“Cartoon Character Animation with Maya” book review
As a practising animator of nearly 20 years, I more often than not feel let down after I’ve purchased and read a new book about animation techniques. I think it stems from the fact that we’ve been spoilt by two literary tomes that have become like Animators’ Bibles, The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and Richard William’s Animators Survival Kit. There have been one or two book releases of recent years that I would allow to share shelf space with them, Chris Webster’s The Mechanics of Motion being one and Eric Goldberg’s Character Animation Crash Course another. It is the latter book that this new release from US-based animator Keith Osborn shares some DNA, taking the core-concepts of cartoon exaggeration techniques from Goldbergs’ teachings and demonstrating how to achieve this using Maya.
The book is split into 6 Chapters covering Thinking in 2D, Planning, Poses, Breakdowns, Refining and finally, Cartoony techniques. At the end of each chapter, Osborn includes an “Over to you” section where he sets you a task that reinforces the subjects raised through the course of that chapter. It also looks lovely, with over 200 full-colour illustrations of screen-grabs from films and broadcast animations as well as examples of the Authors’ thumbnail planning sketches and step-by-step renders from within Maya.
Cartoon character animation with Maya.
The Author has over 10 years’ experience in various disciplines of animated film-making, specialising in character animation including The Nut Job, The Wild and on the 2012 Oscar-winning short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. He is also an instructor for on-line animation school, Animation Mentor. His experience is clearly evident in his writing style and breezy manner as he explains the processes involved. A particular highlight of the book are the interviews that the Author has conducted with a number of professional animators who specialise in exaggerated animation styles. These include; Ken Duncan (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, 9), Jason Figliozzi (Wreck it Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6), T. Dan Hofstedt (Pocahontas, Mulan, Planes) and (my favourite) Pepe Sanchez, who discusses the challenges in animating on Pocoyo and Jelly Jamm.
There’s also an added bonus of a companion website where you can download a short animation featuring the cartoon star of the book, Mr. Buttons, as well as a specially created rig of said character for you to animate with and some walk-through videos demonstrating key techniques from each chapter. A special word has to go to the free rig, as it’s fun to animate with, incredibly robust and has some funky built-in features like multiple limbs and motion-lines.
The Mr.Buttons rig in action
I really enjoyed the book but may not recommend it to absolute Maya beginners as there is some experience of the software needed to begin with. Although not quite in the same league as the Illusion of Life and Animators Survival Book, I’d be happy to let it share shelf-space with them.
You can purchase the book here.
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