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What people have said about "Character Animation in 3D".

Animators are fortunate, not for them the limitations of the theatrical stage or the many hazards of a live action film location shoot! Their only limitations are their imaginations and the size of their chequebooks. With the cosmos at their disposal plus all the colours and sounds in the universe - animation can be a daunting prospect! Small wonder some take up gardening or D.I.Y. Steve Roberts (the first time I saw him was at Farnham's Animation course - he was remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a satire) is not easily daunted. He has written and illustrated a remarkable book that actually makes animation easy to understand. Using simple illustrations, he takes the reader through every situation they are likely to come across in their progress towards believable animation. The key to this book is SIMPLICITY. Keep it simple! Keep it simple -parting the red sea is for Cecil. B. De. Mille. Oscar winning animation director Bob Godfrey.

"It was surely a matter of time before a publication like this emerged. An understanding of basic animation principles is often overlooked in 3D computer animation. This book will do much to put that right; it is an essential source of knowledge, which will enable 2D and 3D animators to understand each other's purpose". Oscar winning animation director Daniel Greaves of Tandem Films.

"Finally! A forthright approach to a complex art form. An inspired text that fuses an essential understanding of fundamental traditional methods and technology". Rita Osei, Animation & Graphics Producer, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Toonami.

"A fantastic, comprehensive, but above all practical guide to character animation. The well-pitched progressive exercises at the core of this book make it a must have for all serious animation wannabes." Andrew Lindsay, Senior Animator, Lionhead Studios.

"At last! A definitive work on the principles of 3D animation, from a highly experienced traditional animator. Steve Roberts brings his substantial knowledge of teaching the fundamental techniques of animation to this essential reference work - anyone who wants to make a career in CG animation needs this book!" Dr Mike Milne, Director of Computer Animation, Framestore CFC

This well-written, easy-to-follow book is a fascinating and comprehensive read, and guide into, the world of animation. 'Character animation in 3D is jam packed full with superb illustrations and the animation exercises in this book are as simple as possible so that you are able to build a firm foundation of skills upon which to develop your own ideas. From traditional 2D animation techniques and stills through to learning and improving your 3d animation, the book guides and inspires even the most inexperienced animators to produce eye catching, original and professional looking animations. David Smith. www.skwigly.co.uk

Very nice! It's a great resource that I'd gladly recommend to any CG animator. We always grow by learning our animation roots that came before the world of pixels and polygons. Great job! Award winning animator Keith Lango. www.keithlango.com/

COOL NEW BOOK BY STEVE ROBERTS "Character Animation in 3D" (Focal Press, 2004) is an excellent primer as well as a refresher, clearly and effectively presented by a respected teacher. Steve Roberts' love for animation is abundantly clear on every page. The book is chock full of both 2d and 3d exercises and comes with a full CD-ROM and even further info in this website: http://www.characteranimationin3d.com/. "Character Animation in 3D" is picking up some hefty endorsements by animators that are good judges of such things. Check it out! Animation acting (and all other forms of acting) teacher. Ed Hooks. www.edhooks.com/

'Character Animation in 3D' by Steve Roberts, the book has been a great read, and will be an invaluable reference for the students. I've requested the Library to order 3 copies for the upcoming year, and also asked for it to be included on the recommended reading list for next. Hope the book does really well. Saf Efstathiou. NCCA Demonstrator. Bournemouth University. ncca.bournemouth.ac.uk/ www.onionboy.co.uk

 

My first reader review on www.amazon.co.uk

(Five stars!) Character Animation in 3D, July 9, 2004 Reviewer: Christopher Page from United Kingdom

I wish this book had come out earlier, as it would have saved me from buying a load of dud books that only have one or 2 good things in them, where as this book is full of everything I needed to know. Showing you and telling you, in plain English how to do animation in 2D and then relaying these skills into a 3D package. Now the great thing is , Steve Roberts has go into real great detail for every exercise in the book, and has done a PDF format of each exercise which is software specific, he uses Lightwave, Maya, Softimage and 3D Studio max these are the main industry packages. He talks about walk cycles (many different ones), running, lifting objects every fundamental animation that you need to know to get a job. Anyone wanting a book on animation should buy this as there is nothing that can top this book and believe me I have read enough of them. This book tells you what you want to know and if you have never animated in Lightwave or Softimage for example he shows you how. JUST BUY IT..........

 

Reader reviews on www.amazon.com

(Five stars!) One of the best books on animation I've ever read!, November 6, 2004 Reviewer: Pheobie anim8tor

I've bought a lot of books on 3D animation over the years and most of them are either full of information that I don't need (how to build sky scrapers or how to spin my name in letters) or don't have anywhere near enough information on how to animate (usually only one chapter). This book has everything I need to learn how to animate! It starts by showing how to do an exercise using 2D traditional skills and then goes on to do the same exercise in 3D (if you want to skip the 2D bit and just do the 3D, that seems to work fine). Most employers today want to see evidence of traditional animation training and this book gives you all that! It covers everything; weight and balance, timing, walks, birds, fish, snakes, four legged animals, acting and lip-synch. I'd rate this book with Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival kit. In other words one of those books that every animator should have. So if you want to learn how to animate or if you want to improve your 3D skills, buy this book!

 

(Five stars!)Great animation book, November 7, 2004 Reviewer: newBanim8or (Australia)

The book has all the things i need to know for a beginner.I find this book easy to read, very helpful with lot's of illustrations/examples and the computer models are useful to practice the animation after reading it.

 

A review from www.animationinsider.com.

Thinking about breaking into the wonderful industry of animation? Wondering about how to hone your hand drawing techniques or your 3D character modelling? Need an easy to read guide on 3D animation? Then perhaps this is the book for you. From professor Stephen Roberts of Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London, is an interesting book on the subject of how to harness and develop one's animation skills, traditional, 3D or otherwise. Entitled Character Animation in 3D, the book is a guide for those planning to or are already immersed within the field of animation. The complexity of learning animation techniques and the complexity of connecting together various abilities can be difficult at times; Roberts' book that is scheduled to arrive on shelves worldwide very soon is certainly a volume of tutorials, examples and instructions that animators should take to heart. Filled to the brim with drawing techniques and industry insight, Stephen Roberts' Character Animation in 3D looks to become one of the front running books that both current and future animators look to, for guidance in the realm of 3D modeling, stop-motion and 2D animation. The website for the book, available at CharacterAnimationIn3d.com, allows for prospective book buyers to browse for free, twenty models, twelve tutorials and thirty movies. All made with what is taught within his book, Roberts' generous "freebie section" is a place those interested in the book must stop by. It should also be noted that the model were built in 3ds max,lightwave, maya and softimage xsi, which were taken from the CD Rom that comes along with the book. The movies, also taken from the CD Rom give light to what readers can really accomplish in a short while with much diligence, rather than years of frustration. The tutorial give an in depth perspective on the "how to" process of Character Animation in 3D. Steve Roberts has been all over the animation industry. Having had his career initially start after reading a newspaper ad looking for a "college dropout to work in animation studio" or something close to it, Roberts was first at work painting cels. Eventually returning to study animation, to hone his abilities further, within a few years he managed to find some work doing commercials and the like. At one point he even worked for Disney, managing to snatch a working role on Ducktails: the movie and Rover Dangerfield. During the mid nineties Steve Roberts' teaching career began to take off, from animation storyboarding to hand drawn animation techniques to what he currently teaches, up and coming 2D and 3D computer animators. A diligent professor of the arts and a fan of animation at heart, Roberts' book Character Animation in 3D will be a great stepping stone not only for his many students but for those outside of his collegiate reach as well. Aaron H. Bynum. www.animationinsider.net/

 

A review from animation.about.com.

Book Review - Character Animation in 3D by Steve Roberts. (Guide Rating - 4 out of 5 stars). animation.about.com. Roberts begins with a quick review of the nuts and bolts of traditional cel animation including both the technique of portraying motion and the mechanics of tracking the huge collection of separate elements that are assembled to form an animated film. Every successful animator will essentially memorize this material, as it is the stuff of everyday animation labor. Files for practice in 3dStudio Max, Lightwave, Maya and SOFTIMAGE XSI are on the CD. Lessons include: Object trajectories, liquid animation, close-up character animation, two and four legged locomotion, snake, bird and fish movement, lip synch and more.

Late last century, a revolution in animation began. Computer generated (CG) animation became feasible, and the tools thereof put their stamp on modern animation. The broad success of the first short, then feature-length CG animations coincided with the box office failure of several traditionally drawn and rendered films. Massive layoffs of skilled old-style animators from major studios followed. CG is the new 800 pound animated gorilla. Where do you go to get up to speed with the new realities?

Building CG Animation on the Foundation of Cel Animation. "Character Animation in 3D" by Steve Roberts looks like a good bet. He makes only one assumption and that is that the reader wants to be a modern animator. To do this, Roberts knows, you must absorb the fundamentals of old style animation, and learn to apply them within the context of modern 3D animation software. Therefor, as he must, he begins with a quick review of the nuts and bolts of traditional cel animation including both the technique of portraying motion and the mechanics of tracking the huge collection of separate elements that are assembled to form an animated film. Then he compares the record keeping formats of the old and new style animation to show how each one contains and organizes the raw data. We're still in the first of a dozen chapters here friends! This summary is concentrated but extremely clear. Every successful animator will essentially memorize this material, as it is the stuff of everyday animation labor.

I Don't Need to Know How to Draw Anymore, Right? Wrong! Despite the shift from pencil to Pentium, the foundation of good animation remains drawing. From the book: "A good animator (whether 2D or 3D) should be able to sketch out a pose for a key frame of animation in a simple concise form. You don't have to be brilliant at drawing, however, drawing is the best way there is to interpret the world around you. So draw as much as possible. Drawing something means you observe it for a relatively long period of time, helping you to understand the way it moves. The most important thing about drawing is that it makes you sit down and look at the world around you in detail. Things that you would not normally notice... become more apparent to you. A sketchbook is valuable reference material for your animation." This is the same message you will hear from every animation school instructor. You must understand organic movement and be able to convey it to others in order to contribute to an animation team.

Which Software Should I Learn?This is the most frequently asked animation question that I hear. Roberts knows that there is not a single answer. There are a number of packages in common use in animation studios, and the big boys use them as a springboard upon which they build proprietary plug-in code to customize their tools. So "Character Animation in 3D" makes each of its lessons available in four different formats. A student can practice these fundamental animation exercises using examples that will run in 3dStudio Max, Lightwave, Maya and SOFTIMAGE XSI. These are the most likely packages a student will run into. These programs can create a demo reel of professional quality, and the lessons learned on any of them will be applicable to whatever high-end animation system your future employer might be running. This is the key step that I haven't seen in any other instruction books to date. Use these lessons with pretty much whatever you've got.

It Will Look Just Like (fill in the movie) Right?Wrong. Animation is hard. Animation is long. You will crawl before you walk, you will walk before you run. The examples you will learn on are simple "primitives." Look at the cover illustration. These are they. Until you master a myriad of animation and software concepts, your work will be childishly simple in appearance. The outward appearance is the frosting on the cake. It will be applied last. Prepare for the long haul if you want to create modern animation. Lessons include: Object trajectories, liquid animation, close-up character animation, two and four legged locomotion, snake, bird and fish movement, lip synch and more. The book will be available in May 2004 for about $37 USD including text and digital versions and a CD containing models in the four software formats for all the lessons. These models will also be available online in upgraded form as the software requirements evolve. Tom Franks. http://animation.about.com/

 

A review from www.animationartist.com

Character Animation in 3D Invaluable resource from animator and teacher Stephen Roberts By Frank Moldstad.

In the first chapter of his excellent book Character Animation in 3D (Focal Press), author Stephen Roberts makes no apologies about starting with the fundamentals of hand-drawn animation. "You may think, 'Why on earth does a 3D computer animator need to learn how to do drawn animation?' he asks. "The answer to that question is that the basics of animation are all the same and often you can get an idea of the movement far more quickly using pencil and paper. A computer can take a lot of the drudgery out of animating, but you can end up doing a piece of animation without quite understanding how it happened and whether it works or not." This approach is born from Roberts' experiences as a teacher in several London universities. He began teaching 10 years ago at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design, and currently teaches part time at both Central St. Martins College of Art and Design and at Cavendish College, London. He also has extensive professional animation experience in London-based facilities, working on commercials, TV series and feature films (DuckTales the Movie, Rover Dangerfield and Freddy as FRO7), as well as writing, designing and directing short animated educational movies for the BBC. He continues to do corporate and educational work in addition to teaching.

Character Animation in 3D weighs in at 288 pages, and is an invaluable resource for those who may know how to use an animation program but lack an understanding of movement, anatomy, timing, characterization and other elements that make animation come alive. Even experienced animators who are well-versed in such things will find it an engaging read that may provide new perspective into the basic underpinnings of the craft. The book's 575 illustrations are liberally sprinkled throughout, and are very helpful in illuminating important points from the text. But what really makes the subject matter come alive is a CD-ROM included with the book that contains more than 50 tutorials, 140 animations, 22 live action movies and 20 fully built and rigged models made in 3ds max, LightWave, Maya and Softimage|XSI. For example, readers can open one of the character rigs in their animation program of choice and interactively apply the lessons learned.

Character Animation in 3D begins with a series of exercises demonstrating hand-drawn animation techniques and tools, and then progresses to advanced animation methods. The first chapter is devoted to basics such as peg-bars, light boxes, X-sheets, line testers and so on, with the goal of showing how this knowledge is transferable to a 3D animation program. Roberts encourages people to learn how to create simple handsketched poses for key frames. "You don't have to be brilliant at drawing, however, drawing is the best way there is to interpret the world around you," he says. "So draw as much as possible." He offers examples of good subjects and things to think about while sketching.

Throughout, the book is full of practical examples, and concepts are clearly explained in a conversational style. It moves into increasingly advanced material in subsequent chapters: how balls bounce; basics of human anatomy (movement of skeletons and joints); and animal anatomy, with specific discussions of birds and reptiles. For instance, the chapter on how balls bounce is a thorough examination of many factors, including the weight of the ball, environment, solidity, force, construction, and so on. Here's an example from that chapter, involving a bowling ball being dropped and how to approach creating an animation of this event: "Once dropped, the bowling ball will accelerate rapidly to its optimum speed (deriving its energy from gravitational pull). It will then bounce (with no squash and stretch) as it hits the ground (unless it smashes straight through the floor, when it will keep going). The optimum speed is reached just before the ball hits the ground. As the ball is a solid object and is rigid,when it hits the ground it displays no squash and stretch. The weight of the ball combined with its rigidity means that the curve or angle of the bounce will be steep. As it accelerates away from the ground and decelerates into the apex, the movement will be short and quick before accelerating back towards the ground as gravitational pull takes over. This could be repeated a couple of times. The apex of the bounce will become lower each time. Each bounce will become increasingly closer together, whilst the curve of the bounce remains quite sharp. Then Roberts tells how to animate this sequence: "You start with a still picture of the ball being held. When the ball is dropped the time elapsed between each drawing rapidly increases until you reach optimum speed at which point the drawings will be an equal distance apart. This means that each subsequent ball will be further and further apart on the drawings. "When it hits the ground it will bounce. The reason it bounces is that when the ball hits the ground the energy contained within the ball has nowhere to go but back up, lifting the ball into a bounce. The ground absorbs a small amount of energy, which gives each bounce less power. The height of the first bounce will be lower than the height from which the ball was initially dropped. As more energy is absorbed by the ground, each successive bounce will be lower than the last." Next, he elaborates on the example of the bowling ball, discussing how it behaves with force applied: "If you were to propel a bowling ball, the acceleration would be slow as you transfer energy from your hand to the ball. It's as if the ball is reluctant to take on the energy. You need to give it a very hard shove to get it going. The ball will be at its optimum speed as you stop pushing. Once it gets going the weight of the ball combined with the energy from the push gives it the momentum to keep it travelling and it will decelerate very slowly before stopping." And, how to animate this sequence: "The first drawings, of the hand propelling the bowling ball, are close together, giving the initial thrust of speed. The time spacing between the drawings then increases gradually until the optimum speed is reached (the point at which the hand stops pushing the ball). The drawings gradually get closer and closer to each other as the speed of the ball slowly decreases and it comes to a graceful stop. It has to be remembered that a lot of energy has been passed to the ball to get it rolling. It has a large amount of momentum. So it will take a lot of force (or a very strong object) to stop it prematurely."

Among the particularly interesting chapters is one concerning the animation of facial expressions and eight basic emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, disgust/contempt, interest and pain). The subtleties of facial expressions are essential to a truly emotive animated character, and Roberts delves into a range of emotions evoked by myriad eye and lip movements, as well as body language and gestures. This leads into a discussion of how to animate a piece of facial acting. Roberts advises to begin by thinking about what a character must do in a scene, acting it out in front of a mirror or videotaping yourself as the character. Once the character's actions are decided, they should be written as a list, with notes about how many frames each pose should last. The next step is to create a rough drawing of each item on the list and shoot the thumnail drawings as a "pose test," varying the number of frames for each drawing until it works. (Here, Roberts refers readers to "acting072_thumbs" and "acting073_thumbs," animations010, chapter010 on the CD-ROM.) Then, he says, it's time to draw each of the poses full size. "Now you can start animating them," he writes. "Think how long the audience needs to register an expression. An audience needs a minimum of half a second. Always keep thinking of your audience and whether they will understand what is going on. Draw all the key positions. These are all the poses where the character adopts a posture and facial expression. Do a key position at the start of these poses and one at the end just before you anticipate into another pose. If a character does something while in this pose (look at a watch for example) sort out key positions for this action. Do the anticipation keys out of a pose and the overshoot keys into the next pose. When they are done shoot them on a line tester and fiddle with the timing again."

Other valuable chapters are devoted to the Animation of Acting, with ways of working with two or more characters and developing body language. Roberts even discusses Method Acting and Theatrical Acting techniques and how they can be applied to animated characters. Character Animation in 3D reveals the secrets of how to observe and analyze the world, and then translate it into animated images. The book contains wonderful practical insights and technical details about how things move. It follows up with step-by-step instruction on how to apply that knowledge to creating animations.

Best of all, even though Roberts is a professional animator, he doesn't talk down to beginners. Plus, even though he is also a teacher, the book isn't scholarly or impenetrable. It delivers a solid foundation of principles that apply equally to beginners or professional animators.

Whether you're just starting out, or you want a fresh take on some of the basics, this book is thoroughly enjoyable and recommended for any bookshelf. Frank Moldstad www.animationartist.com/

 

A review from LightWave Tutorials On The Web.

The book is some 250 pages in 12 chapters. There is a lot of simple but very effective 2d cartoon-like illustrations throughout the book that visually explains various concepts. And the illustrations do an excellent job.

The book is a very easy read and after each chapter there are exercises to do in various 3D programs. LightWave, 3DS Max, Softimage XSI and MAYA are covered so the book will appeal to everyone who wants to get into Character Animation no matter what program is used.

NOTE: This book does not really get involved in rigging though so if you buy this book to learn how how to place bones, create weight maps, or finese a morph you will be dissappointed. The aim of this book is to create the motion and make it look believable so if you want your character to look happy well then this book will help you achieve this.

Perhaps this book should have been titled Character Animation in 2D and 3D because the author uses 2D very effectively to get the points across. Characters are not simply human forms either. The book covers everything from snakes to birds to dogs to people and a whole lot in-between. Each chapter touches on basic character animation moves such as how a snake slithers (I never realized how many different forms of slithering a snake, depending on the type of snake, can move). Basic bird flapping and flying, dog and horse walk cycles and basic human walk cycles are covered but then the book delves into human emotion and how to create that motion through character animation of various types.

By taking 2D cartoon-like illustrations the author shows us the basics of how a character can become expressive and move. By using these he then breaks down the movement into keyframe timing charts and through the exercises at the end of each chapter gets the reader to create 3D animations using these same timing charts.

The text and illustrations are easy to read and easy to follow. What at first may seem like a very simple book is actually a great reference guide that a character animator will be able to go back to again and again.

I really enjoyed this book and will find it useful far into the future. Scott Cameron. members.shaw.ca/lightwavetutorials/

 

 

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