Acting for Animators, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation [Paperback]

Ed Hooks (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 032500580X | ISBN-13: 978-0325005805 | Publication Date: September 2, 2003 | Edition: Revised

Animators need to know a lot about acting, but they don't need to know everything. Acting for Animators sorts out the acting theory that animators need, presenting it in a form and with references that are more relevant to the animator's world. It explores the connections between thinking and physical action, between thinking and emotion; it provides the steps for an effective character analysis and the dynamics of a scene. Using references to animation and live action, acting principles are highlighted and explained. Plus, the accompanying CD-ROM provides explicit examples, including videoclips of improvs based on the seven essentials of acting and highlights of Rudolph Laban's movement theory.

This revised edition is illustrated by Paul Naas, an animator and director whose work includes film, TV, video games, location-based entertainment, and Internet animation. He was one of the first animator/instructors hired by the Disney Institute.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ed Hooks is Stanislavsky for animators, but fun! I advise all my animation students to read Ed's amazingly insightful book.”–Dave Quesnelle, Professor of Animation, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

“Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators was the first book on the subject and is still the best. His analysis of character motivation and expressing emotion is the difference between animating and just moving furniture.”–Gene Hamm, Animation instructor, Academy of Art College, San Francisco

“Character animators, using pencils and/or pixels, will discover a wealth of information about how to make their characters express empathetic emotions in the revised edition of this book. . . . Highly recommended.”–John Canemaker, Animator/Director of Animation, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

“If I can't figure out what is wrong with one of my characters, I can pick up Ed's book, scan for just a short while, and come back with my direction. It's the I Ching for animators.”–Matt Brunner, Director, Xbox

“Wonderful teaching! Ed Hooks is fascinated and fascinating.”–Michael Dudok de Wit, Winner, Academy Award, Short Animation, Father and Daughter

About the Author

Ed Hooks has been a respected acting teacher for three decades. In his work with animators, he has taught for many leading studios, including Disney Feature Animation, DreamWorks/PDI, Electronic Arts, Rockstar, Will Vinton Studios, Valve, BioWare, Tippett Studio, Wild Brain, OddWorld Inhabitants, Microsoft (X-Box/Fasa Studio) and Sony Computer Entertainment America. In addition, he has been a featured speaker/teacher at many international animation conferences, festivals and schools. Hooks welcomes questions or comments-just email him at [e-mail] or visit his website: www.ActingForAnimators.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann Drama; Revised edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 032500580X
• ISBN-13: 978-0325005805
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #300,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After working as a professional actor for 27 years and teaching professional-level acting for 15 or so years, I was invited in 1996 to teach an acting class for the animators at DreamWorks/PDI in Palo Alto, California. They were working on a movie entitled "Antz", which would turn out to be only the second CG movie ever made. The first was "Toy Story" I had landed at a transitional point for the animation industry, and what happened there literally changed my life. It was at DreamWorks/PDI that I learned how animators perceive and apply acting theory, which is markedly different from the way that stage and movie actors do it. Given a green light by studio executives, I experimented with ways to teach acting theory specifically to animators, and the result was what today is explained in my book "Acting for Animators, revised 3rd edition" published 2011 by Routledge.

Even I am amazed by the journey I have taken with animators. There have been many thousands of students, the majority of them working pros, in studios and schools from L.A. to Sydney to Beijing, Singapore, Germany and India -- and many more cities. My Acting for Animators master class is now a respected and popular part of the animation industry.

This is an incredibly exciting time for the animation industry. It has been less than 20 years since "Toy Story" was released. Look at how far animation has advanced. Now try to imagine where it might be 20 years from now. Amazing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars About the five stars..., October 20, 2003

By 

Kira (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acting for Animators, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation (Paperback)

In case you were wondering why all of four people who reviewed this book gave it five stars, it's because a certain 'friend' of Mr. Hooks has taken to having Amazon remove all reviews who don't directly correspond to her own opinion.

Let me just say that while the book is slightly useful, it's nothing you can't learn on your own by watching the way people move in real life. The book contains useful tidbits, like how characters should always be doing something, and there needs to be a purpose behind every action. The explainations of different acting theories are less helpful, at least to me, but much of the book is helpful in giving your characters convincing personalities. My suggestion is that you should get the book, but definitely never attend one of Mr. Hooks' workshops, since they present nothing new that isn't in the book (and perhaps even less) and cost about ten times more.

And to that certain 'friend' of Mr. Hooks. If you truly 'respect my opinion' then I should have just as much right to review here as anyone else. That is what amazon reviews are for.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking, "must have" book for animators;, December 12, 2003

By 

Anne-Elizabeth (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acting for Animators, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation (Paperback)

Mr. Hooks has succeeded in condensing years of experience teaching his internationally recognized Master Class "Acting for Animators" into a manageably sized and reasonably priced book & CD combination. This is an expanded 2nd Edition of a title first published in 2000 and now in use around the world, as a source manual and text book, by industry leading professional animators as well as animation students in the most highly regarded animation schools.

Traditional 2D, contemporary 3D, and experimental animators devoted to "telling a story" with their characters will relish the wealth of straightforward insight presented on topics critical to character design and animations development such as movement and body language, power centers, using psychological gestures, scene development, knowing the audience, and much more.

Dispersed throughout "Acting for Animators"- entertainingly illustrating the principals discussed in each chapter- are delightful little line drawn characters from the pen of renowned animator and director Paul Naas. And, not only does this unique and timely book contain a remarkable "Acting Analysis" of the groundbreaking and sure to be classic feature length animation "Iron Giant," it opens with a glowing forward by the film's Director, Brad Bird.

Ed Hooks is the original and still leading "Acting for Animators" teacher called upon by animation studios and schools in the United States and overseas. The contents of this book parallel his teaching perfectly.

Speaking as an animator in training and a Producer in action- who has had the good fortune to participate in Ed Hooks' recent Master Class in Denver after first meeting him as an acting student in California at the beginning of his now 20 year career as a highly regarded stage, tv & film acting coach- I say this is a "must have" for any animator who wants their work to stand out from the pack and grab the audience by the funny bone and/or the heart!

Consult "Acting for Animators" right along with Richard Williams' "The Animator's Survival Kit" and your animations will rock!

Anne-Elizabeth
Denver, Colorado
[e-mail]

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joy, March 19, 2006

By 

Robert Dowling "a wee bit off" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acting for Animators, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation (Paperback)

I wish I read this book years ago. I've been animating professionaly for years, but there's information in this book that has given me a different mind set into accomplishing what I need to create.
I've always been able to 'see' faults in my work and fix it without knowing consiously how I made the error in the first place. Now, after reading this book I take a new vantage point and can prevent any errors occuring (usually). I think my style of animation has changed a little too.

The book is fun to read and the chapters are straight to the point. Recommended to every animator.