The Animation Bible: A Practical Guide to the Art of Animating, from Flipbooks to Flash

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Some common questions I’ve heard are: What should I put in my pitch document? How long should it be? Where can I get a shirt like that? Our animation students at Escape Studios don't just learn technical skills, they also learn to be creative artists, imagining new characters and stories, and pitching their ideas. An audience tends to sympathize with a character that is so obsessed with getting something, they go to great lengths to obtain it. That “it” could be a Red Ryder BB gun, the last slice of pizza, or revenge.

Now that you know what a pitch bible is for (one of the visual tools used in a pitch meeting), let’s look into the essential elements inside a pitch bible: 1. Logline The difference between an art bible for a featured project versus for personal style is that the visual style for a featured project should be established before creating the art bible. When making an art bible for personal use there should be room for updates as personal style often evolves. What does an art bible typically include? When it’s re-read, it needs to zap the exec’s memory, reminding her of how excellent you and your show idea are.This book (produced and written for Bloop Animation) is a step-by-step guide to becoming an animator (even if you’ve never animated before). Now, it doesn’t have to be finished art. If you’re an artist, and you can make the character’s personality shine from a rough sketch, that’s okay to share.

Even if you never reveal these aspects of your character to the wider world, doing these exercises will better inform you of your character and the world it inhabits, and in the long-term, help you to create a more personal and rewarding final project. Preston Blair was a predominant animator in his time and worked in many big studios such as Disney and Hanna Barbera. He worked on famous scenes in the original Fantasia such as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the hippo – alligator dance. Because you have to. Seriously. This book is an animator’s bible. It thoroughly covers the basics of spacing, timing, walks, runs, weight, anticipation, overlapping action, takes, stagger, dialogue, animal animation and much more. It’s not called a “survival kit” for nothing. This book will teach you EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW to start your training as an animator.

February 2020 Demo Reel

These techniques are known as the 12 principles of animation. This list, distilled into 12 points by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, has accompanied animators worldwide. Here you'll discuss the world where your animated series takes place and some specific details why that is special or unique and why it affects your characters. Sometimes in a pitch bible, the setting comes before the character section (ex: you need to explain the setting first for your readers to have a better idea of what the characters are going to be like). 5. Episode Synopses/Story Springboards You’d be forgiven for thinking that this book was a Star Wars spinoff the way the author mentions force every few lines. Force is actually a part-philosophical work, part-animation bible which somehow teaches animation principles through the medium of life drawing examples and analysis. The ‘force’ stuff does seem a little cheesy at first but Mattesi uses it as a sort of guiding theme throughout the book which does make it seem much more coherent and pacy.