Professional animator Howard Beckerman has drawn them all: Popeye, Heckle & Jeckle, even Mickey Mouse. In Animation, he offers a road map to the complex art of making an animated feature. Vivid sketches, screen shots, and step-by-step illustrations show how to make a drawing come to life, create storyboards, use form and color, develop a soundtrack, edit, and more. This new edition is also thoroughly updated to reflect the latest trends surrounding digital technology. Animation provides ar...

Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko bring The Promise to its explosive conclusion!The Harmony Restoration Movement has failed, and the four nations are plunged back into war! In the midst of the battle, can Aang and Fire Lord Zuko mend the rift between them, or will Aang be forced to take actions that can't be undone?Written by Eisner winner and National Book Award nominee Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chines...

For three years, millions of eager fans tuned in to watch new episodes of Nickelodeon's hit animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ever since, fans have been hungry for more—and now their wait is finally over!This volume collects the long-out-of-print, fan-favorite comics previously published in Nickelodeon Magazine and with the Airbender DVDs, plus over seventy brand-new comics pages. That's twenty-six stories set in Airbender continuity, b...

A tribute to Japan's God of Manga by his long-time American friend and translator.The pioneering genius of Japan’s “God of Comics,” Osamu Tezuka (1928–89), is examined through his life’s masterwork: Tetsuwan Atomu, also known as Mighty Atom or Astro Boy, a comic series featuring a cute little android who yearns to be more human. The history of Tetsuwan Atomu and Tezuka’s role in it is a road map to understanding the development o...

Both experienced and aspiring animation professionals will find Directing Animation a comprehensive and entertaining guide to understanding the director’s creative role in managing the entire animation process. An animation director doesn’t simply direct animation. He or she directs people who animate and must be equally able to relate to the crew, producers, writers, creators, and clients. Readers will learn how to: -- direct commercials, TV series, feature films, and Web features and ser...

As the Walt Disney Studio entered its first decade and embarked on some of the most ambitious animated films of the time, Disney hired a group of "concept artists" whose sole mission was to explore ideas and inspire their fellow animators. They Drew as They Pleased showcases four of these early pioneers and features artwork developed by them for the Disney shorts from the 1930s, including many unproduced projects, as well as for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocc...

While comedy writers are responsible for creating clever scripts, comedic animators have a much more complicated problem to solve: What makes a physical character funny? Comedy for Animators breaks down the answer by exploring the techniques of those who have used their bodies to make others laugh. Drawing from traditions such as commedia dell’arte, pantomime, Vaudeville, the circus, and silent and modern film, animators will learn not only to create funny charact...

Among their many idiosyncrasies, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, remained serious cartoon aficionados throughout their lives. They adored animation and their influence on German animation after World War II continues to this day. This study explores Hitler and Goebbels' efforts to establish a German cartoon industry to rival Walt Disney's and their love-hate relationship with American producers, whose films they studied behind locked doors. Despite their ...

Animated Documentary, the first book to be published on this fascinating topic, considers how animation is used as a representational strategy in nonfiction film and television and explores the ways animation expands the range and depth of what documentary can show us about the world.On behalf of the Society for Animation Studies(SAS), the Chair of the Jury announced the book as the winner of the delayed 2015 SAS McLaren-Lambart Award with the following words:'Animated Docu...

In 1984, Voltron: Defender of the Universe hit the television airwaves, and the world of giant robots has never been the same. Here, collected for the first time ever, is a rare look at the history of the show and the pop culture phenomenon that followed, plus an in-depth look at the lore and legend of Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

Motion Capture in Performance explores the historical origins, properties and implications of Motion Capture. It introduces a new mode of performance for the commercial film, animation, and console gaming industries - 'Performance Capture', a distinct interdisciplinary discourse in the fields of theatre, animation, performance studies and film.

Japanese Animation: East Asian Perspectives makes available for the first time to English readership a selection of viewpoints from media practitioners, designers, educators, and scholars working in the East Asian Pacific. This collection not only engages a multidisciplinary approach in understanding the subject of Japanese animation but also shows ways to research, teach, and more fully explore this multidimensional world.Presented in six sections, the translated essays c...