Books: The Animator's Survival Kit

Our MA in Animation, run in partnership with with Buckinghamshire New University, starts on 30 September, so now is the time to get ready.

We recommend one key textbook - all our students should get a copy of  The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams.

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.

Today the ASK is the leading resource for students wanting to learn animation, the one book that should be on everyone's shelf.

Overlapping action

The Animator's Survival Kit
Anyone who is serious about the medium should have a copy of this book. Books are less popular these days among students than they used to be; after all - it's a digital world now. Almost all the teaching on our course is focused on digital learning.  But 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 better than the DVD series - as it perfectly combines the best qualities of both. At £25, the app costs barely more than the book does.

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.

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.