WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.890 --> 00:00:07.200 If you ever leave the realm of hobby animation and become serious about animating as a career, 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.860 The Animator’s Survival Kit is the book I recommend. 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:14.170 When people ask me if there are any animation books they should read, this is the one I 00:00:14.170 --> 00:00:16.630 say every time. 00:00:16.630 --> 00:00:20.390 In light of that, I’m going to talk about what you can expect from the book so you can 00:00:20.390 --> 00:00:22.679 figure out if it’s right for you. 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:26.509 The Animator’s Survival Kit is so famous that you should be able to borrow it from 00:00:26.509 --> 00:00:27.509 your library. 00:00:27.509 --> 00:00:30.929 I bought my copy used for $15 without the DVDs. 00:00:30.929 --> 00:00:32.840 There are sixteen DVDs. 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:37.219 They contain Richard Williams’ animation master classes and they are hella expensive: 00:00:37.219 --> 00:00:39.210 a thousand dollars. 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:40.210 Yep. 00:00:40.210 --> 00:00:42.560 Education is not cheap. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:48.710 But you can see useful clips from each DVD for free on the website. 00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:52.269 Other than that I haven’t taken the class and can’t vouch for it, so let’s just 00:00:52.269 --> 00:00:57.350 stick to the book for today. 00:00:57.350 --> 00:01:02.219 The author Richard Williams is an animator who’s won a hoard of awards, and the movie 00:01:02.219 --> 00:01:06.820 he’s done that you should be familiar with if you animate (and even if you don’t) is 00:01:06.820 --> 00:01:08.450 Who Framed Roger Rabbit. 00:01:08.450 --> 00:01:12.520 You’ll learn a lot more about Williams from The Animator’s Survival Kit, since the beginning 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:17.590 of the book is about his twisty life’s journey to becoming an animator, and it’s my favorite 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:18.950 part of the book. 00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:21.610 But then I’ve always been a lady of stories. 00:01:21.610 --> 00:01:25.560 One of the key points to take away from the first section is that it wasn’t until Richard 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:29.030 was forty that he started to animate well. 00:01:29.030 --> 00:01:30.030 Forty. 00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:34.700 Before that point he made many successful award-winning animations, and he did it without 00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:36.840 being a god tier animator. 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:41.000 The other lesson here is that to animate well you must learn to draw from life. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.630 Real people, places, things. 00:01:43.630 --> 00:01:45.689 Classic and fine art and figure drawing. 00:01:45.689 --> 00:01:50.299 If you learn how to draw, how to capture the expression of reality instead of just copying 00:01:50.299 --> 00:01:54.009 what you see, you will leave other animators in the dust. 00:01:54.009 --> 00:01:57.140 Especially those who do nothing but draw cartoons. 00:01:57.140 --> 00:01:58.310 Learn. 00:01:58.310 --> 00:01:59.479 To. 00:01:59.479 --> 00:02:00.649 Draw. 00:02:00.649 --> 00:02:05.840 The book transitions smoothly from an autobiography into the very basics of animation, timing 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.180 and spacing. 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:08.180 Easing. 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:11.610 How to make and read those little timing charts you might have noticed if you study a pro’s 00:02:11.610 --> 00:02:12.610 work. 00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:16.910 What all of the industry words like inbetween, key frame, breakdown, passing position, straight 00:02:16.910 --> 00:02:19.510 ahead, pose to pose, x-sheet, la la la la. 00:02:19.510 --> 00:02:23.560 If you’ve been trying to figure out what it all means, The Animator's Survival Kit 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:24.650 is the place to start. 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:30.110 Or to second I suppose, since you’re here and this whole time I’ve been slowly, episode 00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:34.069 by episode, poisoning your tea with animation terminology. 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:38.409 I appreciate that all of the technical information in the book is peppered with the author’s 00:02:38.409 --> 00:02:42.050 animation stories, tales of industry geniuses he’s talked with. 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:45.510 It’s MUCH more appealing than reading pure jargon. 00:02:45.510 --> 00:02:47.620 The diagrams show how to do the thing. 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:50.700 The stories tell us why it is important. 00:02:50.700 --> 00:02:55.370 I’ve also found that the book gets better the more experience you have. 00:02:55.370 --> 00:02:59.170 So you can pick it up and read up to the page you get in over your head: probably around 00:02:59.170 --> 00:03:03.920 page 100, and then come back in a few months and go, “Oh, I get it now,” and be able 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:04.920 to read further. 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:10.159 Don’t expect to read it all in one go and understand everything. 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:14.390 It’s going to take a bit. 00:03:14.390 --> 00:03:18.830 The next big section of the book is all about walking, and on a higher level, characterizing 00:03:18.830 --> 00:03:19.989 your animation. 00:03:19.989 --> 00:03:23.510 Making it move in a way that tells you what the character’s mood is. 00:03:23.510 --> 00:03:28.310 Breaking the rules, and bones, to make a motion believable. 00:03:28.310 --> 00:03:34.120 That is followed by formulas for sneaking, running, jumping, and variations thereof. 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:36.400 A whole chapter on flexibility. 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:41.110 One way to do this is by choosing anything other than the perfect middle between extremes. 00:03:41.110 --> 00:03:43.900 That’s just one of the tricks in this section. 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:46.340 There is not much text when you get to this part of the Animator’s Survival Kit. 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:48.930 The content is in diagrams, notes, and drawings, so there’s not much point in me talking 00:03:48.930 --> 00:03:53.680 further since you’ll benefit more by sorting out what topics are most important to you. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:59.560 The rest of the chapters cover weight, anticipation, effects, lip sync, acting, and even a few 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:04.130 pages on directing, though if you are aiming to direct you should look elsewhere since 00:04:04.130 --> 00:04:06.840 the information here is only a teaser. 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:07.840 That’s it. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.090 It’s all there. 00:04:09.090 --> 00:04:10.680 Everything you need to know. 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:43.630 Now all you have to do is draw.