Thursday 15 July 2021

Animator's Survival Kit "Minis" Launch August 5

Animator's Survival Kit "Minis"
Here at Bucks New University we recommend one key textbook for learning animation - The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams.

It is a big book, heavy to carry around, and has now been published as a series of "mini" editions, breaking the book up into four sections, and available from August 5th. 

The ASK was first published in 2002 as a book, and a few years later was released as a DVD set, and later as an iPad app.

Core Textbook
Today the ASK is the leading resource for students wanting to learn animation.  If you only buy one book on animation - this is the one to get.

iPad App
The Animator's Survival Kit is also available as an iPad app. The iPad app is arguably easier to use than the book, and more interactive than the DVD series - as it perfectly combines the best qualities of both.  At £25, the app costs barely more than the book does.

Digital ASK
The digital ASK has many of the traditional features of a book - plain text and nice pictures. As you scroll through the pages, you find video introductions to the chapters. Click on these, and you get a personal introduction to the subject by the author, giving his own view on why it's important to read it, and what you will learn.

Animator's Survival Kit on the iPad
Miniature icons pull up short animated video explanations of the principle being addressed. Much of this material is taken from the ASK DVD set. Confused about overlapping action? Successive breaking of joints? The importance of using silhouettes? A short video shows you what it all means, and demonstrates in simple clear terms exactly how these principles get applied in practice.

Frame by frame analysis
The videos are highly interactive. You can pause the video, scroll through it, fast or slow, focus on an individual frame, step through it frame by frame.  Tap the screen and the chapters are revealed on a scroll bar at the base of the screen - so you can easily navigate to the bits you need. 

Minis 
You can buy the ASK "minis" here at amazon:

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