hands-on a...
In 1949 the first made-for-television cartoon series debuted on a major network. Tele-Comics embraced the popular cliffhanger serial genre, using nonmoving comic strip panels and a handful of radio actors to produce a show at a fraction of the cost accrued by a live show. Despite the success of Tele-Comics and a few other such shows, television cartoons languished until 1954 when Walt Disney produced Disneyland. From such pioneers as Tele-Comics and Crusader Rabbit to modern fare such as X-Men a...
So you want to make a film? It's the only way to get into the film industry. No one's going to let you play with the kind of money it takes to make a feature film until you've already proven yourself by making a great short film. You can do that at film school- if you can afford to go to film school. If you can't, then you're going to have to make your films without money. You're going to have to film on a microbudget- like Shane Meadows, who made Where's The Money, Ronnie? before TwentyFourSeve...
Motion Capture in Performance explores the historical origins, properties and implications of Motion Capture. It introduces a new mode of performance for the commercial film, animation, and console gaming industries - 'Performance Capture', a distinct interdisciplinary discourse in the fields of theatre, animation, performance studies and film.
Handsomely illustrated with over 150 photos and with full-color inserts, Felix is a stylish account of the intrigue behind the creation and marketing of the most popular, well-executed, and lucrative cartoon of the silent era. Based on a combination of "Sammy Johnsin" (a Sambo caricature) and Charlie Chaplin, Felix the Cat was the first cartoon character to exhibit an individual "personality" in moving pictures, preceding Mickey Mouse by a decade. From 1919 to 1933 Felix was internationally ce...
From 1983 to 1986, He-Man and his twin sister She-Ra entranced a generation of boys and girls all around the word with their animated adventures, offering not only cartoon excitement, but also important moral guidance. Now, Dark Horse Books is proud to present the first ever official companion to the classic series, featuring over 500 pages of fascinating story synopses, animation process, and trivia for every single episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power...
Storyboarding (Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting)
by Steven Price and Chris Pallant
This study provides the first book-length critical history of storyboarding, from the birth of cinema to the present day and beyond. It discusses the role of storyboarding in key films including Gone with the Wind , Psycho and The Empire Strikes Back , and is illustrated with a wide range of images.
This book provides a comprehensive account of German animation history, as well as an analysis of the current state of the industry in competition with American and cheaper international products in the face of dwindling budgets. Covering film and TV, 2D and 3D animation, the book considers how Europe has lost its domestic territory of narratives to international competitors. A connection is made between film history and contemporary history: World War I, the Weimar Republic, National Socialism...
Shoacked! A Strange Saga of the Ostrich and the Shark.
by Lula Lafayette and Uloma Kama
The Crafty Animator (Palgrave Animation)
This collection is a study of the value of craft as it can be understood within the study and practice of animation. The book reconsiders the position of craft, which is often understood as inferior to ‘art’, with a particular focus on questions of labour in animation production and gendered practices. The notion of craft has been widely investigated in a number of areas including art, design and textiles, but despite the fact that a wide range of animators use craft-based techniques, the value...
Unlocking the Season; An Inky Sweater Tradition
by Uloma Kama and Lula Lafayette