Animation art
by Jerry Beck
Flame Tree Publishing (27 Aug 2004)


Animation art provides a visual encyclopaedia of the history of animation. It includes animations of many different types from 3D special effects crafted by Maya or flash, stop motion done through objects or puppetry and hand drawn work from children’s cartoons to experimental art works in many different mediums. One of the books strongest points is that it is highly visual ,there are plenty of images to keep it visually pleasing, At the same time as being highly informative.

It is organised chronologically starting at the earliest examples of animation and moving chapter by chapter, a decade at a time right up to the present day. Each chapter shows visual examples of the works and provides both a brief history of the producer and cultural context for the animation. For example there is a section on Disney’s cartoons during world-war two, the section includes the difference in Disney’s techniques at the time there role in producing propaganda and examples of German and soviet propaganda. A more modern example would be the books insight into how animation has shaped today’s adult culture with cartoons such as 'The Simpsons' ‘South park’ and 'Beavis and Butthead'
One of the interesting things about the book is that it covers works from all over the planet, there is Hungarian examples that describes the path that their animation was taking at the time of Disney’s formation this is still shown despite the fact that Disney was the focus of the animation world at that point. Because of animations many applications, the book covers animation in advertisements, entertainment and its application within live action film as special effects.
The book showcases work from well-known studios as well as a few less well-known private animators and their contribution to animation as a whole.
The book has been very useful in my work as it provides excellent reference material as well as a source of inspiration of what others have done. An amore detailed look into it has allowed me to broaden my knowledge of animation and what it can be. This is useful for finding new works to use as examples in my essays