The book has a great background and introduction to stop-motion, and goes on to explain some areas of how a stop-motion film is produced. Areas covered included how certain effects are achieved, how the sound is added and lighting set-ups. Things that are not covered include frame-grabbing using a computer, and as most amateur animators start off with webcams and free/cheap frame-grabbing software this should be taken into account if you are a beginner. Hoever, information on frame-grabbing software etc is widely available for free on the internet at sites such as stopmotionanimation.com and animateclay.com.

I found the book very useful, especially the basic exercises using clay to do some simple motions. I also enjoyed reading about how parts of the Wallace and Gromit movies were achieved.

Altogether a very good book for people just getting into stop-mition animation, or anyone interested in how it is done, although if you plan to go into animating on computers you will need to either spend some time on the internet or find another book to cover this aspect of it.


What you need to know   May 16, 2004
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This Book is an ideal introduction to the world of 3-D animation from the acknowledged experts. The introduction and The Medium sections give an interesting background to the history animation with specific references to the Aardman history.
The section entitled Simple Techniques is the bit I found the most useful as it gives a series of exercises to try out for real. There is good advice about building simple sets and getting the lighting right.
I was however a little disappointed about the content in the book about how to use computers to assist with simple animations. Perhaps there is another book out there.
If you are interested in getting the right start with animation and want to save yourself making the simple but frustrating mistakes that others have made read this book.


Animated Passion!   March 26, 2004
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

A suprisingly informative, enthusiastic and fun introduction to the world of animation. I have used this book to great effect teaching animation to people from three yrs. old to thirty three!
Each chapter is clearly articulated and lavished with large colour illustrations from the films we all know and love. The deatil of lip-synching, model making, story-boadrding and set building as well as the fundamentals of animating are communicated in such a clear and enthusiastic way, it is hard not to catch the animating bug! Great all round book, highly recommended.


Cracking Animation   June 22, 2003
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

This Book is an ideal introduction to the world of 3-D animation from the acknowledged experts. The introduction and The Medium sections give an interesting background to the history animation with specific references to the Aardman history.

The section entitled Simple Techniques is the bit I found the most useful as it gives a series of exercises to try out for real. There is good advice about building simple sets and getting the lighting right.

I was however a little disappointed about the content in the book about how to use computers to assist with simple animations. Perhaps there is another book out there.

If you are interested in getting the right start with animation and want to save yourself making the simple but frustrating mistakes that others have made read this book.