Book Review: Animated Performance by Nancy Beiman
AVA publishing’s intention is to produce academic books about the applied visual arts that are both well designed and well written. If that’s how they describe their most recent release Animated Performance then they are being very humble.
The bouncing ball, slow in and slow out, anticipation and the walk cycle. If you remember all these terms from college, university or a tutorial you read then chances are you’ve dabbled in animation. Now if you’re looking at this article I’m going to guess that you feel there is more to learn. If I’m right then there’s a pretty good chance that Animated Performance is what you’re looking for.
First thing I should point out is that this is definitely not a beginner’s handbook. You won’t find any instructions on making a ball bounce or the different mouth shapes when lip-synching. It reads like you should know that by now and most definitely doesn’t apologize for the assumption. Instead it treats you like someone who’s read the books or dissected the tutorials or came out of university with some great walk cycles on your show-reel… but wanted more.
Designed to be a ‘drop-in-and-out’ rather than a step by step guide, you can flick to any page, read the tip, consider the beautifully sketched example, reflect on what you just learned and repeat until satisfied. Written by industry icon Nancy Beiman (Disney’s Hercules, A Goofy Movie, Treasure Planet), each tip is short, consisting of between 1-4 paragraphs (shorter than this article) but clear and inspiring.
What the book will then do is take your initial solution of getting your character from A to B and change it into much more of a ‘performance’. Effectively taking your characters from A into a hesitation, a deep breath, a jog, sprint, jump, pirouette, land into B, hear the growing cheers of the crowd, open eyes, hold back the tears and smile before finally kicking the monster in the nuts. Or you know…. whatever your animation is.
The accompanying illustrations are almost always a hand drawn sketch but at such a high quality you can tell a lot of thought went into the choices. Author Nancy Beiman’s drawings are beautiful to look at and the many contributors, In particular (but not exclusively) the illustrations of Brittney Lee could easily find a place on someone’s wall. In the rare occasions that a photo is used it’s always something that’s, for want of a better word, ‘cool’. Godzilla, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lion King, Laurel and Hardy, Alien… it’s refreshing to be able to receive references to films and animations that are either well known or readily available (unlike past books that require you to go through rare archives or to have lived in Russia in 1948).
The choice of paper stock (something I’ve never expected to comment on before) is a lovely contrast to the usual high glossy paper I am used to seeing in almost every other book. Instead this book reminds me of the first time I printed my portfolio on high quality card, in opposed to the time I tried printing it on horrible, shiny photo paper. And It is this choice in presenting the work that makes the already charming illustrations that much more wonderful. Rather than a mass-produced product it feels like somebody has entrusted you with their own personal sketchbook.
What is it: guide to enhancing your animations.
Who should buy it: Advanced animation students, illustrators, character animators, book collectors and people who recognize that all their walk cycles look the same.
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