Cartoon Animation: A Guide to Bringing Characters to Life

Cartoon Animation, written by acclaimed animator Preston Blair, is an essential guide for anyone interested in learning the techniques of animation. Through a series of practical lessons, this book teaches you how to make your characters come to life through animated movement.

Understanding Animation

Animation is the art of creating lifelike movement by drawing and photographing a character in successive positions. Animators bring their drawings to life, making viewers believe that the characters are thinking and feeling. This book was written by an experienced animator to help you learn the fundamentals of animation.

Mastering the Fundamentals

Good drawing is essential for animators, but there’s more to animation than just that. Cartoon Animation covers all the knowledge and skills that animators need in order to create great animations.

Chapter by Chapter

Here’s what you’ll learn in each chapter:

1. Constructing Original Characters - In this chapter, you’ll learn how to develop characters with unique shapes, personalities, features and mannerisms.
2. Creating Movement - The second chapter explains how to create movements such as running, walking, dancing and posing.
3. Animating Your Character - This chapter dives into key character poses and in-betweens.
4. Adding Dialogue - You’ll learn how to create realistic mouth and body movements along with facial expressions while your character is speaking.
5. Technical Topics - The final chapter covers technical topics including tinting and spacing patterns, background layout drawings, cartoon storyboard creation and synchronization of camera, background characters sound & music.

Expert Advice

This book is full of expert advice from Preston Blair along with helpful diagrams so that readers can easily understand each concept presented within each chapter.

Cartoon Animation is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in learning about animation or improving their skills in this area.

More info on Amazon