Animated Performance: Bringing Imaginary Animal, Human and Fantasy Characters to Life(Required Reading Range)

In Animated Performance you will discover the many ways in which a character's movements will vary according to the emotional or narrative context of their situation. The many tips, examples and exercises will help you harness the flexibility of animation to portray an almost unlimited variety of characters and ensure that no two performances are ever alike. In addition, more than 200 illustrations show how animal and fantasy characters can live and move without losing their non-human qualities and interviews with Disney animators Art Babbitt, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ellen Woodbury make this a unique insight into bringing a whole world of characters to life.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Lynn Johnston. Preface: We're not in live action any more. Design for living: An introduction to thumbnails; Good actors: Designs that animate; An introduction to dialogue animation. Setting the stage: Character and story context: Don't just do something...; Within you, without you: Analysing the character; Character volume, size and movement. Is sex necessary?: Masculine and feminine character acting; The ages of man (and woman). Animal actors: Four legs good, two legs better? Creating animal characters; Flights of information: Animating winged characters; Portraying animal qualities in human characters; 'Look Ma, no hands!' Animating snakes, worms, and other crawlers. Fantastic performance!: Natural inspirations for the supernatural; Dual natures: Human/animal combinations; Floating worlds: The weightless actor. The performer as object: Moving the furniture: Bringing inanimate objects to life; Material girl: Fabric and cloth characters. Double timing: Animating character interactions: Staging and composition; Changing leads in multiple-character scenes; Potemkin villages: Crowd scenes and how to fake them. Character development over time: Character and story arcs. Inspiration and reference. Index. Acknowledgements.

About the Author :
Nancy Beiman is a professor at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville, Canada. She has produced, directed, designed, storyboarded and animated for television commercials, specials, features, and new media projects. Her employers have included The Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers Animation and Bill Melendez Productions. Nancy has been teaching at college level since 2000, and her first book, PREPARE TO BOARD! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts, has been adopted as a standard text by animation schools worldwide.

Review :
This book feels like a seriously helpful companion for animators be they student or professional. As an animator I am a visual thinker so this book immediately catches my eye for its simple clear design. It is well referenced throughout with strong examples of work from across the animation sector; I particularly like the historical illustrations of T.S. Sullivant, A.B. Frost etc, showing the art of caricature and emotion...I would strongly recommend this book to our students and to anyone interested in animation. Animated Performance (AVA Publishing) by Nancy Beiman is an instant classic...Beiman's new book concentrates solely on character animation and she knocks it out of the park. It is a thorough, step by step examination of the art, aimed at the advanced student or professional animator who already knows the basics. The principles she discusses can apply to any technique (CG, Flash, stop motion, etc.) and she has packed the book with ample examples of her own animation, as well as classic comic strips, commercial art and movie stills to illustrate her points. She's also peppered the book with inspiring quotes...What's most important is the book is a joy to read - even a non-animator such as myself can get a lot out of it. It's 232 oversized pages, loaded with solid information based on a lifetime of professional experience. I highly recommend this book to anyone doing, or attempting to do, character animation on any level. [Nancy Beiman's] imagination-based exercises are where this book really shines. They're great. Every five or 10 pages, Nancy adds a clear, concise, well-planned and thoughtful exercise that directly relates to the preceding text. They are the kind of exercises that appear to have been developed by an excellent teacher after years of hands-on knowledge in the classroom. I'd love to try them all. Packed with amusing illustrations, inspiring anecdotes and lively examples, Beiman's book acts as the kind of teacher we all wish we had in school. Animated Performance contains a wealth of information to guide you through the process of bringing animated characters to life. More than 200 illustrations show how animal and fantasy characters can live and move without losing their non-human qualities. Quotes from Disney animators Art Babbitt, Wolfgang Reitherman and Eileen Woodbury are sprinkled through the book to bring their particular wisdom to the subject. I can recommend this book to any serious student of animation, whatever medium they are working in, or to an animation fan who wants to know more about how animated characters are brought to life. Toon town veteran and animation teacher Beiman delivers a well-designed (both aesthetically and functionally) and indispensable resource in this primer volume. In its 200-plus pages you'll find tons of information on the study of movement in animation, from lip synching to character analysis and motivation. Beiman guides you through the principles of designing motion with a level of care and knowledge you'd be hard pressed to find in many how-tos - grab a pack of gold star stickers to keep on your desk and you may as well have a personal toon tutor. I am very impressed with this textbook. It is straightforward and to the point. The writer supports her concepts with examples, both written and visual, and it's easy to understand. The exercises utilize the ideas presented in each chapter. I appreciate her use of various other mediums when discussing animation, ie literature, dance, music. I think it is a great book for animation with many good examples that are accurate and the source material is great. For example the comments from Art Babbitt, Ollie Johnston and many of the greats who revolutionized the animation industry. An excellent reference for character development and animation for a wide range of applications. This will be recommended to any of our students who are progressing into higher education in animation and moving image studies. Nancy Beiman has brought a broad frame of reference to bear on the design of characters and their animation. She brings an insight which goes beyond the purely technical aspects of animation to the creation of the performance of compelling characters.