Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Howard Beckerman‘s book, Animation: The Whole Story, published in 2003 by Allworth Press, comes close to being the book as described in the title. There’s an extensive history of animation, followed by a guide to animation production, followed by an analysis of the Business side of animation, and ending with exercises and a list of available resources (including schools, studio addresses, places to buy equipment and animation publications.) That’s a lot of book for the price.

This is definitely a down and dirty book, just the facts ma’m, nothing but the facts, and for that I am grateful. There are no pretensions; in ways it reminds me of the Lutz animation book. The material is straightforward, and the presentation is complete. The illustrations throughout are done by Mr. Beckerman, himself, and the material is just about all-encompassing. I would use it as a classroom text were I teaching first level animation, and I’m sure there are many teachers who already do this.

There’s a lot of handy information in here, sort of an all-purpose guide to animation. It’s a bit like one of those tool boxes that have every sort of wrench in it, so that you’re always prepared. There are directions for setting up a director’s workbook, how to do a storyboard, even a guide for properly flipping paper-drawn animation. There is an explanation of a field guide, frame to footage counters, information on how to build a drawing table light box, and even an explanation of exposure sheets – showing how to fill them out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book that transposes the meter on a metronome to frame counts. This has always been information handed down from one animator to another. Books don’t include it. This one does. This is incredibly useful for any animator looking to animate to a beat, and all animators SHOULD be doing that.

Howard Beckerman has been teaching animation and the history of animation in New York at the School of Visual Arts and Parson’s School of Design for a very long time. He’s also a professional having directed, designed and animated for many companies, including Paramount, as well as for his own company. He’s done many short films as well as written hundreds of articles for film and animation magazines. He knows his stuff.

This, to me, is most evident in the first half of the book, the history of animation section. This is a no-nonsense guide to the history from the beginning days right through the book’s publication date – 2003. In 85 pages he covers more material than many other elaborate and celebrated books. And the amazing thing is that it’s all accurate and correct material. I don’t think I’ve ever covered so much history – and it’s WORLD HISTORY – in so short a read. Yet it feels like nothing is left out. This is quite a feat. For my money. this is the absolute strength of the book.

The weakness is one you can probably guess at from the descriptions I’ve already given. The book came out in 2003, and quite a bit has changed. There’s virtually no reason anymore to read about the Oxberry camera and how it works. The same could be said of the inking and painting of cels or even field guides and exposure sheets. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s absolutely vital for everyone in the business to know this information, but I know it’s not part of the job anymore. Today’s book would be more about the computer: Flash and AfterEffects, Toon Boom Studio and FlipBook. The book is peppered with
caricatures of key people.
Perhaps someday there’ll be a new edition with more of that information. Although to be frank, there are hundreds
of books telling how to use the software. There are a lot of young kids making their animated films in Flash and calling themselves animators. Perhaps if they read this book, as it is, they’d have a bit more of a grasp as to what an animator does.

There’s so much in this book, I wholeheartedly recommend it if you’re looking for a great “how to” book. Even if you’re not, that history of animation section is world class.

Here are a few of the many illustrations in the book:

1. Building a lightbox - – - – - 2. Flipping and Rolling Animation

3. Walk cycles - – - – - – - – - 4. How to Ink & Paint cels

5. The director’s Workbook

It’s a practical little book, and is well worth checking out. (There are copies on Amazon that are incredibly inexpensive!)

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