Pre-Animate :                                             A Guidebook for Independent Animators

Preanimate.com (external site) 

Amazon.co.uk link

 

Pre-animate! A Guidebook for Independent Animators.

 

This 200-page full-colour book will be published in June 2006. 

 

PreAnimate was inspired by the students in my animation course at the City University of Hong Kong's School of Creative Media. 

 

The illustrations and design of Pre-Animate were a team effort by Tony Wong, Julius Wong and XO Hung. Tony was primarily responsible for the design and also contributed illustrations; Julius worked on illustrations and photography and he also co-taught my classes at the School of Creative Media; Ah-Hung designed the original characters, drew the storyboards and contributed other illustrations for the book.

 

The book was partially funded by the School of Creative Media.

 

PreAnimate covers everything an animator needs to know about pre-production:

• Coming up with animate-able ideas
• Writing a story with a coherent beginning, middle and end
• Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different animation techniques
• Designing characters from scratch
• Creating storyboards
• Adding sound effects and music
• And organising yourself and others 

With colour-coded sections so readers can jump in wherever they want, original characters and storyboards to illustrate key concepts, and helpful tips to encourage at every stage, ‘Pre-animate!’ has all the information needed to turn a germ of an idea into a gem of animation.

     

     

Click here for a larger view of the cover.

     

Click here for a larger view of the contents pages.            

           

           

           

     

Click here to go to Amazon.co.uk 

 

     

CONTENTS

 

1          ESSENTIALS

Read this book!

What’s covered?

Animation techniques

Clay or object animation

Cut-out animation

Granule animation

Drawn animation

Rotoscoped animation

3D-animation

Sound-driven animation

What works in animation?

Animator self-knowledge

 

2          STORY PLOTS

Original story ideas

Thirty-second stories

Three-minute stories

Thirty-minute stories

Three acts

Twenty plot structures

 

3          OTHER APPROACHES

Abstract animation

Design principles

Folktales and allegory

Myth structures

Anime characters

Personality theory

Cartoon comedy

Comic setups

 

4          DESIGN ART

               Visualising ideas

               Generating ideas

               Shaping ideas

               Character design

               Imagining worlds

 

5             STORYBOARDS

               Storyboards

The shots and their uses

Composition and staging

   Continuity logic

               Animatics

               Be the cinematographer

               Be the director

               Be the editor

                     Be the sound designer

               Previz

 

6          SOUND

Why sound is important

A bit of history

Click tracks

Spotting

Copyright

Music and emotion

Effects and imagining the world

Sound quality

 

7          ORGANISATION

               The big picture

               Budgeting time and talents

               Organising files

               What’s ahead?

 

8          BIBLIOGRAPHY &

            GLOSSARY