Customer Reviews

Animation Unleashed: 100 Principles Every Animator, Comic Book Writers, Filmmakers, Video Artist, and Game Developer Should Know

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Animation Unleashed: 100 Principles Every Animator, Comic Book Writers, Filmmakers, Video Artist, and Game Developer Should KnowThis is an excellent book. There are plenty of "How To" books on the market. Very few if any cover the "What and the Why". This book gets the reader to really think about how they are putting it all together. To analyze your animation, not just worry about creating a convincing walk cycle but how the characters design and movement and the background and camera choice etc etc etc all come together. Basically like the description says it's about how to get the most out of your films.

How often have you watched a cartoon or movie and thought "Why did they do it that way? That makes no sense." This book is designed to help you not do that. It is designed to get you thinking about your story and your characters and the world you are creating and pushing it further.

For example why would you have stairs on a world populated by aliens with wheels instead of feet? If you have to draw an element, a road for example, could it somehow be incorporated to reveal more about your characters or story? Why did you choose one design over another..perhaps there is a better way. Probably there is so why merely place things on the screen when you have the power to manipulate them anyway you want. "Animation Unleashed" forces you to put some thought into it.

In animation you can control everything right down to the frame and with just a little bit of critical thinking you can elevate a mediocre animation (or any storytelling) to something GOOD if not GREAT!

This book should be on every serious storyteller's shelf wether you work in Animation or any visual storytelling medium.

I'm not an animator, but for me-- as a writer-- the strength of "Animation Unleashed" wasn't that it explained animation (it actually delves very little into the practical processes of animation or how animated films get made), but how it teaches you to think like an animator. In animation, the book explains, everything is analogy... everything takes place in alternate or heightened reality. As a result, artists and writers approach animation slightly differently... it's more visual, sound and music are used in unique ways, characters are larger, the types of stories that succeed are slightly different, etc. That's where "Animation Unleashed" is invaluable... by detailing how animators and animation writers create cartoons, it helps non-animation writers think about traditional writing and storytelling in new ways. This is a book I'll reach for whenever I'm blocked... or can't break a story... or can't get my ahead around a particular character. It's also a book I'll use just to get my imagination thinking differently. Whether you're an animation writer or not, this is a great addition to your writing-book library!

Yes!!! This is the type of book I've been waiting for. I work independently at my animation projects and live in an area that is quite isolated so I often have to rely on reference material. ANIMATION UNLEASHED is of great benefit to me. Ellen Besen has created a wonderful work that deals with a lot of material that isn't covered in the other books that I own. I find it fills in many of the blanks that existed in my other reference material.

This book follows the film process from beginning to end discussing the thinking process and the questions one must consider when developing your ideas. Everything from writing a script, developing characters, film structure, sound, animation techniques and performance right through to backgrounds and special effects are treated in the same exploratory manner. Each chapter is broken up into very informative, concise, and well written sections all accompanied by Bryce Hallett's wonderful illustrations. It doesn't necessarily dig deeply into the nuts and bolts of technique, but explores the decisions one should consider during the creative process to best communicate your story.

It takes off like a rocket with some very important and helpful information. It begins with a discussion of analogy and its relationship with animation. In the first few sentences the author begins to lay a new foundation for thought on how to take advantage of your story idea. The book explores the role caricature plays in animation, twisting and turning the subject in ways that open your mind to aspects of its use that aren't always obvious, but very essential to a successful film. The same process is applied to encourage new thinking about movement in your animation, the use of fantasy and reality, as well as creating your own universe. There is a discussion concerning the uncovering of core ideas by encouraging the use of visual exploration to avoid generic thinking. I have found this book very helpful from beginning to end in helping me avoid just that.

Ellen Besen and Bryce Hallet have done a wonderful job here. This book will be a valuable and essential tool in my library. I would encourage anyone interested learning about film making to add it to their library as well.

I must admit that I have always regarded animation as a lesser form of filmmaking, so the analysis in Animation Unleashed caught me by surprise. Who knew that Disney animated features, Warner Bros shorts, NFB animated shorts, etc were so full of innovative filmmaking techniques?

Part of what's interesting here is how deceptively simple many of the key points seem: for example, the idea that you can use caricature not only in the character design but in the acting, the scenery, the soundtrack and even the editing seems obvious once it has been pointed out but is not necessarily an easy idea to arrive at in the first place.

It's also worth noting that a lot of what is presented here is equally applicable to live action filmmaking, particularly hybrid filmmaking, like the importance of creating a history for imaginary characters which encompasses not just personal background but the evolution of the character's entire species in order to invest such creatures with logical characteristics.

In total, a real eye opener which has already changed the way I view and make film.

Yes, Animation Unleashed demonstrates that Ellen Besen does know her subject, and illustrator Bryce Hallett does know how to illustrate her points. The book's problem does not at all lie in whether it's lessons are essentially true enough, wide-ranging enough, and relevant enough, to address an audience of animation artists and producers. Prominent names in the field have testified that this is the case, and yes, it's the case. The problem is in translating that truth, that range, and that relevance into usable information. Here the book fails magnificently.

Since Ms Besen believes that the philosophical underpinning for animation is in its power to make analogies, let's begin with the illustrations. They are generally executed with perfectly professional attention to strong, clean lines and good layout, and they make a honest attempt to embody the book's ideas. But the content is usually so trite and tired that the eye becomes glazed over by the sheer mediocrity. Page after page, even while proving that he has an impeccable working understanding of animation, Hallett's art gives you microwaved burgers in a box when you wanted a filet mignon in bakery bread. (After all, it's a Michael Wiese book!) Only occasionally does he demonstrate that his impressive versatility of style is broad enough to include original characters and sensitive artistry.

Likewise, in perfect analogy to the drawings, Besen's text is composed of one damn dishwater-dull truism after another, until you realize you just invested in a long and tedious harangue about everything you already know. In remarkably lifeless, mechanical prose, Besen seeks to illustrate her lessons with half-hearted allusions to scenes from a decidedly skimpy collection of animated films, but her wan voice fails to carry very far before forging ahead with the next topic. If you hope to benefit from Besen's much-vaunted thirty years of experience, you'll soon learn there's no here here, to paraphrase Virgina Woolfe--nothing concrete to fix in your mind, no cognitive tool for your production toolbox. This is particularly cloying because of the disconnect between the fastfood artwork and Besen's constant references to great animated classics. The traditions of the publishing industry have taught us to expect real visual examples, used by permission from the studios.

As I said, there are some exceptions to the lack of usable advice, meaning some pages are worth dog-earing and returning to. But the book has physically been padded, with overgenerous line spacing and huge margins, to match its literary vacuity. And to carry analogies even further, note that the book's subtitle, "100 Principles Every Animator etc etc Should Know," belies the fact that the book does not provide the promised numbered list of principles--a reminder of why we have truth in advertising laws. Instead, it offers pseudo-rigor in the guise of artificial subheadings such as Examples, See Also, Value Added Point, Basic, Advanced, and Rule Breaker.

There are so many competing books in this field I can't recommend a single reason to purchase this one instead of one of the worthy alternatives, such as All About Techniques in Animation Production (Barron's), and Don Bluth's Art of Animation Drawing and Art of Storyboarding (DH Press).

I don't "get" animation. Oh, sure, I enjoy the stories. One of my favorite all time films is "Pinocchio." I love the Pixar films - a solid run of quality production that is unparalleled (though I think that "Wall-E" was not their best effort).

What I don't "get" is the time and energy put into it. I recall watching a behind the scenes segment on Ardman Studios and the production behind the short "Wallace and Gromit" films. Making those stop-motion claymation films would make my head explode.

After reading "Animation Unleashed" I get it. "Animation Unleashed" with wonderful illustrations by Bryce Hallett, goes into fine detail on all things animated. Showing the reader what goes into it, from the nuance of a raised eyebrow, to the detail that goes into computer generated fare.

Touching on everything from character development (whether your character is a life-like person...or is a chair) to the aspects of sounds, shadows, details (both large and small).

This book is an extremely thorough reference book and a must for anyone who is thinking about animation.

My only issue with the book is that Ms. Besen references a LOT of animated films that I am not familiar with. Though she lists them at the end of the book, it would be great if, at some point, a DVD is packaged with the book to include the animated films she mentions. Or, a reference at the beginning of the book to go on-line and try to view (assuming they're on YouTube) the animated films she mentions.

All-in-all, this is a very interesting book about nearly all aspects of animation.

There have been a lot of animation guides, but not one I could have easily used to animate my own film, or create a comic with. Most animation guides are a bit too rigid and advanced for someone of my skills so it was a blast to read "Animation Unleashed" a comprehensive and very helpful guide that tackles all bases of the animation and comic book medium. From form, motion, and action, to shadows, right down to clouds. It's a quick and fun read that will prove to be an asset to any of the aspiring animators or comic artists looking for help on taking their one dimensional characters or figures and turning them in to living breathing beings.

100 key principles of communicating via animation explained and illustrated.

Filmmaker and author Ellen Besen discovered these principles as she analyzed classic animated films. She began to see things that made certain animated films "leap off the screen".

She identified specific story telling techniques, camera angles, special effects, and backgrounds that were uniquely suited to animated films. She realized she was "tapping into the essence of how animation functions." Animation Unleashed explains and illustrates 100 of these techniques.

The writing is clear and concise, with delightful illustrations by Bruce Hallet to illustrate each of the techniques.

For example, on page 44 Besen says, "An animated script should create a platform for a performance. To achieve this, write for action first." She then shows how visual actions drive a good animation, and how--if the writer starts by writing dialog--the script can end up as a series of talking heads.

I liked the book because it introduced me to a filmmaking world that I knew little about.

After reading the book, I began see animation everywhere. On a flat screen at the grocery store checkout stand, on television, at the movies, and on most of the websites that I visit. It is fair to say that Animation Unleased increased my visual literacy and my enjoyment of animation.

Recommended for: animators (from beginning to advanced), film buffs, and anyone who needs to communicate visually.

If you want to know what animation is about, this is the book for you. This is a very good choice, with concise, easy to read lessons, specially if you are starting in the world of animation.

It is a struggle to find well-organized, single-volume sources for animation instruction that are both succinct (attention spans these days must be accomodated) and practical (not linked to a specific software).
When an animation book can accomplish this in 240 pages and still be entertaining, well, it must have come from Ellen Besen. If you're starting out, the basics are all here, and if you're looking for a brush up on techniques, you'll find a lot to like as well. If you can master the contents, you can apply them to traditional animation, to Flash, to Maya, Toonboom, even my DOSsy Autodesk Animator Pro. A fine book.