Character Animation In Depth: The Complete Expert's Guide to Professional Character Animation [Paperback]

Doug Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 1998

Character Animation Enhanced is the first complete reference to all key character animation resources. Provides readers with feature-by-feature product comparisons that help them choose the right tool for every character animation task. Includes at least one tutorial for the software package or plug-in reviewed.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Whether or not you've got a background in traditional character animation, Character Animation in Depth can help you learn the art of creating animated figures in the digital realm. The author, Doug Kelly, offers hands-on techniques for building eye-catching and credible characters in a variety of tools. He reviews essentially the entire 3-D-graphics software market at the beginning of the book, and throughout the book he teaches you about how to harness the specific capabilities of some of these programs, such as 3D Studio MAX and trueSpace3. But in general, you can apply his advice to whatever 3-D modeling and animation program you prefer.

Kelly focuses on helping you make (or build on) a career in character animation. He advises you on producing a demo reel for prospective employers and on making entire animated films. You begin by learning how to collaborate with an animation-production team and create a storyboard, script, soundtrack, and timing sheets as you create a story reel. The second part of the book focuses on character modeling. You learn how to design figures and faces and work with modeling tools to fine-tune form and texture. Advanced projects include casting from life and working with laser-scan data. Part three, "Texturing," helps you define base attributes and learn about texture maps and material placement. There's a good deal of hands-on help on making and applying 2-D maps for heads, wrinkles, and more. Advanced tools here include 3-D paint tools and shaders.

In part four, "Setup," you learn how to prepare your characters for animation using replacement and displacement animation techniques. You also use the concepts of position, orientation, aim, and roll constraints to define your figures' movements. Here you also learn about switching, mixing, and blending constraints. Part five, "Animating," introduces you to the basic issues of character animation, including camera animation, timing, spline and keyframe controls, and shot composition. You focus on creating movements that reflect a character's personality, partly through the constraints that define a character's range of movements. You animate a basic walk and a caricature walk and work with balance and mass to produce staggers, double takes, and extreme takes--elements of classic (cartoon) animation.

Part six, "Post-Animation Production," teaches you about lighting, rendering, compositing effects, title design, finishing touches, and final output. Finally, you get guidance on starting out in the animation industry, whether as part of an animation team or as a self-employed animator. Appendices include a glossary of digital and traditional animation terms, a bibliography, and directories of contributing artists, studios, and software companies. A full-color section shows various models by contributing artists as well as images from the book's projects. Files for these projects are included on the accompanying CD-ROM. You'll also find script templates, sample storyboards, and clips from animated films. --Kathleen Caster

From the Back Cover

Everything You Need To Start A Career Or Open Your Own Animation Studio! Character Animation In Depth surveys the entire field of character animation software and hardware tools. Extensive projects and head-to-head product comparisons give you in-depth information you won't find anywhere else. Top-notch industry professionals with up to 20 years' experience give you the latest and best character animation theory and practical, production-proven techniques. Directors and supervisors give you the inside scoop on getting into the business - and staying there! Covers Softimage, 3D Studio MAX, Animation:Master, LightWave 3D, trueSpace3, and more!

About the Author Doug Kelly (Auburn, ME) has written books and articles and presented seminars on 3D animation software since 1992. His publications include LightWave 3D 5 Character Animation f/x; numerous articles for LightWavin', 3D Artist, and Video Toaster User magazines; and user and tutorial manuals for SoftF/X. He is a principal of Kelly Computer Consultants. You can contact him at [e-mail] or through his Web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~dakelly/index.htm.

Everything you need in step-by-step detail to:
Learn character animation from the beginning - or jump-start from your skills in traditional animation and other arts
Learn character animation for your software - this book covers them all
Choose the right tool for the job with impartial, detailed reviews
Create your own demo reel, the first step to an animation career or your own business
Make your own animated films, from story to screen

CD-ROM Contents:
Demo versions of Animation:Master, trueSpace3, Digital Fusion, Premier, After Effects, Photoshop, 4D Paint, Detailer, Painter, Bones Pro MAX, RayGun, TOPIXCloth, ClothReyes, MetaReyes, CartoonReyes, JetaReyes, and Magpie Pro
Every image, model, and setup file for projects in the book
Clips from award-winning animated films
Script-writing templates, sample storyboards, and exposure sheets
Complete project soundtrack with original music and sound effects

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1008 pages
• Publisher: Coriolis Group (June 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566047714
• ISBN-13: 978-1566047715
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,196,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much irrelivant information, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Character Animation In Depth: The Complete Expert's Guide to Professional Character Animation (Paperback)

I have mixed feelings with this book. It covers a lot of information, which is good, but i often get lost because there aren't enough pictures to go along with the explanations. Also, many techniques are software specific, and many step-by-step tutorials involve software that you may not have. Many questions that i have are left unanswered... but then again no book can answer everyone's questions. If it did, it would be 20,000 pages! The character setup section mainly deals with Hash's Animation:Master. Little good that does people who use more industry standard software like MAX or Softimage. A related book that i recommend is George Maestri's Digital Character Animation... it covers much of the same material, is much easier to read, and actually IS software independant!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars clear insights into various issues involved in character ani, March 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Character Animation In Depth: The Complete Expert's Guide to Professional Character Animation (Paperback)

character animators are small community in india and lack of dedicated schools and studios does not help us one bit,in such a scenerio doug kelly's book on character animation helped me a lot.good information on hash animation master and softimage.excellent reading material for the beginner and intermediate level.all in all superb reading material

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat misleading title, January 11, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Character Animation In Depth: The Complete Expert's Guide to Professional Character Animation (Paperback)

Although this book covers a large amount of computer animation, including many different techniques, I believe that it aims to please too many people. Of the 1000+ pages, very few of them offer any practical advice on character animation, instead pointing the reader to the extensive bibliography. Most of the intermediate-advanced readers the book is supposedly recommended for will find nothing new. There is far too much irrelevant material (for example, there are two chapters on cyberscans, which the author denounces as useless for character animation!?), which would have been better replaced with more examples of modelling etc. I feel that for a book titled Character Animation, there is only a small amount of material on the subject. Having said that, it may provide an eye-opener for non-professionals or beginners to the field. My biggest annoyance with this book is with its claim to be software-independant. The author has obviously spent too much time with SoftImage, and hence uses many jargon terms derived from that software (such as 'tags') which will undoubtedly confuse many readers. And I'm not even going to go into the format of the excercises... Having read several books on the subject, I would recommend George Meastri's Digital Character animation instead.