Animation in the Home Digital Studio: Creation to Distribution (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) [Paperback]

Steven Subotnick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0240804740 | ISBN-13: 978-0240804743

So you want to create animation! Where do you start? With an idea. This creative, exercise-packed guide contains examples and idea-generating activities. What tools do you need? Your computer, simple software programs, and your imagination. This book will tell you how to utilize these tools. Must you spend your life savings on your set-up? No. The author's charts and project timelines will guide you and make the overwhelming simple, and keep your shopping lists manageable.

With Animation in the Home Digital Studio, amateurs and animation students alike can learn how to create a variety of computer animations: from puppet to clay to pixilated, drawn and cartoon. This book contains a CD-ROM loaded with animation clips and exercises. The book's 8-page color insert illustrates stills from the work of independent animators around the world. The book's guide to resources contains a comprehensive list of contests, shows, societies, organizations, e-zines, and more.

Steven Subotnick takes a personal approach to animation. His book is for artists, amateurs, professionals, students, and anyone who wants to use animation as a means of expression. It explains how to create a variety of animations: from puppet to cutout, and from drawn to object animation. Subotnick covers the use of popular software products, including Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe Premiere®, Digidesign ProTools Free, and others.

*The only beginning-level guide to creating and distributing personal animation projects for the serious amateur
*Includes an extensive list of international resources for learning about animation, making animation, and seeing and showing animation
*Companion CD-ROM contains animated clips by sixteen independent animators, as well as instructional animations that demonstrate different techniques

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Subotnick brings to bear the same breadth of ideas and his normal clarity on a potentially overwhelming subject, wrestles with it lays it out in a manner that manages to be engaging both technically and educationally." - Animation World Magazine

"Subotnick has managed to wedge a wealth of useful practical advice and information between these covers, sometimes with such subtlety that a novice may come away with a deeper and more nuanced grasp of the content than they realize." - Animation World Magazine

"The variety and scope of what Subotnick covers makes the book seem much larger than it is: The author offers a fine accounting of why he uses digital tools that manages to be both explanatory and inspiring." - Animation World Magazine

About the Author

Steven Subotnick is a professional independent animator as well as a professor, teaching computer animation at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and Harvard University (visiting professor). He has produced and directed several independent films, and has also won numerous awards for his animation (New York Expo of Short Films and the New England Film and Video Festival). He has worked as a director and animator for over 15 years and has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from both UCLA and California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. This is his first book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press (January 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240804740
• ISBN-13: 978-0240804743
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book I have been waiting for!, March 17, 2003

By 

Yvonne Andersen (Lexington,, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animation in the Home Digital Studio: Creation to Distribution (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) (Paperback)

I am an animator who has worked in 16mm film and have been an animation instructor for children and adults for many years. I have been interested in computer animation, but found myself spending most of my time learning new computer programs rather than making animation. Then I would discover that the program I was trying to learn was difficult and not so useful for what I was trying to do.

Finally I have been saved! This book is exactly what I have been waiting for. Steve Subotnick has cut through the unwieldy morass of information to get down to the basics. His book is easy to hold, clearly and simply written, with pleasant, easy to look at drawings of equipment and procedures by Tim Miller, and some exquisite color pages of animaion stills from animators around the world.

This book takes you all the way through the processes of making an animated work and finishing it to a CD or Video which can be viewed by others. Steve saves you a lot of time by suggesting a limited amount of basic hardware and software which is flexible enough to do different types of animation, and inexpensive enough for many independent animators and schools to afford.

The book is inspirational for students and teachers in that Steve has listed outstanding films and videos, considered works of art by the international animation community. The book includes a CD with samples from these films and the end results of the simple exercises in the book. He starts each chapter with a brief quote from different animators.

The book is very enabling. Steve discusses how he and others get ideas and techniques. He encourages originality and creativity. He recommends that you "be yourself" in your animation work. I am using the book myself now and would recommend it to teachers, schools and everyone age 13 and up who is interested in learning to make animation on the computer.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Animator's Toolkit & Inspiring Teaching Tool, August 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Animation in the Home Digital Studio: Creation to Distribution (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) (Paperback)

What I noticed immediately, then continued to admire throughout my reading of this book is that this little yellow book is very, very well written. I am impressed. I will use this book to teach my Animation I students, who will benefit from the history of independent animators the book provides, as well as the unbelievably detailed descriptions of the projects this animator completed. Subotnick fully describes what a digital animation studio (at home, or in the classroom) is comprised of, and describes the hardware and software tools animators may need. The book left me without questions! The CD-ROM is creative and of professional quality, and the animation clips on it show a good variety of work. This book was a welcome surprise, and an essential addition to my animation skills library!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a word- GREAT!, November 17, 2003

By 

Vanessa Cruz "Vanessa B. Cruz" (Palm Coast, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animation in the Home Digital Studio: Creation to Distribution (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) (Paperback)

As an independent film maker making the switch from 16mm to digital, this book has been indispensable. Not only does it show how to set up your studio, but also gives you estimates of the cost to step into this brave new world.
And what I found truly inspirational was the CD included with the QT movies of other independent animators. Seeing other people's work has always been the best motivation for doing my own. Thank you for putting this together to save us from time wasted trying to figure this out on our own.