The Animator's Survival Kit for the iPad

The Animator's Survival Kit

As every student of animation knows, the best book for learning animation is The Animator's Survival Kit. For over a decade it has been the industry standard textbook. The only problem with the book is you can't see the animation - which is where the iPad version comes in. It's like having both the DVD series and the book rolled into one, because it doesn't just tell you how to do stuff - it shows you how to do it as well.

The Language of Animation

The iPad feels as if it is made specially for a book of this kind. The digital ASK has many of the traditional features of a book - plain text, nice illustrations.  But, as you scroll through the pages, you keep bumping into little video icons, peering out at you invitingly from the pages. Click on these, and you get a video introduction to the chapter, giving a personal view on why it's important to read it, and what you will learn.

Other little icons pull up a short animated video explanation of the principle being addressed - much of this material is pulled from the ASK DVD set. Confused about overlapping action? Ones vs Two's? Straight Ahead vs Pose to Pose? A short video shows you what it all means, and shows you in simple clear terms exactly how these principles get applied in practice.

Scroll bar feature lets you scrub frames in real time

And even the videos are interactive. You can pause them, scroll through them, step through them frame by frame. It's like having the perfect animation tutor right there in the classroom with you, equipped with all the right bits of kit - video, power point, lectures books - but all at your disposal in exactly the format you want. And best of all - you don't have to go to school to learn it.

It all starts with a bouncing ball

It is obvious that a great deal of thought and effort has gone into the presentation. The interface is very easy to get the hang of, and simple to operate. Tap the screen and the chapters are revealed on a scroll bar at the base of the screen - so you can easily navigate to the bits you need. 

In short - it's the best £25 you will spend on any device to help you learn animation. But you have to buy an iPad first, of course.

Here's a list of stuff that comes with it:

1. The Animator’s Survival Kit Expanded Edition - that is to say the whole book - for the iPad
2. More than 100 animated examples of the principles of animation - taken from The Animator’s Survival Kit Animated DVD series, and inserted into the relevant sections of the text. You can slow these down and watch them frame-by-frame.
3. Dad's 50-years-in-the-making Circus Drawings animation
4. Video introductions for the chapters - by the author. 80 this year!
5. "Sensitive navigation", which "fades away gracefully away when not needed"
6. "Onion skinning" - to see multiple frames of animation at once. 

To see other books we recommend for the study of animation and visual effects, click here.

The Animator's Survival Kit - now available as an app for the iPad

The Animator's Survival Kit came out around a decade ago as a book, and a few years later as a DVD set. Since then it has been the leading resource for students wanting to learn animation. Anyone who is serious about the medium should have a copy of the book - until now. Here at Bucks our animation dept has just had a sneak peek at the new The Animator's Survival Kit - as an iPad app. Below is our review of this new electronic addition to the animator's library.

Basically, it's awesome - better than the book, better than the DVD series - as it perfectly combines the best qualities of both. And, at around £25, it costs barely more than the book does. So this is - in short - a huge leap forward for learning animation. My only regret is we can't get a copy for the library here at Bucks. The library does not have iPads - so if you want a copy you'll have to buy the hardware first.

The iPad feels as if it is made specially for this kind of eBook. The digital ASK has many of the traditional features of a book - plain text, nice pictures - so far, so familiar.  But, as you scroll through the pages, you find video introductions to the chapters. Click on these, and you get a personal introduction to the subject by the author, giving his own view on why it's important to read it, and what you will learn.

Other little miniature icons blink at you invitingly - click on these and it pulls up a short animated video explanation of the principle being addressed. Much of this material is taken from the ASK DVD set. Confused about overlapping action? Successive breaking of joints? The importance of using silhouettes? A short video shows you what it all means, and demonstrates in simple clear terms exactly how these principles get applied in practice.

And the videos are highly interactive. It's not like YouTube, where you can't scrub and scroll through the animation, frame by frame. Here, you can pause the video, scroll through it, fast or slow, focus on an individual frame, step through it frame by frame.

It's like having a really great animation tutor right there in the classroom with you, equipped with all the latest bits of kit - video, power point lecture, white board, and good old-fashioned books - but it is all at your disposal in exactly the format you want.

It is obvious that a great deal of thought and effort has gone into the presentation. The interface is very easy to get the hang of, and simple to operate. Tap the screen and the chapters are revealed on a scroll bar at the base of the screen - so you can easily navigate to the bits you need. 

In short - it's the best £25 you will spend on any device to help you learn animation. But you have to buy the iPad first, of course.

---Alex

PS Here's a list of stuff you get with it:

1. The Animator’s Survival Kit Expanded Edition - that is to say the whole book - for the iPad
2. More than 100 animated examples of the principles of animation - taken from The Animator’s Survival Kit Animated DVD series, and inserted into the relevant sections of the text. You can slow these down and watch them frame-by-frame.
3. Dad's 50-years-in-the-making Circus Drawings animation
4. Video introductions for the chapters - by the author. 80 this year!
5. "Sensitive navigation", which "fades away gracefully away when not needed"
6. "Onion skinning" - to see multiple frames of animation at once.

The 10,000 Hour Rule - why practice makes perfect

It is a cliche that practice makes perfect, but in his 2008 book Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell argues that in order for any person to become really good at any cognitively-challenging task, they have to practice a lot. 10,000 hours-worth of practice, in fact.

His argument is simple. Getting good at something takes time. By way of example, he cites the case of The Beatles who performed live in a club in Hamburg more than 1200 times from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time, and thereby getting really, really good at what they did.

Gladwell also cites the example of Bill Gates, who met the 10,000-Hour Rule when he gained access to a high school computer in 1968 at the age of just 13, and spent 10,000 hours programming on it.

Gladwell argues that the key to success in any field is largely a matter of practicing, with the proviso that you need constructive feedback so you don't simply practice your mistakes.  So, doing some simple sums, if you practice something for 20 hours a week, it will take you around 10 years to get really expert at it.

Malcolm Gladwell. Photo: Kris Krüg

Gladwell also notes that he himself took exactly 10 years to meet the 10,000-Hour Rule, working as a journalist at the American Spectator magazine and The Washington Post, polishing his craft as a writer.

Animation is no different. Getting good at it takes time and diligence. The Nine Old Men at the Disney Studio became the best by virtue of years of practice, competition - and being pushed by Walt to be the very best they could be.

It's the same for all of us. My father understood this when - in his mid-40's - he brought legendary Hollywood animators Art Babbitt and Ken Harris to his London studio to train his staff - and himself. Below is a picture of Dad taken when I was a kid.

So is a 3 year BA at University enough time to get really good? Well, let's do the sums. Add up the hours of formal teaching you get at university (around 16 hours a week) and multiply that over the course of 3 years, not forgetting to exclude the holidays, and you end up with around 1,500 hours. In other words, it's probably not enough.

So what is the answer? The solution, of course, is to practice in your own time. Consider the tutition you get at University to be just the beginning of the time you will need to invest to get really good at what you do. It's a springboard, and an opportunity to get great feedback, but time spent in the classroom is not the whole story.

The good news is this: if you are prepared to invest the time and effort to practice your craft, you will in all likelihood get really, really good at it.

And, if you don't believe me, buy Malcom's book and read it for yourself.

----Alex