Animation Books

Students of computer graphics, animation or multimedia will find Gardner's Guide To Internships In New Media an involving reference which profiles hundreds of companies sponsoring internships in these new media. Contacts, phone numbers, and all the details necessary to assess a company's internship offerings make for a fine guide.

This book gives the reader a definite edge in the quest for new media internships. Let's face it, the only way get a really good job in computer graphics or animation is to start off in an internship. And the only way to get a good internship is to have an edge over all the other applicants. Gardner's guide is a huge help to students trying to get an internship in new media, I would definitely put this book on my top ten books for the 2G.

Gardner's Guide To Internships In New Media: Computer Graphics, Animation And Multimedia is a definitive, ground-breaking guide for high school and college students which profiles hundreds of companies in the visual effects industry who offer internships in graphic design, photography, animation, television production, web design, film and computer graphics. Information is provided on various industry magazines, a list of international festivals, and a list of fully digital television productions studios. The company profiles include general information about the company, internships available (summer, fall, winter, spring, and year round), benefits and contact information (often with E-mail and website addresses). Gardner's Guide To Internships In New Media is an unique, indispensable job training and internship guide that is highly recommended for community and school based job counseling and employment center reference shelves.

When I went to the Virgin Bookstore in Orlando, I was browsing through and this book caught my eye. I've seen the others before but Desi Arnaz is one of my favorites. For a man who never gets credited for some of the greatest innovations of television, the book captures the positive image of Desi Arnaz.

I couldn't resist picking up this book because the cover was so fabulous. I thought it was just going to be about vaqueros, but no-- Thomas hunted down the best picutres of latin stars (including French and Italian men)-- they're incredible and so are the stories she tells. I saw the review in People magazine, so I knew it would be good, but this book is a keeper. How can I give it 6 stars? Thanks Victoria Thomas!

Long before Antonio Banderas donned The Mask of Zorro, the Latin Lover was a Hollywood staple: the ludicrously sensual seducer characterized by Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Cesar Romero. Fernando Lamas once voiced his frustration with being cast as a cliché. "They seem to think all Latins make love all day long," he said in 1961. "I assure you that isn't true. Once in a while I read a book!"

You wouldn't know it by reading this book. A swooning tribute to Hollywood's leading lotharios, its profiles are light on insight, serving merely as an excuse to print some appealing archival pictures. In modern times, Thomas laments, the Latin Lover has been slowly emasculated by the "gorgonlike gaze" of feminists, leaving just one amigo to fill his well-stitched boots: Banderas. "He is at once leather and lace," she writes, "merging uninhibited animal beauty with a teasing finesse." That's enough to make any guy want to hide behind a mask.

Great pictures, sexy reading, buy one and invite the gals over to dish & drool. Guys, just close your eyes.

This is a vast improvement over previous versions. I can't wait to get six when it comes out. I volunteer at a local TV studio and we use iMovie to edit all of our productions. We are just learning Final Cut Pro, but iMovie is just as good.

So Here I am once again everyone. Hello, this is Chris, and I first started my review project with my video camera, a JVC GDR-270 purchased at Best buy for $299 and iMovie HD, The missing manual, and started to record everything I saw. Using the camera was not difficult but iMovie HD was at first. When opening the application, seemed almost intuitive. But any assisted guidance sure helps in the production process. Having said this, I used the book as I did my work following the guided pictures. I imported my video and began my personal version of a Hollywood production studio (Watch it Warner or Paramount, I think I found my niche,) and edited my movie for final output. During the process, there are tools in iMovie HD that will help make your movie look a bit more professional. What is not there is someone to help in which the book did well. Using the iMovie HD help file can be tedious, and can be very time consuming going back and forth, but with this book in one hand and a mouse in the other, I simply glided through the pages very easily. From start to finish, it was easily explained. I had no problems finding out how to utilize the video from my DV cam. I could explain the process of using iMovie HD but that is a whole other review, my review is on the book and I am glad I did. iMovie HD, the missing manual was a well organized, color photo book with easy to use guides and tips. I am glad I had the opportunity to review it because without it, I would still be importing my video 30 days later. Following the book was easy. But it is lengthy, over 400 detailed pages to follow. But with enough patience, not only will you be able to use iMovie hd on the fly, you will be on your way to utilizing more professional applications like Final Cut express an Final Cut Pro.

Jeff Carlson's Visual Quickstart Guides for iMovie are the best software manuals I've ever used. I've been dipping into the Visual Quickstart Guides for a number of programs for 5 years and I find them easy to read, direct, and clear as a bell. It's a great series and for people who are slow learners like me, they're a pleasure. I also teach iMovie and this is the book I recommend to my students.

This disc represents a huge amount of knowledge on the subject not only of Viz 4, but of the 3D process in general. His format makes it very easy to navigate, and there are lots of cross-references, if you skip around. It's written with clarity and wit, using this tutorial is not the dull experience most are. It's particularly nice to be able to watch a video of every single subject covered. I really feel like I will know everything I will need to know about Viz using this disc. I would highly recommend this to all who are learning this program, and to those who may already know the Max/Viz interface, but don't know it in depth.

I found Mr. Onstotts CD easy to use and very clear. You can tell
from the way the material is presented that he has been teaching the material for a long time and is very familiar with it.
From the well organized subject material to the self assesment
tests, I found the depth refreshing. Although the actual coursework is full and complete two of my more favorite items
were from areas that other materials usually ignore. The "hints" sections sprinkled through out the material give details that only could come from in depth use of the software. The troubleshooting area pays close attention to problems that the average user might encounter with clear step by step solutions.
I would recommend this disc to all users of Viz,beginner and advanced alike.

Learning Viz 4 seems is made easy by the introduction of a colorful, simple color coded table of contents. The Self assessment exercises, associated links and tips serve as useful tools to reinforce and quicken my learning curve for Viz. The step by step procedures and accompanying images really makes this an easy learning experience. The example files are a great bonus.

This is my second amazon review ever in seven years. I mention this to emphasize how much I believe in this book. I teach an introductory programming class to artists/designers at a University. Finding a good textbook has not been easy. I am very happy to finally find what I consider the "missing" book. I will definitely be adopting this book as one of the required texts for my Intro to Interactive class in the spring. I am very impressed with the content. It is very well suited for my students who are not fluent (and are sometimes quite intimidated) in programming lingo and concepts:) Other books cover the fundamentals usually in one chapter, and get into the key concepts very quickly. This book is paced better for the novice, and, as another reviewer noted, is very friendly and inviting. Job very well done!

In the past 10 months I have returned to programming computers, having taken a decade off doing such to produce dance music, work as a surgical nurse, and currently to do CAD/CAM programming for a stone manufacturer. In the nineties I coded a bit in pure assembly, but have never coded in a high level language, never one with objects or garbage collection, and honestly haven't coded at all for 12 years.

This book should have been the first book I picked up when I was staging my return, as it is the first beginner level programming book to hold my interest, and one which enables the user to work with first class multimedia applications while still coding at the beginner level. Data visualization has really taken off, and Casey Reas and Ben Fry's Processing language is a beautiful abstraction on top of Java for creating rich media, generative art, and visualizations.

I've built a small coding library of 75-100 retained books from the 400+ I bought from Amazon in the past 10 months, and this is absolutely the first book I should have read - without a doubt. Processing, the language, is an absolutely wonderful platform for learning to program - and I wish I could say that I first learned to program using this book and Processing.

If you are curious about learning how to program, "Learning Processing" gives you a much more interesting set of tools to work with for learning the basics - I think this will lead to continued interest in some who might otherwise give up early.

I have (but have not read cover to cover) the other Processing related books - "Processing" by Reas and Fry, "Processing" by Ira Greenberg, and "Visualizing Data" by Fry - and I think the reason I haven't completed them is because they are intermediate level programming books, and will make more sense to read now, having completed "Learning Processing."

Finally, I think it's important to mention that I have noticed that it is increasingly obvious when books are written by educators, as opposed to professional coders. There is a certain command of the readers attention span that only teachers/educators can harness, and this is no exception.

I highly recommend this book, which perhaps, could have been titled more aptly "Learning to Program via Processing," but which was a fabulous read nonetheless!

grantmichaels

I just received this book yesterday, and I have to say that this book is probably the friendliest "instructional" book. I say instructional, instead of programming because as a designer, I can comprehend the concepts that Shiffman talks about. It's even friendlier than some Photoshop and Flash books that I've read through.

I have both Shiffman's and Casey Reas' book (last year), and I'm starting Shiffman's book. Casey's book is for intermediates. I would even recommend this book to high school students who are interested in programming, however, most high school students are professional programmers already (look at the kids that work on Facebook).

I have read a number of books about Dreamweaver 8 and while almost all of them state that Dreamweaver 8 can make dynamic web pages most don't go into much detail on these somewhat complex subjects. Dreamweaver 8 Recipes, on the other hand, focuses primarily on these aspects taking out the mysticism and complexity that other books seem to perpetuate.

Each chapter explores one particular dynamic program aspect or recipe. These entries include step by step instructions (including coding) as well as how to properly connect each action using Asp VBScript, ASP JavaScript, ColdFusion, or PHP as applicable. This book comes complete with a CD that includes practical exercises for each recipe.

Dynamic pages really aren't that difficult if you have the right instruction.

I think this is a very helpful book, would purchase again. Very user friendly for either beginners or advanced.

I am a professional Website developer, and have been using Dreamweaver since its inception, and using PHP as long as I can remember. I chanced on this book, Dreamweaver 8 Recipes, via [...], and decided to add it to my library. Well, I have learned more from this book, regarding BOTH Dreamweaver and PHP, than from all the ten or so books on my shelf on the same topics. Joseph Lowry and Eric Ott have a unique teaching method that is just perfect for my particular learning process. The code they present is always accompanied by an explanation as to 'why' and 'what if' and 'be sure to'. Their comments are invaluable and I just can't say how much this book has improved my skills. The book includes ASP, VB, JS, CF as well as PHP. Just great!

This is a great ruby book for those new to the language, or for those who already know a good deal of ruby but wouldn't mind learning how to do some cool quirky things with ruby, like programmatically compose and play midi. This book will not walk you through how to use ruby if you are new to the language -- but their are plenty of other books (and online references) that can do the real introductory teaching. Working through some of the projects in this book *will* help you really get comfortable with ruby, by putting it to practice in non-boilerplate ways.

If you have more experience with Ruby, this book is still compelling. It walks through some nonstandard projects -- interesting projects on their own, and certainly the sort of projects that will get your mind working, and have you looking at the problem and the language in a new light.

Throughout, care is taken with the writing -- the text isn't a boring technical manual, but is compelling and interesting, while packing in a lot of technical detail!

The past few years have seen the English-language Ruby book market explode. Before the phenomenal success of Rails it was perfectly possible to own every available title (and not use much storage space), but now that would be quite a challenge and lead to considerable redundancy. Having worked my way through quite a few Rails books of late, reading Practical Ruby Projects--a Ruby book that doesn't even mention web frameworks--was both a pleasant diversion and a highly illuminating experience.

Like the last volume I reviewed (Pro JavaScript Design Patterns), this book is unabashedly aimed at experienced programmers. There's a brief paragraph on "getting set up", but no detailed guide to obtaining the tools. Instead we dive right in to a sequence of projects that includes: making music (dipping into calling C code from ruby), animation, simulation, building a strategy game (and adding a RubyCocoa frontend), genetic algorithms, and even implementing lisp and parsers. Once again the "apress roadmap," a diagram intended to show how the skillsets in their different volumes build on one another, is misleading pitching this between "Beginning Ruby" and other volumes I've reviewed like Practical Ruby for System Administration and Pro Active Record. Don't believe it. Though there's little overlap in the material, this is a more advanced volume than either of those and readers should be prepared.

The pace of the book is measured and Topher Cyll does a good job of gradually building up the projects a step at a time. Along the way a variety of practices are demonstrated with many methods stubbed out for demonstration purposes before being filled in when they are needed, and considerable time spent on decoupling code. That latter piece is particularly in evidence in the chapters on building a turn-based strategy game and then developing a RubyCocoa front-end. Despite careful design early on further refactoring is needed to make it easy to apply the front-end and that process is carefully worked through.

Most of the book makes some use of existing libraries. The initial lisp chapter uses the sexp library and the subsequent section on writing a parse relies on rparsec. For the most part, however, use of the libraries is kept to a minimum, allowing for fairly self-contained code. Unit testing is largely ignored until the last chapter, where the need for tests when constructing a grammar/parser is explained and a test-first development model is encouraged. That works well to demonstrate the power of tests for complex (and often brittle) code.

This is not a book designed for public transport reading. Working through chapters on the bus I frequently found myself wanting to reach for my laptop to get a better grasp of how a piece of code worked. While the explanation is generally very good, with material of this complexity there is nothing like running the code and tweaking it to make sure you've understood exactly what each transformation does. It's a book to take your time over, so be prepared!

A few editorial errors have crept in, suggesting a re-organisation of the contents late in the day. In particular an early reference to s-expressions seemed to presume that the lisp and/or parsing chapters were featured early. That's not a big deal and will hopefully be corrected in later printings; the author does encourage skipping around within the book, but there is value in working through it roughly in order, and not just for the two "paired" chapters that explicitly build on one another.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this book is the reminder that even for those of us whose primary programming activity is web development, studying other areas can be extremely helpful. Not only is it helpful to see how other developers structure their code, but tools like genetic algorithms and parsers are likely to be very helpful where web applications require sophisticated processing and/or backend systems. And it never hurts to learn a little lisp. For the ruby developer who's comfortable with the language and wants to stretch out a little, this book would be an excellent investment.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review by the publisher.

Most Ruby books milk newbies jumping on the bandwagon for cash. This is a book for experienced Ruby programmers who want to be awesome Ruby programmers. The book of the book is all about parsing and shows you how to implement Lisp in Ruby; the first project is a compact, simple, powerful system for creating music in real time in Ruby. I'm using it to drive Propellerhead Reason from the command line and I'm on page 25. This is an absolutely excellent book. The best Ruby book I've seen in years. The only Ruby book I'd recommend to experts. This is the bomb book.

The movie Princess Mononoke has impressed me a lot, I have had the opportunity to see the version original subtitled to the Spanish one and from then on, as animator, I have a concept very different from the animation. The characters capture to the audience for their personalities, only and completely believable, far from hero's / villainous typical stereotypes, in this film, it lines her that they separates it is narrowed until disappearing, giving place to an unique and personal experience. The animation of the film is simply delicious, and Hayao Miyazaki's master like storyteller are clearly patent. I have the Japanese Artbook of this movie and it is simply wonderful, and I wait my copy of this fantastic edition of Hyperion impatiently.

I have viewed the subtitled edition of the animated film Mononoke Hime and I must say it is absolutly magnificent!! ^_^ I was totaly absobed by it's great storyline. The storyline of this film is indeed very deep and carries with it many messages and thoughts on society and the nature of man as well as his relationship with Mother nature . Mononoke Hime, though it does contain violent scenes and much of it's plot involves battle, too portrays a beautiful love story. With this film scheduled to be released in the U S in October, I encourage all able to go see it. I belive that those who view Mononoke Hime in the theaters this fall will be just as impressed and touched as I was after viewing it. Those who view Mononoke Hime in theaters this October will also be able to view animation in a whole new prespective. Hopefully it will make some realize that though they are only "cartoons", animated pieces are very capable of portraying human ideas, thoughts and emotions in a very mature, adult fashion. So well are these emotions portrayed that they are made tangible. It is for this very reason that I have become a fan of japanese aniamted works (anime), for in the US, many people including animators, are under the impression that animation is truthfully only a field built for the amusement of children. I must thank Hayao Miyazaki, the creator of Mononoke Hime, for producing such a wonderful animated film which I am lucky to have been able to see. This film will always have a place in my heart.

I saw the movie "Princess Mononoke" subtitled and I must say it is fantastic! Not the best of Miyazaki's works (Nausicaa is my favorite) but still a good movie! Cant wait for it to come out!

"Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance" is a book that I read just before I started filming my second stop-motion film. It gave me many good tips and pointers regarding all aspects of the process of how to make a stop motion film. It is a very inspirational book.
One of the best stop-motion animation books out there. I highly recommend it.
I look forward to reading it again when I need inspiration for my next film to come to life.

When I first started animating, there were no books on stopmotion, only books on 2-D cartooning and filmmaking. Even so, they were dated.

Since then, a few books about the craft came out, but this is the only book I've ever read that was written from the point of view of a professional stopmotion animator that covers the "why" more than the "how" aspect of putting a soul into a puppet and making it move in a way that removes all doubt in the viewer that it is, in fact, alive.

I found the book to be inspiring and so full of useful information, that I've had it for more than a week already and still haven't finished reading it.

A must-buy for anyone who is making their own stopmotion-animated film.

I've got pretty much all the stopmotion books in print, and this one is really something else entirely. It's not a text, not a beginner's lesson book and not just an appreciation for the art form (and, as Mr. Purves proves, it really IS an artform). Rather it's a very passionate reflection on the creative process of making stopmotion, and on the larger aspects of creativity in general. Barry is one of the best among animators.... and has frequently been writer and director of his own films, resulting in some of the most startling and original animation to date (such as his brilliant Achilles or my favorite Rigoletto). He expounds with great articulateness and intelligence on the strengths and weaknesses of the various forms of animation, revealing his obvious love for stopmotion above all the rest. And as he does, he reveals truths about animation that you had always felt but couldn't quite put into words.

He also shares a wealth of his own hard-earned tips and techniques, some about animating, but more on the art of storytelling and on how best to utilize the special properties that stopmotion alone has. It's not a book about "how to animate" but rather Why.... and he stresses the importance of playing to the particular strengths of our quirky art. If it can be done in live action or CGI or drawn animation, then why use stopmo? As many, he feels the sheer potential of stopmotion has only begun to be tapped, and he expounds at great length on how that might be done. And reading his words, it's difficult not to feel the same inspiration he obviously does.

Every animator should read this book.... even if you're just scooting Lego figures across the bedroom floor in front of your webcam (unless that's the extent of your ambition). He really illuminates the magic of stopmotion, what it does best and what it shouldn't be made to do. I just finished reading it for the first time, and I'm about to begin again.....

Michael and Dennis Cohen have done a great job in this book to help beginning to intermediate users with the iLife suite. I am often called upon to help friends with their Macs. When they have questions on the iLife programs, I find it much easier to refer them to this book than to try and talk them through the problem on the phone or via iChat. Thanks to the Cohens for making my iLife as a consultant a bit easier.

Apple has long said it makes computers for the rest of us, and now with its iLife suite of tools Apple appears to be making software for the rest of us as well. The Teach Yourself Visually series of computer books seems to follow the same philosophy, but where TYV's offerings for more complex programs like Photoshop serve as "scratch-the-surface" introductions, iLife '04 really does look deep under the surface of Apples' popular suite of tools. My favorite section, perhaps because I know the least about it, is on GarageBand, which is the most exciting piece of software I've seen in years.

The Teach Yourself Visually books all benefit from strong integration of explanatory text with detailed graphics, but the text portion of this particular book benefits from clear, thorough, and often quite humorous writing. The author obviously knows the programs-more important, he knows how to communicate that knowledge to his readers (I believe he's the same Michael Cohen who writes the multimedia section of the famed Macintosh Bible). I highly recommend this title-for twenty bucks, it's a bargain.

Teach Yourself Visually iLife 04 is the perfect book for someone who wants simple, easy to follow instructions for using each of Apple's iLife programs (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, Garage Band). What makes this book different from all the other iLife books are the clear step-by-step instructions, all accompanied by full color screen shots and illustrations, for using almost every iLife feature. The tips that accompany each task save time and effort in using the iLife programs and point out special features that aren't generally known. This is the book to get if you want to learn how to use iLife 04 without having to become a computer scientist, or read pages and pages of text. Get this and start using the software right away while you read.