Product Description

A classic of animation education since it first published in 1981. Copies of Timing for Animation have been sitting dog-eared and spine-split on desks and workstations around the world, wherever animation is produced for more than 25 years. All you need to breathe life into your animation is at your fingertips. All the vital techniques employed by animators worldwide are explained using dozens of clear illustrations and simple, straightforward directions. Learn how animations should be arranged in relation to each other, how much space should be used and how long each drawing should be shown for maximum dramatic effect. Fully revised and updated, the second edition includes timing for digital production, digital storyboarding in 2d, digital storyboarding in 3d, the use of After Effects and much, much more!

* Animate it right first time with these tried and tested techniques by industry legends, Halas and Whitaker. The second edition is fully updated for digital workflows, by Tom Sito, animator of Beauty and the Beast and Shrek. 

* Get straight to the good stuff with simple, no-nonsense instruction on the key techniques like stretch and squash, animated cycles, overlapping, and anticipation.  Learn how animations should be arranged in relation to each other, how much space should be used and how long each drawing should be shown for maximum dramatic effect.

* Fully revised, in Full color and updated, the second edition includes timing for digital production, digital storyboarding in 2d, digital storyboarding in 3d, the use of After Effects and much, much more!

 

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14451 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780240521602
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Halas and Whitaker's 'Timing for Animation' was, and still is, without a doubt, the best book for students of the art of animation. I can't recommend it highly enough."
Bob Godfrey, Oscar winning leading animated filmmaker and author.

"Secrets of 'action timing' lucidly explained and demonstrated by two of Britain's most highly respected and adept practitioners. An essential primer for both traditional and C.G. animators."
Ken Clark, animation historian and writer

"...this is the only publication devoted wholly to one of the most vital concepts in the art of animated film... The book is a vital source of reference for students as well as every studio and every animator...It's also easy to keep around for reference, it's not a huge coffee-table bible sized book made to impress. It just gives the facts, numbers and formulas and a few drawings to illustrate. Made by animators for animators.Although it was principally written for 2D animation, this book has crucial information for any animator (2D, CGI or model animation). It explains simply and clearly how to time a walk or a run; how to give your character a sense of weight; how force is transmitted; the effects of friction; spacing -and much more. The new foreword by John Lasseter puts these traditional skills in today's context, and gives praise where it is due. Every animator, would-be animator, animation studio and animation course should have this book."
Amazon.co.uk review

"If you only ever buy one animation book in your life - get this one. Timing for Animation gets down to the nuts and bolts of what animations about, and that's timing. Buy it!"
Amazon.co.uk review -- Review

"The principles of timing laid out in this book are move applicable (now) than ever before." -- John Lasseter

Review
'Halas and Whitaker's 'Timing for Animation' was, and still is, without a doubt, the best book for students of the art of animation. I can't recommend it highly enough.'
Bob Godfrey.

From the Publisher
Written by two internationally acclaimed animators, this book explores the art of timing and it's function in the animated film. It attempts to answer some of the major questions that confront the animator. How should the drawings be arranged in relation to each other? How many are needed? How much space should be left between one group of drawings and the next? How long should each drawing or group of drawings remain on the screen to give the maximum dramatic effect? The first part of the book is devoted to the mechanical side of timing - that is, the constant projection speed that governs all aspects of timing for animation. This is related to the overall timing of a completed film in terms of story telling, pace, mood, speed of editing etc. The vital relationship between timing and the speed of audience reaction is discussed. The authors continue with a consideration of the timing movement in relation to Newton's Laws of Motion, by which all objects have their own mass, inertia, flexibility etc., which govern the timing of the object's movements when forces are applied to it. This in turn leads to the important question of how to make an object or character appear heavy or light on the screen by the timing of its movements and its reaction to forces acting on it, and how this can be achieved most effectively by the animator. Throughout the book, points made in the text are demonstrated with the help of actual drawn examples. Timing for Animation not only offers invaluable help to those who are learning the basis of animation techniques, but will also be of great interest to anyone already working in the field of animation.

---

Customer Reviews

Timing for Animation
Well, after waiting so long for this book to come back into print it turned out to be an overall disappointment. I found "Timing..." to be remedial and overpriced. True, timing itself is crucial to animation as with all acting, however this book offers nothing I didn't already learn from "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life" or Preston Blair's How-To books, which I cut my teeth on.
If you are an animator who already owns every other book on the subject and you have 30 bucks burning a hole in your pocket then this book is for you. However, if you don't own the 50 other great animation books by Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Richard Williams, Eadweard Muybridge, John Canemaker, Brian LeMay, Jeff Kurtti, Preston Blair, Chuck Jones, Tony White, Culhane, Finch, Schneider, Adamson, Rebello, Green, and Hart to name a few; then please go buy one of theirs.
This one is going back for a refund. Sometimes you just have to say "The Emperor is Naked."

This is a must buy for future animators!
Although I don't own a copy of this book, I've read most of it. Just as the title says, this book focuses on one of the most important aspects of animation: timing. It's well written and full of exercises and techniques that will help you improve your timing. I've heard that some animation schools use it as a textbook. If you're thinking about a career in the animation industry, this book is a must buy. However, it's pretty hard to find since it's out of print. I think that it's worth the extra effort to own a copy.

Good book to have, but WAY OVERPRICED...
I'm downgrading this book partly because it's overpriced and frankly I wish the drawing style in it were different.

It's still a nice book to have and covers some specific timing and staging problems that a lot of other books don't, but it's not the end-all and be-all for animation timing that it gets hyped up to be.

I still don't understand why this book was out-of-print for so long in the US and why it's so ridiculously overpriced now. It's really a $15 or $20 book at most, but the publishers are charging $30!