Practice! Going to see if I start some animation soon, really like doing the studies, and can already tell it's going to help me in the future, so...might keep to just pure draftsmanship for now (till I finish the Hultgren book). Plus, this Da Vinci character has me fascinated.
Did get Animation Crash Course by Eric Goldberg; absolutely fantastic. Comes with a disc that's referred to now and then for different exercises, similar to those "Teach yourself to play guitar books" that give you notes on the page, as well as the words and refer you to the disc for the music and instruction.
The execution of it is also very fascinating. It's launched from an .exe, so they're not just files lazily dumped onto a disc. You get this very nice gui to interact with; a pleasant purple. The best part (believe it or not that wasn't it) is that you can pause these videos of...a hand picking up a pencil or a slow-out of someone being surprised. You can actually go in, and stop at frame 1, 3, 5, 7, 16, or 23. As opposed to doing it on your own by putting it into some editing program, stretching out the time line, trying to get each click to go frame by frame in a 24fps format and guessing where each breakdown went; it's all here! not guesswork!
Just fantastic.
It has a foreword by Brad Bird, only a couple of paragraphs, but cool nonetheless. What's great about the book, it's that, it's not only technical (think Preston Blair) it also touches base on cinematography rules like the classic "180 rule" and also...something I found particularly useful, it actually explains layout very well, something other books would only glaze over.
Definitely a must have for anyone considering animation. Plus, it's by Eric Goldberg, c'mon, 'nuff said.
I'm contemplating getting the Richard Williams Animation Survival Kit on DVD, saw some clips that were recorded at Blue Sky, and it's marvelous. It's ridiculously expensive though, about one grand last time I saw. Barnacles...
