Intro to Animation & VFX

This book is a celebration of 40 years of creativity, artistic skill and imagination. The rare archive of drawings, sculptures, sketchbooks and never-before-seen concept art featured are both beautiful and revealing. Amazing sets, character studies, puppets and concept art combine to tell the story of a unique and fascinating animation studio.

Written by two of the "Nine Old Men" at the heart of Disney classics, this beautiful book chronicles the development and culmination of the Disney technique. The drawings and artwork from Disney's vast library are stunning, and the principles of traditional drawn animation are laid out in full along with a history of the craft and its major exponents. Part history, part art book, part how-to manual, Illusion of Life is a gem.

Interviews spanning over 30 years bring to life the legendary Warner Bros. artist who helped shape the history of American animation, who defined characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote. Jones candidly discusses his aesthetic sensibilities, providing tips for aspiring animators and incidentally providing a historical account of Warner Bros. animation. He reveals his struggles as an artist, the many influences upon him, and the creative process that made him famous.

A hefty compilation of essays (both pictorial and prose), notes, concept sketches and interviews by (and with) Hayao Miyazaki. This volume covers the roots of Miyazaki's childhood, the formulation of his theories of animation, and the founding of Studio Ghibli.

In the mid-1990s, filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki moved from success to success as his work found an audience outside of Japan. His animated films of the era, including Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo, were internationally lauded. Follow Miyazaki as his vision matures, cinema-lovers worldwide embrace his creations, and critics such as Roger Ebert take up the cause of animation and Miyazaki's films.

Bold and beautiful, this volume presents hundreds of film stills from the Pixar archives in a glorious spectrum of colour. Starting with bright white images and seamlessly flowing through the rainbow, it illuminates how colour is used to add to the story in every frame. This book captures much of what the studio is known for: attention to detail, playful characters, and the scope of their work. Foreword by Disney and Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter.

This book was made to accompany a comprehensive Pixar exhibition from Museum of Modern Art (New York), which showed at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). Sketches, paintings, sculptures and storyboards reveal how Pixar's much-loved characters and worlds are brought to life.

The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects offers a practical, detailed guide to visual effects for non-VFX specialists working in film and television. Expert instructor Dinur introduces readers to visual effects from the filmmaker's perspective, providing a comprehensive guide to conceiving, designing, budgeting, planning, shooting, and reviewing VFX, from pre-production through post-production.

Through interviews with 16 special effects pioneers, the author explores the making of memorable film sequences. The book highlights the shift from practical to digital magic and gives explanations for some of the secrets behind cinema's fantastical creations.

The Green Screen Handbook is a comprehensive how-to manual covering integral techniques required in pre-production, production, and post-production to use green screen effectively. Step-by-step instruction and time-saving tips cover matting and keying; lighting and digital camera setups; using background panels; motion picture compositing; multi-coloured screen composites; directing storyboards and talent; working with virtual sets; motion tracking; and more. The book is full of examples and real-world green screen and compositing project case studies. The extensive companion website (https://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138780330/) includes downloadable project files and video tutorials.

This hands-on introduction to core animation techniques will establish skills in narrative animation, motion graphics and visual effects. Each chapter outlines historical and theoretical concerns, connects them with current practice, and then walks readers through one or more example projects (sample files available online). Topics covered include scenes and staging; character animation; animated type; visual effects and motion graphics; pre- through post-production; and experimental approaches to motion graphics. The companion website includes film examples, and recommends for software tutorials, artist websites, blogs and animation channels.

Pierre Grage, who worked on Avatar and Pacific Rim, shares his knowledge on the VFX industry and Hollywood. It discusses Hollywood's business models and the true costs visual effects; countries at the forefront of VFX; and current challenges of the VFX film industry.

Learn the techniques and skills that will take you from
a beginner to a confident visual effects artist. Seasoned visual effects producer Jon Gress distills years of experience into the most effective methodology, delivered in a way that’s fun, easy to understand but to an industry professional standard. It provides a solid overview of visual effects and compositing; blue and green screen keying; 3D texturing; cloning; wire and rig removal; rotoscoping; and matchmoving. It then goes into detail on 3D CGI; crowd replication; shadows, reflections and Z depth; smoke, cloud and heat FX; and day-for-night FX. The advanced section teaches skills like digital matte painting and projections; colourisation; fluid and rigid body dynamics; full digital environments; and digital destruction.

This award-winning handbook is one of the most complete guides to visual effects techniques and best practices available. This new edition has been updated to include the latest industry-standard techniques, technologies and workflows. The Visual Effects Society (VES) tasked the original authors to update their areas of expertise, including in stereoscopic moviemaking, colour management, facial capture and the Digital Intermediate. They have also added detailed chapters on interactive games and full animation.

Bridge the gap between software-specific instructions and the world of classical animation with this easy-to-use guide. With great relevance for digital workflows, Lapidus presents innovative 3ds Max controls to principles like squash and stretch, anticipation, staging, and more. Move beyond fundamental techniques and explore both the emotions and technical sides of animation with character appeal and rigging. The robust companion web site includes demonstrations, project files and links to further resources (http://www.focalpress.com/cw/lapidus-9780240817309/)

A fast, easy and comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CC (2015 release). This series offers an official training series from Adobe Systems Inc., developed with the support of Adobe product experts. This classroom in a book contains 14 lessons that cover the basics and beyond, providing tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program.

Fully updated for Blender 2.78b and beyond, this edition covers the powerful new selection and modeling tools, professional workflows, and every aspect of character creation: design, modeling, unwrapping, texture painting, shading, rigging, rendering, and compositing. This manual will take you from pre-production to finished work, and is perfect for novices and those moving from other software to Blender. Full-color, hands-on chapters walk you through character creation and scene integration, and the companion website (blendtuts.com/learning-blender-files) contains bonus contents like video tutorials.

Autodesk's Maya is the industry standard software used to create assets for movies and video games. In this guide the artist learns transferable skills for modeling anatomy with Maya and Mudbox,covering topics such as kinesiology; texturing and shading skin, hair, and eyes; deformation; locomotion; and lighting.

This book is a guide for every stage of character creation, including how to incorporate multiple limbs, smears, motion lines and staggers seamlessly into your animation. From planning to posing to polish, learn how to make the most of breakdowns, and take the terror out of tangent types and the graph editor. Each chapter includes interviews, insight and advice from world-leading character animators. The companion website includes a short film, a rig to practise animating and walk-through videos demonstrating key techniques.

Ganbar provides the foundations to working with Nuke visual effects software. Along with advice and techniques from expert compositor and teacher Ron Ganbar, each chapter covers a complete lesson in fundamentals, with step-by-step instructions you can follow while using the program.