Rowland B. Wilson’s ‘Trade Secrets’ – Book Review
Trade Secrets: Notes on Cartooning & Animation
Author: Rowland B. Wilson, Suzanne Lemieux Wilson (Editor)
Publisher: Focal Press (Animation Masters Series)
A major concern that rears its head from time to time with each wave of new animators is a sort of willful insistence on abandoning the principles of the craft for the sake of contemporary aesthetics. Not to denigrate modern or design-led animation; with thought and effort behind it, it has made for some incredibly charming, inspiring, even game-changing pieces of work, but the ease in which today’s software can polish a lily (mixed metaphor but you get the idea) through a patchwork of lighting and VFX trickery comes off as an acceptable substitute for effort. As the expression goes: You give a man to fish, he eats for a day; you teach a man to fish…well, why would he bother anyway? There’s a plugin for that now.
Every discipline has traditions behind it that, for reasons that baffle, are jettisoned almost out of some mutinous principle; That somehow they’re not in place to help, but to limit creative potential. Thankfully there does remain some genuinely informative literature on improving one’s animation, many of which have come our way over the years. One relatively recent addition to these is Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes on Cartooning & Animation. As part of the Focal Press ‘Animation Masters’ series, one which has included Walt Stanchfield’s technically-oriented Drawn To Life books as well as more anecdotal fare such as Floyd Norman’s Animated Life, Wilson’s own background – including being involved in major features such as Hercules and The Little Mermaid – makes his insight more than a worthy addition to the roster.
Beginning with a somewhat poetic foreward made up of Wilson quotes on the nature of tradition, excellence and wisdom, the bulk of the book itself leans toward a more direct, matter-of-fact presentation. The introduction breaks down the process of a project into all the familiar stages with extreme brevity, electing to cut through the treacle and focus on the components of each that most warrant attention. Each subsequent chapter is dedicated to expanding on each area (scene, colour, composition, tone, process and so on) though the written content stays true to the premise and remains in note form throughout. These serve mainly to annotate and clarify the meat of the book itself, which are the scanned hand-written/illustrated notes. Dotted throughout are handy reference points that ensure the validity of the book beyond a single read-through; Sections such as the ‘Opus Checklist’ and the assortment of reproduced, hand-drawn style charts will prove invaluable points of reference for those taking an animated production seriously. These also serve helpful beyond the animation stage itself, elaborating on effective colour use, tone and link work.
The compiled, almost anthologised presentation of Wilson’s notes also have an advantage in so far as, while most other books on the subject stick to a by-rote series of lessons, chronologically ordered in relation to production itself, Trade Secrets functions more as an advice handbook that can be dipped into when a particular brick wall is hit. Above all else, it’s also a fun read, marrying valuable information with an informal approach that feels less like a textbook and more a visual celebration – look at what can be done, now learn how to do it.
Most animation filmmakers have weak spots they can brush up on and, while some who are specialists in a particular area might not feel the compulsion to do so, reference books like this one are hugely useful as a means of taking the intimidation factor of unexplored territory down a notch.
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