Animation Books

No complaints here, the author gives very good examples to go with each topic she's explaining. Great excerpts from industry professionals add additional insight into the reading.

Excellent book as an introduction to developing games - My students (and i) found it very hard to put down after reading through the first chapter!

One question i have is about the instructor resource on DVD mentioned in the book. As this is the first time using the book for our game development course it would be helpful to have some material - especially the powerpoint slides. Does anyone know how to get a copy of this DVD? - Thomson learning doesn't seem to have a link for this resource.

Ordered this book for my husband's class. Not only did Amazon have it in stock, it was $20 cheaper than Barnes & Noble (with member discount) and that's even after upgrading the shipping. Was a little worried at first that the book wouldn't come quickly cause the tracking was awful, but it arrived fast.
A note worth mentioning: this book comes with a CD as well even though it does not say so.

My husband has not used this book much for his class yet, so as for the material I am not sure. But we are very pleased with the product & Amazon (as usual) so far.

I picked up this book as a possible replacement for the book that is currently used in my 'Game Design' course. This book is very attractive and professionally put together. It covers the material that would be essential (hence the title) when discussing the elements of game design:
1. The history of the medium
I found some annoying factual errors in this part of the book. Which initially turned me off but I continued to read since errors seemed to be in the sidebars which may not get the same editorial review.
2. Who plays and why?
This contained very interesting material for students to discuss with respect to player motivation, personality and gender. The eye-opening part for me was the view of game playing from the perspective of generations. Baby boomers, Generation X and the Millennial Generation look for different things from the games they play. (This part made me examine my own choices for games and the characters I am most attracted to in them!)
3. The elements in a game - genres, platforms, player mode

Part II is where the real gems are for people who really want to design games:
4. The elements of storytelling
5. Creating the characters/roles
6. Creating the game experience, e.g. challenges
7. Creating the World and Atmosphere (anyone else listen to the audio CD to remember the delight in playing the game?)

The last part covers:
8. The key roles/titles in the game development process
9. The process of producing games
10. The future of gaming

The book ends with the following bonuses:
11. A list of resources for those who are serious about actually getting into the game business
12. List of books to read and learn more
13. A CD with tools

The key thing I value when spending time on a book is one - am I learning something new? This book offers many ideas central to designing video games. It is an excellent book for a course on the topic or for any budding game designer to pick up start the journey.

It's an excellent book. The fact that she included my incredibly detailed game design document in no way influenced my rating.

I am new to all this ipod stuff. This book has a lot of info for folks like me. I've impressed my kids with what I know, they don't think I'm such a dork now! LOL

The instructions that came with the iPod are obviously for experienced users. I bought my iPod for the space and had never used any kind of mp3 player before. The dummies book was a great help and has taught me little tricks in addition to everyday use.

As a true IPOD "dummy", never having ever touched an IPOD before I bought my nano, I found this book helpful. It is for those looking for basic and intermediate levels of usage on their IPODs. It doesn't help those who want more advanced direction, but there are other books for that. Overall, it is worth the price.

I was very disappointed by the deficiencies of this book. First, it focuses far more on iTunes shopping and related procedures than on basic use of the iPod itself. iTunes is hopelessly limited for anyone not into popular culture, so that half of the book is worthless to me. Second, the book is useless as a reference tool -- not a single question I've had has been answered, or if the answer is there, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Example: I wasted a lot of time trying to get an audiobook I own on CD to go into the Audiobook section of the iPod menu. I finally learned from a Genius at the local Apple store that only audiobooks purchased from iTunes will go into that section of the menu. Try finding that information in this book. Third, terms are used as they are understood by the technorati, but never defined for the rest of us. If I wanted a book that told me how to get my iPod to tap dance and butter my toast, I would not have bought one with a title which indicates it deals with basic information. That information isn't here.

I was ready to get rid of my iPod. I was totally frustrated with trying to use it and iTunes was driving me nuts. Finally, I bought this book and all came clear. This should be the manual included with every iPod purchase. The book is well thought out and laid out well. One will easily be able to use this as a reference in the future if need be. If you are about ready to tear your hair out, just want to perhaps learn a few more advanced techniques or you just want a good solid manual for your investment, this is the book for you. What more can I say?

This really is a fantastic book on Mental Ray. You learn many various aspects to a degree unmatched in any other book that I've seen; and the fact that it covers multiple 3D platforms, is icing on the cake. Truly a "must have" for anyone working in 3D animation and Digital Arts.

My only wish for this book, would be a more in-depth tutorial set, perhaps a companion book. But it is "nearly" a perfect book. :-)

This book is the book that goes under the hood of the mechanics of mental ray. I learned so much by reading it. The MR features in all three apps are equally explained. The author describes the topics in detail:

Shaders,Shaders and more... (Architectural shaders little explanation)
Final Gathering and Ambient Occlusion
Subsurface Scattering
Indirect Illumination
Textures and projection, and more....
A Bonus chapter on Surface Approximation on CD

I recommend it to all CG artist.

This book is for Intermediate users. If you are just starting out with Mental Ray I wouldn't suggest that you purchase this book. So far from what I can tell this book is a great learning tool.

el libro es netamente tecnico. abarca tantos conceptos importantes para comprender el manejo de la iluminacion indirecta, el uso de fotones, final gather,, sombreadores, teoria de iluminacion etc.
ES un completo manual que permite comprender con mayor exactitud el manejo de mental ray y saber realmente que es lo que sucede cuando modificamos un valor. con este libro uno comprende el porque delas cosas.
y lo mejor es que no se centra en un solo programa, abarca hasta 3.
con este libro mental ray es mucho mas facil de comprender.

Every serious mental ray user needs to have this book and actually read it. this is not a quick guide, its an extensive reference. Plan to spend some time with this book and a highlighter pen, read and reread it. Considering it has information in mental ray stand alone, Maya, Max, and XSI its pretty amazing. This is not the kind of book you whip out on the job just to figure out which preset shader to use, its detailed information on how mental ray actually works. If you seriously study this book and really understand it, you will master mental ray. The fact that it might be slightly out of date with regards to the mia shader in Maya is rather irrelevant. if you really understand this book then you'll understand what every setting in the mia shader actually does which is much more important. I'm about half way through it. my only criticism is that it could have more hands on examples, however their are plenty of other sources for that.

I purchased this book for a class, it was the textbook we used. It was interesting and seemed to encompass a fair amount of history. I do wish he'd expanded more on the history of computer animation, but it's pretty extensive in and of itself.

The book I ordered was in perfect condition and delivery right away. I got it about half the amount of business days I was supposed to get it. Plus the book isn't mind-numbing to read as it's about the coolest subject ever.

When I think of the history of animation, I tend to divide things into three periods: The Golden Age, noted for early Warner Brothers cartoons and the classic Disney movies such as Snow White and Fantasia; The Age of Mediocrity, where creativity seemed to reach its nadir, as seen most notably in the bland Hanna Barbera cartoons; and the Modern Era, with the resurgence in cartoon creativity, which, starting with The Little Mermaid in the movies and the Simpsons on TV, animation reached a new level of popularity and respectability. Leonard Maltin's book, Of Mice and Magic, shows that my own view of cartoon history is roughly correct but also overly simple: there was plenty of mediocrity in the Golden Age and plenty of decent stuff in the Age of Mediocrity.

Maltin starts off with a chapter about the silent era, when animation was just beginning. Over time, experience would refine the process, but the big leap would occur with sound, in particular with Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie featuring Mickey Mouse. After the silent era chapter, there are chapters that serve as "biographies" of the major animation studios, starting with the biggest of them all, Disney.

The Disney characters are among the most popular in cartoon history (or film history in general). Mickey Mouse may have been the biggest name, but he didn't have much of a personality, so he started being pushed aside in favor of more developed characters, especially Donald Duck, the first major Disney character with any sort of edge. In fact, this is a constant theme in the book: that the weakest cartoons from any studio were the ones that featured characters with no distinct personalities.

Success would often come with the most offbeat and edgy characters, such as Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Popeye and Daffy Duck. But some of the studios had a mercenary nature that would put quantity ahead of quality; probably the worst in the bunch was Terrytoons where good cartoons were the exception, not the rule. Although even Terrytoons would have some memorable characters - in particular, Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle - even many of the cartoons featuring them were not very good (which is why in the world of cartoons, the Terrytoons characters will never outshine even some of the Disney or Warner Brothers second-stringers).

Space limitations prevent me from going as in depth on this subject as I would like, but suffice it to say that after reading this book, I still do feel justified in defining an Age of Mediocrity. It was not that every cartoon in that period was bad, but the good ones were few and far between and classics were very rare indeed. The Age of Mediocrity was filled with bland cartoons that were more cute than funny, often repeated the same gags over and over again, and had few remarkable characters.

What about what I call the Modern Age? It would have started right after this edition of the book was published (1987), so it is understandably, but sadly omitted. Also missing is any real look at TV cartoons, so Bullwinkle, Underdog, Yogi Bear and the Super Friends, among others, are only mentioned in passing. Maltin admits up front that this book won't cover these TV cartoons, nor non-American products, hence the omission of international fare such as the Italian Fantasia-like movie, Allegro non troppo.

The strengths of this book, however, far outweigh the shortcomings. While my opinions sometimes differ from Maltin's on the quality of various cartoons, these are a matter of individual taste (overall, he tends to go easier on the films than I do; for example, he has a more favorable opinion on the UPA cartoons than I do); besides, this book is more of a history of cartoons than a critique of them. In addition to good writing, we gets lots of pictures (only a few in color) and an extensive filmography for all the chronicled cartoon studios.

You probably need to be a certain age (probably at least 30) to fully appreciate this book, as younger readers may not have really grown up with these cartoons and may not have even seen them as adults (and since many of these cartoons were geared only to kids, they would not even have much appeal to those over 10). But if you remember these cartoons and look back at them with fond nostalgia, this is a great book.

Leonard Maltin has a real knowledge of animation and his passion and enthusiasm for cartoons is apparent. The book traces animation from its beginnings at the turn of the century up to modern day. Extensive coverage is provided to all the major cartoon studios and many of the key directors. The illustrations are excellent. Maltin provides a fair amount of detail but not too much to overwhelm the casual fan. Anyone interested in the history of animation or just wants information on which films to see is well advised to pick up this very well written book.

I found this book to be an excellent reference source for cartoons produced to be shown in theaters. However, entitling it "A History of American Animated Cartoons" is not exactly truth in advertising. I think most people (except for perhaps some obsessive purists) would agree that the cartoons produced for television from the 40/50's onward would also be considered American Animated Cartoons. But none of these great cartoons (i.e., Gumby, Beany and Cecil, Clutch Cargo, Hanna-Barbara's Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Pixie & Dixie, and others through the present) are included here in any detail. Also missing from the appendices of studio output are the more obscure products like Warner's Private Snafu and other animation produced for corporate clients. Mr Maltin would do cartoon lovers well by commissioning a second volume to complete the story.

for anyone that wants to have a professional approach to digital video this is a good book.

This book is a top shelf resource. It is useful to both novices and those with more experience. Starting with the very basics, and that does involve some physics, it works its way through virtually all aspects of sound production for digital video.

Do not be fooled. You are not going to learn much to improve the built in recording that comes with your camera. The author is unapologetic in his broad condemantion of the built-in stuff in terms of both quality and usablility. He goes into the reasons and gives a bit of advice on making the most of what you have but this is not what the book is about. Instead, it is about exactly what the title claims. Unfortunately, this is seldom if ever achieved with the built in stuff.

After going over some of the basics of sound and recording, different types of equipment are described in terms of suitability to task and cost. After that, the actual use of this equipment is considered in a variety of situations. The book is not just concerned with equipment and its use, however. There are chapters on editing and even on the use of prefessional talent. In short, the assumption is that you want to get good quality audio for your video production. The author then describes how to do exactly that in a variety of settings. Unfortuately, doing the job sometimes takes a bit more effort than just pushing the record button on the camera. It also take a bit more money although it does not have to take a great deal more. It depends on what type of sound is needed and how you are going to use it.

If all you want is to catch the background sound in a home video, spend your money on something else. If you want to learn how to get the best possible sound for your particular need and preserve that sound to use with video, you need this book.

I've often been taken in by large reference books that promise to be a comprehensive guide to a subject, but turn out to be a lot of filler (screen shots of PC applications, or an excuse for the author to give lots of less-than-useful anectodal stories, etc.)

Not so with Jay Rose's 'Producing Great Sound for Digital Video' book. This informative guide covers a lot of ground, including sound theory, equipment explanations and use, and techniques for sound production including NLE tips, audio mixing, mic use etc. The great thing about this book is it is written with the expectation that your sound production values should be professional, but it's still accessible to hobbyists and those on a budget.

While I think novices to the field of sound engineering (like myself) probably benefit most from this work, I think a lot of the material here is useful to the video production community as a whole. I learned a lot from this, great work.

Audio is really important, and this book will make sure you get incredible sound at every shoot. I really recommend this book!

Where do I start? In a nutshell, this book *IS* the only book to have on sound if your only buying one. No lie. My background... 20 years ago I used to be the "The Amp Dr" fixing commercial PA systems, amps, etc. I have a much better background on sound than most, I was an electrical engineer after that, designing power supplies, and other analog interfaces to digital equipment. Most of that has been dormant for the last 20 years, but I recently decided to make documentaries, and as two of my first projects deal with music, sound seemed pretty important. I got several books on sound, I figure buy six, one has to be good. You can save your money, this book was the one in six.

Knowing audio but NOT audio for video, one of the most important things I discovered is that a professional quality product (video) can only be made with good sound.. If you think you $2 -$10K pro-sumer camera is going to deliver it with the standard mic turn on "auto level", you're really wrong. Half of good sound is the absence of sound, or at least the absence of unintended sound. Insuring good sound is more work than it sounds, but the quality and impact of what I am shooting now is significantly better than before. Otherwise, its' all like home videos, maybe pretty shots and cleverly edited, but still seems like home videos. It all becomes much clearer after reading this book.

When I picked up this book, it was a mental orgasm. Not only does this guy know his stuff, even more importantly, he knows how to communicate it. The way it was written, I was easily able to skip over the stuff I didn't want to review, and go straight for the meat. It is meaty. Almost EVERYTHING I wanted to know was here. I did end up going back just to see how he explained the basics.. great! One of the things I liked about his style, is some authors will tell you something is bad or wrong, with no explanation.. Jay give you good examples.. the CD recording with the book is worth it's weight in , he give examples of proper recording and bad recording (with explanations). You can actually hear it as oppose to read an explanation and take it on faith. Borrow money if you have too.. but buy it.

My message to Jay:
If you read this Jay, I have a few requests. (1) Don't let this book go out of date. Please do you SNR and distortion measurements on some of the new HD cameras. Given the bit resolution is now even less with HDV (12 bits (HDV) vs 16 bits (DV)), I think dual systems are even more important to cover in greater detail. (2) Update with some of the new digital recorders that are replacing DATs (3) Thanks for a great book!

Like having an instructor walk you through with examples.

I really like this book because the author leads the reader step by step and he gives lots of examples. The appendix part at the end of the book is very helpful. Although there are parts that are not-so clear, if you follow it through it'll be clear at the end. I would definitely recommend this book for somebody who just started using actionscript.

This is a good book and well worth its price. I especially liked the smartclip chapter and the keyboard has been very busy with me putting what I learned to good use. If you are a game writer this may be an excellent book for you also. There is a caveat here, however. The book is filled with errors, references that aren't there, missing flas, flas with "work" already done when they are meant to be the ones readers practice with. No doubt this was due to deadlines. Still [sigh]. This is a good book for getting used to writing your code from scratch. No references to the "normal" actionscript mode, so you more or less have to type away. Not a bad thing. If, however, you are the kind of person that is very "linear" and do not do well when you have to figure out why something doesn't work when you did ALL the steps correctly - this may not be the book for you.

after read this specific book on actionscript, a miracle is happen. Now i'm able to understand this strange-but-exciting language. Now I'm able to read other book on programing with actionscript.
True this book doesn't have a lot of picture, but please bear in mind that this book is teach you how to think, hear and talk in Actionscript language instead of how to draw picture in flash

Livingston does a good job of introducing action script to those who have had little previous exposure to it. In particular, his examples tend to be interesting. I agree with him in that to get to know action script well its best to use expert mode so that all of the scripting must be typed in--though it can be a lot of typing. The one thing that keeps this from being a great book is that in the last two-thirds of the book the examples can be tricky and the example fla's on the CD are not necessarily in the state the book places them in--most of the time they have stuff that you won't learn about until later so it interferes with the current example. I was particuliarly disappointed with the 4th chapter that the author states is the hardest, yet the major example is mixed up...I finally skipped it.

In preparation for a recent trip to WDW, I wanted to read a biography the man himself. I spent a good hour looking around on amazon at different bios and what sold me on this one was that it was the most recently published bio and it seemed to be written from a more scholarly standpoint by someone who had done significant research. Also, the page count told me that it was not the standard 200 page fluff bio.

Having read the book leading up to my trip (finishing it sitting by the pool at my resort in Disney), I really felt like I had a better understanding of what went into making a place like Disney. The visionary nature of this guy was clearly explained.

If you prefer longer, more in depth bios, this is the one for you. If you are looking for a shorter, more populist treatment, buy something else.

My one complaint would be that when the author starts explaining the process Walt used for the creation and release of each film, he seems to go into extreme detail that goes beyond what is needed in bio of a man and would fit better in a history of the company. But, I tended to just skip over 3-10 pages when I realized he was geeking out on that. The author's other book is on something about animation history or something, and this probably gave him a larger than normal interest in film history.

All in all, I loved reading this book especially leading up to and during a trip to Disney World.

Mike Barrier has been the dean of Disney scholars for many years and this book ranks with the best of Walt Disney biographies. His thoroughness and professionalism as well as his devotion to animation history and particularly to Walt Disney make any of his books required reading for anyone interested in this subject matter.

Michael Barrier has written an interesting, honest and enjoyable account of the life of Walt Disney. Even if you've read a LOT about Walt, this book will still surprise you with new anecdotes and details. The coverage of Walt's 1920's and 30's successes is especially comprehensive. There's not quite as much attention paid to, say, the theme park or the live-action films. But you won't miss it. Pick this one up--one of the best books I've read in the last year.

I have been fascinated with animation since childhood, and have avidly read animation history books for over twenty years. I discovered Michael Barrier relatively recently, and he has quickly become my favorite writer on the subject. The Animated Man and Hollywood Cartoons are two of the most enjoyable, compelling books on the subject of animation that have been written.

Barrier writes with an academic thoroughness, yet his prose style is a pleasure to read. He analyzes the merits and faults of Disney's body of work, and his conclusions are always compelling, well-researched and well-supported. Even when I do not agree with Barrier's opinions, I always find them riveting.

The Animated Man had the misfortune to see print not long after Neal Gabler's widely publicized Disney biography. Barrier's is the superior book. Among professional animators, it is already the Disney biography of choice. I am convinced that in years to come, it will be regarded as the definitive book on Walt Disney.

Although it had the misfortune of being released after another biography of the same man, written by a much more famous/mainstream author, this is without doubt the better of the two books about Walt Disney. As a matter of fact Barrier's "The Animated Man" is the best book yet written on Disney and his times--and most crucially, his profession.

Michael Barrier has impeccable credentials in the area of animation history and appreciation. He's written, studied published about and personally interviewed dozens of the key figures who worked at the Disney studio; virtually all long dead now--but Barrier got to them starting decades ago before many memories were dulled by time and age.

Of all the studios he's an authority on, his knowlege of the Disney studio takes precedence. He's a stickler for facts, truth and detail--not the dull, irrelevant sort but the kind that give the reader the comfort of feeling that the author really knows what he's writing about. That in particular is the biggest distinction this title has over the other current Disney biography. That, and the lack of any sort of tired agenda--the huckster's need to make Walt into some sort of symbol or postmodern neurotic flawed god--there's none of that nonsense here. Just a well-written, incisive, fascinating tracing of the life journey of a remarkable but not infallible creative genius.

Here you'll find the Disney that you can imagine knowing (or trying to know) as a real person: the struggling artist and businessman, the innovator, the dreamer, the midwestern striver who never gave up and held his own in the tough world of sophisticated Hollywood. And who by sheer determination and a vision no one else in the entertainment industry shared made a new kind of entertainment: the (commercial) animated feature film. He also made art. He did all this by trying to find the best stories, the best artists and technicians, and the best way to tell those stories. Money was secondary to him--not unimportant, just a reward he felt would certainly come IF he made great quality entertainment that topped whatever else was being made. He gambled--and won.

All of it's here, in this book, told with candor but no malice, with wit but no sarcasm, with clarity and with style.
A superb biography.

Being a professional texturer for more than 2 years in game design and later in viz, I can tell you why this book is perhaps the best source about texturing.
It teaches you about exploring the surfaces and its history. Yes, that's it. This may sound too simple, but this is the most crucial and hard part of texturing - making the viewer believe, and believe yourself that this thing exists and has a history. In my opinoin, of course.
Ironically, in cg we start from tools and only much later come to the conclusion that there's a sculpture behind modeling, traditional lighting behind cg lighting and not quite, but painting behind the texturing. Obviously not quite the painting as long as we operate mainly with digitized photos simulating various surfaces.
Even now there's not an "ideal" book about texturing because definitely it must explain the physics of materials first, and then move into shaders attributes. I don't see shaders as something separate from texturing. For example, any vfx guy knows that there are 3 main components for a realistic surface: color, bump\displacement and specular\reflection. And they provide them always for any surface. Yes, every surface reflects. Or that your luminosity\saturation values for the diffuse must be around 20-80% to work well with lighting. Or your diffuse must be black for highly reflective or transparent surfaces. This is not stressed enough in most books for beginners, and there are many other important tips, utterly important. The technical side of texturing mainly lies in knowing photoshop inside out. There are some good tutorials on the net by Stefan-Morrell and Leigh Van Der Byl, I strongly suggest you reading them.
But in the end, you will know the technical side well, and you will come to this level where you almost meditate on the surfaces. Yet experience of course is a factor. They say you become good when you did 1000 renderings. There is some truth in it. But in the end, digital lighting leads you to the world of real-world lighting, modeling to sculpture, and texturing to meditating on real surfaces abd their history. And this is the most important thing in texturing imo.

As a well-versed member of the "Google Images & Clone Stamp" school of texturing, I know full well that knowing all the technical ins and outs of a program doesn't guarantee good results. A strong grounding in fundamental art principles is needed to make proper use of all the technical bells & whistles.

It can be said that Digital Texturing & Painting is too art-heavy, but it's such a critical aspect of good CG that's either glossed over or omitted in other books. Being able to break down & understand all the many elements of a texture so it can be recreated and controlled is of the utmost importance. And learning how to go beyond photos and start working with the infinitely unique number of real world textures you can find or create adds new levels to your texturing work.

The art-based sections as well as the more technical preparation section are geared toward making you think about every aspect of the work and how best to execute it, rather than creating bland textures that have been done a thousand time before.

Although the specific texturing examples are rather short, the author covers the basics of several texturing methods. NURBS, polygons, using projections, using 3D paint software, tiling textures, using Illustrator, using Photoshop, making & scanning in real world objects or just making things from scratch. And the included CD has the PSD files for you to poke around in a figure out how the maps are put together.

Digital Painting & Texturing has the breadth & depth to be a helpful book for texture artists of all levels.

This book really takes texturing to a new level. You'll never walk around looking at the things the same way you did.

It describes intensely how to dissect and evaluate a surface, with interesting practical methods to re-create it.

Must read for people who seriously wants to learn about texturing.

I loves this book. It has truly taight me how to see texture and how to bring digital painting to life. This book will help you in all areas of art which can be used in real life painting, digital painting, 3D art and more. I f you need help Understanding how to get your art to that realism point then this book is defintly for you 100%.

You can only gain and loose nothing by reading this book-

This is a useful book, written by an experienced artist. Most of the book was really about art itself, how to see and notice details in real life the way an artist would. Only the last chapter really got into specifics about painting textures in Photoshop or specific types of maps.

If you want a book where most of it tells you how to think like an artist, then this is for you. If you wanted a book that went into more detail about how to unwrap UVs on a model or specific texture painting techniques, you'd be dissapointed.

I thought this book would be more in depth but the book is actually more for the mid-level person. There are many things this this book does not go into, the most important (for me) is multicamera editing is missing from this book. There are books that are three times as thick as this one that don't cover it all. I gave it three stars because it was missing a few of the fundamentals that I wanted to learn. I like the book though and I did learn some things though.

This is one of the most informative Final Cut Pro books that I own. It's a great reference for me because not only was I looking to raise the aesthetic value of my work, but I also had some lingering questions that were answered. I learned from this book and feel that it was money well spent.

When looking for a Final Cut Pro book I didn't want to read a book that was a fundamental introduction to the software or a book written like an operational manual. I wanted to edit a music video with some attention-grabbing effects and not have to rummage around the internet and through various books to get ideas on how to do so. Let me be the first to say that this is a new breed of FCP book that shows you how to do the cool stuff. This book is great for someone who wants their work to appear as if it were edited by a seasoned pro and not so great for someone who wants a dry list of button functions. I will say that the capturing section of the book does clarify many of the problems people have during the capture process by explaining functionality in a more practical sense.

I tore thru this book in about 4 days from start to finish and it was OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lynda.com training is good, but if more booka and tutorials could follow this books example many of us would be pros in a shorter amount of time.

Lonzell Watson (Writer of the book)...YOU ARE A WONDERFUL PERSON TO SHARE SO MUCH PASSION AND INSIGHT!!
THANK YOU!!!!!

First off I want to say that this is a fantastic book. It's not only an invaluable reference, it's also great for Final Cut newbies. Though newbies should have some basic knowledge of digital editing. But not as much as the subtitle "For Digital Video Editors Only" suggests. I think that subtitle may prevent other newbies from taking a good look at this book. What I love about this book is that you really hit the ground running, thanks to the DVD project files included. And what I also love is that the book just shows you one or two ways to achieve a desired result as opposed to the Final Cut manual which shows you literally dozens of ways of achieving the same thing. That can be daunting and overwhelming. So just use the manual for secondary reference and get this book. My only complaints are this. The book is organizes kind of weird, the author admits that it's organized atypically, and that's fine, but I think some key things should be moved around. The final chapter in the book is about the included DVD, however, if you've gotten that far into the book, you've already use the DVD. The problem with this is that no where in the beginning does it say to copy the DVD files onto your hard disc so I was having obvious difficulty trying to do the exercises off the disc. But in the final chapter it recommends doing that. There should be some kind of note at the beginning to do just that. Also, the book came out in 2008, yet it's still giving you instructions per Tiger (not Leopard) and it still occasionally references the Apple key which has been changed for almost a year to the Command Key. Like many people I switched to Mac because of Leopard, so it took me a few phone calls to friends to figure this all out. My only other issue is that some descriptions in the book are too brief. All the info is there, but often I'd have to read a paragraph a couple of times to really get something. But as the title of this review states, these are minor quibbles to a fantastic book that will have you editing like a pro in no time.

This book is very interesting, but very heavy in Disney information. The author describes a selection of cartoons from various studios and the relevance of each. I got the book for an overall history, but it is really Disney-centric. It does mention other studios of the time, but not is such detail. If you want Disney history and descriptions of their cartoons, this is a great book. If you want overall animation history, I would go somewhere else.

Mike Barrier took almost thirty years to write this book... And it's easy to see why!

"Hollywood Cartoons" is the most detailed and intricate account of the makings of the very best Warner and Disney cartoons ever published. Barrier and Milt Gray actually interviewed everyone they could get a hold of from the Golden Age of animation (over 150 people), therefore making the conclusions Barrier has drawn on various controversies and personalities more believable than anyone else's. His critical analyses of the works of Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Tex Avery are deeper than most writers.

But the book is not without flaws. Barrier obviously is in favor of the West Coast cartoons rather than those of the East Coast (understandably in the majority of cases). But the lack of coverage on these studios, most notably Famous Studios and Paul Terry, was most upsetting. Barrier had more information at his disposal than Leonard Maltin did when he wrote his breezy, but well-researched histories on those studios, and it's a shame he didn't use it to his full advantage. Likewise, even other West Coast studios, like Walter Lantz and Columbia, receive little due.

But all in all, I found it to be an enjoyable read, and it's a book I reference quite often. It should be on anyone's shelf who is an admirer of the time in American history when great cartoons were actually made.

Covering much of the same ground as Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic, Hollywood Cartoons is packed with interesting insights and comments from both the author and those that participated in the creation of an American art form. Michael Barrier's exhaustively researched book covers the Golden Age of Hollywood animation and the movers and shakers that had an impact on the art form.

At nearly 650 pages Barrier's book takes a fair balanced look at Disney, Warner Bros., Fleischer and other contributors to this dying art form. It's actually a perfect companion piece to the newely released boxed set of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes classics. Barrier avoids the Disney worship that marred other books of this type and, like Maltin's marvelous but less indepth book, he manages to point out the key contributions of the most important animation directors/producers of the era.

While it does overlook or give only a cursory overview of some important figures in the industry, Barrier's scholarly aproach manages to recognize the merits and flaws of each studio, their system and directors. Although not as well illustrated as Maltin's book, the pictures do provide a glimpse of many of the essential classics that impacted the art of animation. Since much of the documentation for the creation of some of the early Warner classics are long gone, Barrier has to rely on many of the same sources and pictures as other authors. The book could have been improved if he had gone more to private collectors for rare animation cels, production photos, model drawings and notes. I also would have liked many of these illustrations to be reproduced in color. Seeing them in dark black and white illustrations does little justice to the artistry of these pioneers.

Maltin's book was clearly the work of an informed fan; his approach focused on the creation of many of the important classics but didn't lose track of the fun in the finished product. Barrier's scholarly approach is a bit drier and doesn't quite communicate the excited of Maltin's less authoriative book on the same subject. It's still an important look at the pioneers of animation's Golden Age and, as such, should be read by those who love the shorts from the various eras examined here.

This was a very good book, with a few caveats.

The first chapter, on silent cartoons, is hard going. Not until Walt Disney shows up does that chapter start flowing.

BUT from that point on, until the chapter on UPA, I had a hard time putting "Hollywood Cartoons" down. Barrier doesn't take the usual perspective on cartoons. He doesn't care how they appeal to the casual viewer but how they look to the pro. I didn't agree with all his judgments, but I respect his judgments.

I have read several histories of cartoons, and Barrier still managed to surprise me or say something new. He had the best discussion of the origins of Bugs Bunny I've ever read. His description of the working of MGM's cartoon studio was fascinating, and his views on Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones showed real insight.

Barrier states his opinions strongly. He doesn't like Fleischer or UPA cartoons, and he doesn't think Friz Freleng is worth a lot of discussion. (I would disagree about Friz, but agree on the other stuff.)

In all, this was a fine book on this subject, and I am glad I read it.

Michael Barrier's "Hollywood Cartoons" is impeccably researched and intellectually sophisticated; a milestone in its way, it also poses a few problems, one being the inescapable conclusion that the golden age of Hollywood scarcely existed at all. Mr. Barrier casts a baleful eye on some of animation's finest: Chuck Jones' "What's Opera, Doc?" is 'an empty triumph'; "Fantasia", hopelessly puerile and retrograde; "The Tell-Tale Heart", recently chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress, 'a total flop'. Even "Pinocchio" inspires more vitriol than praise (too much airbrush, poor planning and characterizations - Disney 'took the guts out of it', etc...) Can't these guys do anything right? Terrytoons are characterized by 'pervasive squalor', and he assures us UPA, once the shining avatar of cutting-edge animation, could be as dull, insipid and uninspired as any other studio. That's good to know. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Barrier feels a special affinity for Disney's Grumpy (Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs) though this he attributes to Bill Tytla's masterful character animation. Hubley's "Rooty Toot Toot" also receives the Barrier seal of approval. But, in general, there are few pearls to be found among the prevailing dross. There's no question Barrier takes his subject seriously...perhaps, too seriously. Lighten up...they're just cartoons!