Animation Now! (Taschen 25th Anniversary) [Hardcover]

Anima Mundi (Author), Julius Wiedemann (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Taschen 25th Anniversary | Publication Date: July 1, 2007

Just how do they do it? The artists behind the cartoons are the focus of this sweeping study that brings you everything you ever wanted to know about today's best animation specialists. We've rounded up about 80 of the world's most prominent artists/studios and arranged them from A to Z, including examples and descriptions of their work as well as biographies, filmographies, bibliographies, lists of awards received, and contact information. Profiles of the world's best animation schools are also provided.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For the person who gets a kick out of movies such as Shrek 2 and Finding Nemo, consider Animation Now!, a survey of 80 of the great cartoonists and animation studios worldwide, from Hollywood's Pixar, Walt Disney, and DreamWorks SKG, to decidedly higher-brow practitioners such as South African artist William Kentridge." - Business Week, New York"

About the Author

Aida Queiroz, Cesar Coelho, Lea Zagury, and Marcos Magalhaes are the creators of "Anima Mundi", the Brazilian-based annual animation festival that draws more than 80,000 visitors every year from around the world. Julius Wiedemann was born and raised in Brazil. After studying graphic design and marketing, he moved to Japan, where he worked in Tokyo as art editor for digital and design magazines. Since joining TASCHEN in Cologne, he has been building up TASCHEN's digital collection with titles such as Digital Beauties, 1000 Game Heroes and TASCHEN's 1000 Favorite Websites.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 351 pages
• Publisher: Taschen; 25th edition (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 382283789X
• ISBN-13: 978-3822837894
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #906,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an art book essentially, September 3, 2008

By 

Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Animation Now! (Taschen 25th Anniversary) (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:33 Mins

This book showcases 80 of the world's most prominent artist and studios. Included glorious pages of art work, biographies and contact information. Unfortunately the writeup is short with an average of 5 paragraphs. There's also translation into another language (I've no idea what) just after the English write up.

The abundant of prints, cartoons, film stills and other screen shots makes this more of an art book resource. Because these animations contained all sorts of genre, the variety of style is great for inspiration. This is not just a study of animation, but a study of medium that can be used on screen.

For the price of an art book, it's well worth the money. The biographies are just goodies.

The hardcover version of the book doesn't come with the DVD though.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of colorful pics and info, February 6, 2011

By 

Deelo - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Animation Now! (Taschen 25th Anniversary) (Hardcover)

I love this book! It has lots of pictures and info crammed into a neat chunky size that just makes you want to flip through it. Very colorful.

3.0 out of 5 stars For the coffee table and aspiring animators..., August 26, 2010

By 

Sugar-Coated-Storybook (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animation Now! (Taschen 25th Anniversary) (Hardcover)

Animation Now! (Taschen 25th Anniversary)
Multilingual Edition: English, French, German
ISBN 978-3-8228-3789-4

In its favour, Animation Now! (2007) offers an interesting look at a diverse range of 80 animation studios across the globe. With a brief introduction to the history and works of each studio, the alphabetised listing specifies their name, contact information, techniques, selected filmography and awards up to 2004. Each entry is accompanied by a number of glossy images showcasing concept art, storyboards, animation cels, film stills and CGI.

Typical of Taschen art books, Animation Now! is a valuable introduction to its subject but far from an exhaustive resource. It is not intended as instruction in the production or artistry of animation but instead offers an overview of the format. For those aspiring to the animation industry, it gives a fascinating glimpse into an array of studios in and beyond the mainstream. Studios like Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks are presented in tandem with Studio Ghibli, Aardman, Folimage and dozens of others, hailing from France to Uruguay, Brazil to Estonia and many other countries in between.

However its multilingual presentation, with each studio description written in English, French and German, gives a deceptive first impression. The 351 pages are dominated primarily by pictures and of each section of text, only one third is in English, giving this edition bulk disproportionate to its relatively limited written content. Although ultimately well structured and laid out, with attractive design and conveniently alphabetised contents page, it could be enhanced with the inclusion of an index to reference specific techniques and media common to different studios. As it stands, readers have to search through each entry individually to see which studios utilise cel animation, CGI, Stop Motion etc.

Ideal as a coffee table book for animation or art enthusiasts or as a resource for students and aspiring animators, Animation Now! is a good beginners guide to the industry.