And if there ever is a true revised edition of The Animator's Survival Kit, I would love to see an index. My students will then be able to go directly to the principle they're looking for and I can easily locate words of wisdom from one of the great animators, Richard Williams. There is no one better prepared than Williams to assemble a book like this. He is a living link between the pioneers of the art form and the international animation community of today. Much of the information in the book relates directly to the creation of character animation regardless of the media used to create it. Animation Bump: Richard's book is intended to allow animators to do this on their own whim. The promo CD that comes with the book also has a very impressively animated sequence, which Richard claims took around a year to make! Shown Their Work: William's book is unmatched in how knowledgeable it is about animation articulation.

The animated version of the book's logo (it can be watched here ) plays this straight as the music syncs with each character's actions as they move in place to perform a choreographed walk cycle. Line Boil: Williams discusses how badly-made in-between frames can create uncontrolled "wobbling" or "frying" in the animation. He mentions that when he was doing commercials at UPA's London studio, his assistant would change the shape of the character's eyes on his inbetween drawings, causing a distracting wobble. Impossible Hourglass Figure: Despite demonstrating a perfect knowledge of anatomy, damn does he love his implausibly proportioned women!Williams, Richard (2012-09-25). The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-86547-897-8. Book Review: Expanding 'The Animator's Survival Kit' ". Animation World Network . Retrieved 2023-01-30.

Rubber-Hose Limbs: Discussed, in that it explains this technique of animation, but it also explains how to get flexibility in limbs without literally bending them like noodles. The dachshund of the book's logo was revealed in the animated version of said logo to have a stretchy middle-body when he tried to get inline with the rest of the characters, much to his embarrassment. Attached to the inside cover is a DVD of just under 10 minutes, promoting The Animator's Survival Kit -- Animated, a box set that combines video from a Williams Masterclass lecture intercut with animated examples of animation theory. Silly Walk: Williams goes at length on how to take a basic walk cycle and play around with the various parts to create some interesting actions. He describes the trope as the fundamental key to all other animation- once you can animate a clean walk, anything else becomes easy. Broad Strokes: At the time he was writing the book, Richard wanted to move on past the devastating loss of his film The Thief and the Cobbler, so the book makes no direct mention of the film or its production. Key word here is direct—Richard did sneak in at least two allusions to the film's existence. The first is mentioning working with Vincent Price on an unspecified project, and the caricature of him included is a dead ringer for Zigzag, the character Price played in the film. The second allusion to the film is recycling an actual scene of animation from the film, of the Old Witch running. Ironically, Richard said in a 2013 interview that writing the book allowed him to make peace with the troubled history of Thief and be content with the workprint edit of the film.

Tropes:

Off Like a Shot: There's an example about how characters can anticipate running with this pose and then instantly disappear offscreen, leaving only a dust cloud or similar behind. The book directly refers to this at one point, and actually explains why it's such a beloved trope among animators: like music, most animation is plotted out in multiples of 4, or more rarely multiples of 3 like a waltz. Syncing animation with music, therefore, provides a set of predetermined, aesthetically pleasing divisions to base keyframes off of, while also providing interesting changeups in the form of subdivided eighth and sixteenth notes to guide more intricate animations. Animation examples from the book combined with footage from Richard Williams' masterclasses have been put into a 16-volume DVD box set titled The Animator's Survival Kit – Animated. [3] The logo from the book cover was completely animated in the traditional style, taking Williams and his animators 9 months to complete. Williams also included some early drafts of his own work from previous projects. [4] Reception [ edit ]