Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

If you need a fun, hands-on introduction to core animation techniques - then look no further! Heather Freeman guides you through a wide range of practical projects, helping you establish and build skills in narrative animation, motion graphics and visual effects.

Each chapter begins by summarizing historical and theoretical concerns and connecting them with current practice and applications - all beautifully illustrated with stills from classic commercial and independent films, as well as contemporary examples from student work. Having established this context, the remainder of the chapter focuses on walking readers through their own creative projects.

Topics covered include early animation technologies and techniques, scenes and staging, character animation, animated type, visual effects and motion graphics, pre- through post-production and experimental approaches to motion graphics.

Dozens of sample files are available online, for experimentation and to get readers started on each exercise. The companion website also includes example animations as well as links to recommended software tutorials, recommended artist websites, blogs and animation channels.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Moving Images for Everyone
• Underpinnings: Principles of Animation
• Chauvet Cave & Egyptian Tombs: Appeal + Solid Drawing
• Zoetrope & Praxinoscope: Squash and Stretch + Timing
• Gertie the Dinosaur + Beautiful Lukanida: Staging + Secondary Action
• Betty Boop + Mickey Mouse: Exaggeration + Follow-through and Overlapping Action
• Hanna-Barbera + Wallace and Grommet: Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose + Arcs
• Toy Story + Brave: Anticipation + Slow in and Slow Out
• Exercise 1.1 Three-minute Animation Analysis for Principles of Animation
• Exercise 1.2 Straight-Ahead Morph of Number into Letter
• Exercise 1.3 Pose-to-pose Flour Sack Hop
• Project 1.1 10-Second Animation of an Inanimate Object Morphing into an Animate Object
• Project 1.2 10-Second Animation of Two Emotional Inanimate Objects Interacting
• Summary
• Brain Games: Pre-planning and Pre-production
• Pre-production: Research
• Pre-production: Brainstorming
• Script-Writing: Revisions are Your Friend
• Formats and Media: Your Final Presentation First
• Storyboards: The Roadmap to Your Animation
• Project 2.1 Animatic: Moving Magic and Early Editing
• Project 2.2 Knowing Your Medium: Determining What You Need
• Summary
• Thoughtful Space: Staging and Secondary Animation as a Primary Focus
• A Little Can Be a Lot: Movement in a Characterless Scene
• Secondary as Primary: Complexity without a single focus
• Line, Color and Value: Addressing Staging through Appeal
• Exercise 3.1 Bambi Fire Scene Analysis
• Exercise 3.2 Dramatic Angle Analysis
• Exercise 3.3 Staging Dolls
• Exercise 3.4 Emotional Landscape
• Project 3.1 Memento Mori
• Project 3.2 You're Such a Romantic
• Summary
• Synthetic Life: Character Design and Movement
• Defining Your Beings: From Character Sheets to Sprite Sheets
• Methods of Creation: From Digital Puppets to 3D to Stop-Motion
• Wave Forms: Using Sound Effects to Create Rich Motion
• The Creature Talks: The Lip Sync
• The Creature Walks: The Walk Cycle
• Exercise 4.1 Digital Key Frames and Sound: The Bouncing Skull
• Exercise 4.2 'What the heck was that?!' Lip Sync
• Exercise 4.3 Name Game Lip Sync
• Exercise 4.4 Walk Cycle Study
• Project 4.1 Designer History
• Project 4.2 Knock-Knock Joke
• Project 4.3 ABC, 123
• Summary
• All Words are Pegs to Hang Ideas On: Text Animation
• Manifestations of Text Animation: Intro Credits and End Credits
• Reading Signs from a Speeding Car: Typography for Motion
• Exercise 5.1 Word as Image
• Exercise 5.2 Lower Third
• Exercise 5.3 Animated Logo
• Project 5.1 Great Quotes from Cinema
• Project 5.2 Intro Credits for Great Literature
• Summary
• Lightning Bolts and Weathermen: Visual FX and Motion GFX
• Visual FX Definitions and their Early History
• Motion GFX Definitions and their Later History
• Real World Best Practices: Jimmy the Rig and Roll the Tripod
• Exercise 6.1 Beautiful Green-Screen Dancer
• Exercise 6.2 Motion Tracking Emoticons
• Exercise 6.3 Rotoscoped Climber
• Project 6.1 Animated Info Graphic
• Project 6.2 Old School Fantastical Remix
• Summary
• Magnum Opus: Production and Post-production
• Pre-production Revisited: Measure Twice, Animate Once
• Defining Your Aesthetics
• Voice Actors and Sequencing
• Collaboration: Working in a Team and Staying Organized
• Compositing Your Scenes
• Mixing Sounds and Editing
• Titles and Credits
• Rendering, Compression, and Media Formats
• Is it so Different? Production for Digital vs. Traditional
• Exercise 7.1 Individual and Group Brainstorming
• Exercise 7.2 Comparing the Screenplay to the Film
• Exercise 7.3 Reverse Storyboard
• Exercise 7.4 Good Morning, Sunshine!
• Project 7.1 Advertising Production
• Project 7.2 Narrative Production
• Project 7.3 Educational Production
• Summary
• Devious Things: Experiments in Animation
• Experimental Models: Jan Svankmajer
• Music Videos as a Structure: Michel Gondry
• Experimental Narrative: Julia Pott
• Digital 3D Pushed Out: Andrew Thomas Huang
• Digital 3D Pushed In: Erick Oh
• Novel Approaches in Game Design
• Animation and Interactivity
• Moving into Theater and Dance
• Moving into the World
• Exercise 8.1 Analyzing Innovation
• Exercise 8.2 Hypothetical Installation
• Project 8.1 Animation Jam
• Project 8.2 Board to Screen
• Summary
• Your Name in Lights: Venues for Animation
• Breaking In: Internships, Education and Experimentation
• Distributing Your Work: Film Festivals
• Other Venues: Gallery Spaces and Installations
• Commercial Applications: Broadcast, Web and Mobile
• Food for Further Thought: Appropriation and Copyright Laws
• Exercise 9.1 Film Festival Submission
• Exercise 9.2 Gallery Space Submission
• Exercise 9.3 Copyright Research
• Exercise 9.4 Copyleft Research
• Project 9.1 Demo Reel and Cover Letter
• Summary
• Conclusion: Animation for Everyone
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Index

Author notes provided by Syndetics