Book Review: Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG

Thinking Animation is a very well good read. The research is well done, and is written with sincerity and a dose of humour.

The topics covered include the animation history, storytelling, creating good characters, technical and non-technical tips on animation and working in the animation industry. It covers enough ground and depth to make any animator more productive and knowledgeable.

The true value of this book is the quotes from multiple animation experts. They are almost on every page, dispensing useful tips and insight on animation, the career, the process. Oftentimes, they are pretty funny, since they are looking back at their work on hindsight.

There are over 70 pages of appendix. That goes to show how much research was done, and also how many people the authors Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff have spoken too.

Of particular note is the Animation Hall of Funny which contains many hilarious quotes which I should include some here:

• "Make it more blue, because blue is more mysterious."
• "Are we worried about production or are we worried about making a movie?"
• "I'm not sure what I want, but that's not it."
• "Can you shift that half a frame south?"
• "I want it to sound like nothing going through nothing"
• "Show me the funny!"
• "Make the animation a bit more 'eeeeek.', You know,'eeeeek?'"

Thinking Animation is recommended to new and professional animators, 2D or CG.

The authors have a blog at thinkinganimationbook.blogspot.com. It's constantly being updated with interesting stuff on animation.

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