Best Books for Animators
Any animator worth their salt should always be eager to learn more - at the same time, it can be tricky to know where to start. So whether you’re a beginner, a veteran or somewhere in between, here are my recommendations for books to keep your animation skills fresh.
The Human Figure in Motion & Animals in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge
It is a testament to the remarkable achievement of pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge that his body of work, created in the late 19th century, is still arguably one of the best resources for animation reference available today. With his sequential photographs, Muybridge captured the motion of people and animals perfoming a wide variety of movements in incredible detail, revolutionising our understanding of movement and catalysing the development of the motion picture.
These books are invaluable for animators looking for detailed life reference for walk cycles, jumps and other tricky actions. The collection sometimes needs a discerning eye - in the process of editing Muybridge's work for print, a few of the sequences have ended up in an unintuitive order - but the sheer volume of information makes this an invaluable addition to an animator's survival kit.
Speaking of which...
The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams
If you buy just one book on this list, make it this one. In fact, I'd say it's probably the most useful resource anybody looking to learn animation could possibly get their hands on - more so even than fancy software or state-of-the-art hardware.
This book is essentially a crash course in animation, heavily illustrated and annotated, by one of the best in the business: Richard Williams (director of animation on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”). It has a pitch perfect learning curve, starting small with classic exercises like the bouncing ball and leading up to advanced techniques.
Even if you're an experienced animator and concepts such as "the twelve principles" are old news to you, there's a magnitude of learning to glean from this book. The sheer amount of reference material has me dipping back into it on a regular basis, especially when constructing walks or lipsyncing for dialogue.
As a product of an earlier era in animation, it discusses concepts in terms of the pencil-and-paper process, but by no means let that put you off. The teaching Williams imparts is just as relevant to digital animation, with concepts such as drawing "on ones" or "on twos" - a staple of the analogue process - still at play in contemporary animation, such as in Sony's "Spider-Verse" series.
Get this book. You will not regret it!
The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
While The Animator's Survival Kit was authored by a mentee of Disney's "nine old men," this book comes straight from two of the horse's mouths themselves - Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. If you haven't heard these names before, you might still recognise them from their cameo in Pixar's The Incredibles, a poignant tip of the hat from director Brad Bird to two inimitable titans of the craft.
This book is less of a textbook and more of a lush, coffee table affair. It focusses on the history of animation at Disney as much as the principles of the process, and while also bursting with illustrations, it tells just as much as it shows (the prose is much more dense than Williams'). If The Animator's Survival Kit is your Bible, think of this as your Illustrated Bible - it won't be the book you reach for on a practical day-to-day basis, but it will absorb you in its richness.
Making Comics by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud, renowned comics theorist and artist, first revolutionised our understanding of the form with "Understanding Comics," and in this follow-up he breaks down the creative process itself in impressive detail. Although this book isn’t focused on animation, I've gleaned a wealth of knowledge from it when it comes to visual storytelling, from composition and choice of frame to pacing and choice of moment.
My favourite chapter, "Stories for Humans,” breaks down how to convey a narrative through character design, body language and facial expression. It's a fantastic resource for learning about performance, with McCloud outlining the vast spectrum of human emotion (and how it is expressed) in comprehensive detail. I find myself returning again and again to the wealth of visual reference in this section, especially when I'm planning a tricky bit of character performance.
Ollie Hayes is an animator and co-director at Steel Magpie.