Hi all,
I was looking for a good animation book, especially one for 3d animators. I already own Richard Williams Animators Survival Kit (fantastic) but am looking to expand my library. Can anyone recommend any good books or DVD tutorials to me?
Thanks!
In terms of theory, there is no difference between 2D and 3D animation - all the same techniques apply: squash and stretch, anticipation, overlap and follow through, secondary actions, etc.
The foundation of your library should be the standard animation texts that every animator is familiar with: Illusion of Life, Survival Kit, the Preston Blair book, etc. However, there are books that incorporate a lot of the above material and connect it to working digitally. Here are a couple of titles:
[B]
Character Animation: 2D skills for better 3D by Steve Roberts
[/B]This book is unique in that Roberts has you complete exercises in 2D first, then use those as a template for creating a 3D version. It's packed with animation theory, and even provides a rigged character on the included DVD for you to work with. One caveat for american animators: Roberts is European, so he works in (and frequently mentions) a frame rate of 25 FPS. You'll have to make the mental conversion back to either 24 or 30, depending on whether you're working to film or video.
[B]Animation: The Mechanics of Motion by Chris Weber
[/B]Another solid book chock-full of animation theory with a nod to working digitally. This is the book I use as a text for my 3D character animation class.
Thanks I'll check those books out. I remember my lecturer swore by some of those you mentioned.
And the frame rate will be fine for me as we use 25 fps in Australia too :)
I was also looking for one that would help me get a good animation process down in 3d. I can get good timing and nice clean poses in 2d but in 3d it's a little more complicated. Also good books for technical things in Maya like contraints etc.
Thanks again!
it may be your just not comfortable yet in 3d. you know whats artistic when your drawing it. you will know it when your animating. what working in 3d does is allows you to work faster for some things. but that 2d knowledge about what makes a motion interesting is something you have to inject into the software.
since you know how to draw try doing pose to pose animation with 3d characters the same way you would if they were 2d characters. but your animation system would need to have a layer system
A layer system?
Maybe he means "overlapping action."
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I think what he means is some way to overlay a drawn 2D image sequence over the 3D environment, so that you can pose the model in the same position as the 2D drawing. Disney and Pixar both use software that's capable of this.
a layer system isnt that uncommon with 3d animation instead of all your keys being on one timeline you can break the motion up and its put on different layers. say a character is walking on one layer. they can stop on another layer. turn around and break into a run on another. all the keys for each motion are kept seperate from the other. but they can still be blended together however youd like to blend them.
you can also do page flipping with a layer system the same way you would if it was on paper and you flipped the pages. essentially doing 2d animtion with a 3d object. but its not limited to disney or pixar there is even a free program that uses a layer system. with a unique interface. but the system I go with is a bit stronger
something I just started easy to manage since everything is seperated
http://bleed.hereweb.com/walkstoponhip.htm
you will need adobe shockwave, should auto install
Sounds awesome. Thank you!