Acting in Animation: A Look at 12 Films

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 192 pages
• Published by: Heinemann Drama February 9, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0325007055
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0325007052
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 6.4 ounces

Product Description


Powerful and empathetic performance in character animation requires far more from the animator than an ability to manipulate pixels or draw characters. You must have a strong understanding of the relationship between thinking, emotion and physical action plus dynamic scene construction. Renowned for his now-classic Acting for Animators, Ed Hooks shows you in Acting in Animation what best-practice performance principles look like on celluloid.

Keyed for use with the DVD versions of twelve animated films and loaded with spot-on analysis, acting tips, and valuable insight, Acting in Animation is like sitting down with Ed Hooks to watch the movies. Ed breaks each one down sequence by sequence and gives you useful notes on how the animators of classics successfully imbued their characters with feeling. You'll see firsthand how attending to essential acting principles like choice, negotiation, conflict, and empathy creates unforgettable characters and believable storylines. Hooks also deconstructs some not-so classics to illustrate how by neglecting good acting technique the filmmakers missed opportunities to have their characters bond with the audience.

Want to make your animation more powerful? Go to the movies with Ed Hooks. Read Acting in Animation and find out how quality acting inspires great animation.

About The Author
Ed Hooks has been a respected acting teacher for three decades. In his work with animators, he has taught for many leading studios, including Disney Feature Animation, DreamWorks/PDI, Electronic Arts, Rockstar, Will Vinton Studios, Valve, BioWare, Tippett Studio, Wild Brain, OddWorld Inhabitants, Microsoft (X-Box/Fasa Studio) and Sony Computer Entertainment America. In addition, he has been a featured speaker/teacher at many international animation conferences, festivals and schools. Hooks welcomes questions or commentsjust email him at edhooks@edhooks.com or visit his website: www.ActingForAnimators.com.

Reader Reviews
This book is strictly a companion to Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators. It shows how the author's principles of animated acting are (or are not) applied on a DVD chapter-by-chapter basis for 12 animated features. Similar to the breakdown of The Iron Giant at the end of the original book. Hooks' teachings are great food for thought when it comes to not just creating a quality animated performance, but in the writing of the scene the performance exists in. The films examined cover a fairly wide range. Mostly recent films, but a few older ones. Largely Disney, but also some Pixar and Studio Ghibli as well. All the films (with the possible exception of Pinocchio) are fairly easy to get a DVD of. The only peeve I have with this book is a few instances of poor proof-reading when characters are referred to by the wrong names. In Monsters Inc. Sully is called Randal a couple times, Woody is twice referred to as Andy in Toy Story 2, and in Tarzan, Sabor the leopard is called a tiger. (Not as big a problem, just annoying.) If you haven't read Acting for Animators, don't get this book just yet. If you have, this is the perfect way to see Hooks' lessons in practice.