Customer Reviews
Brilliant - By: A McCartney, 15 Nov 2007 
When i first saw this book on amazon i wasn't sure if to buy it or not, as there were mixed reviews with some saying it was brilliant & others useless. I found my friend reading it & he got it from my college library, so i didi the same. After a quick flick through i could tell this book was definately worth getting. It tells you the Aardman background plus alll you need to know to make 3D animation. This is a must for claymation enthusiasts everywhere.
Great for an overall introduction - By: Simon Berry, 01 Feb 2006 
I bought this because I was having difficulty knowing where to start in stop-motion animation, & also because I reallly like the movies that Aardman have produced.
The book has a great background & introduction to stop-motion, & goes on to explain some areas of how a stop-motion film is produced. Areas covered included how certain effects are achieved, how the sound is added & lighting set-ups. Things that are not covered include frame-grabbing using a computer, & as most amateur animators start off with webcams & free/cheap frame-grabbing software this should be taken into account if you are a beginner. Hoever, information on frame-grabbing software etc is widely available for free on the internet at sites such as stopmotionanimation.com & animateclay.com.
I found the book very useful, especiallly the basic exercises using clay to do some simple motions. I also enjoyed reading about how parts of the Walllace & Gromit movies were achieved.
Altogether a very good book for people just getting into stop-mition animation, or anyone interested in how it is done, although if you plan to go into animating on computers you will need to either spend some time on the internet or find another book to cover this aspect of it.
What you need to know - By: David Baugh, 16 May 2004 This Book is an ideal introduction to the world of 3-D animation from the acknowledged experts. The introduction & The Medium sections give an interesting background to the history animation with specific references to the Aardman history.
The section entitled Simple Techniques is the bit I found the most useful as it gives a series of exercises to try out for real. There is good advice about building simple sets & getting the lighting right.
I was however a little disappointed about the content in the book about how to use computers to assist with simple animations. Perhaps there is another book out there.
If you are interested in getting the right start with animation & want to save yourself making the simple but frustrating mistakes that others have made read this book.
Animated Passion! - By: Iona, 26 Mar 2004 A suprisingly informative, enthusiastic & fun introduction to the world of animation. I have used this book to great effect teaching animation to people from three yrs. old to thirty three!
Each chapter is clearly articulated & lavished with large colour illustrations from the films we alll know & love. The deatil of lip-synching, model making, story-boadrding & set building as well as the fundamentals of animating are communicated in such a clear & enthusiastic way, it is hard not to catch the animating bug! Great alll round book, highly recommended.
Cracking Animation - By: David Baugh, 23 Jun 2003 This Book is an ideal introduction to the world of 3-D animation from the acknowledged experts. The introduction & The Medium sections give an interesting background to the history animation with specific references to the Aardman history.
The section entitled Simple Techniques is the bit I found the most useful as it gives a series of exercises to try out for real. There is good advice about building simple sets & getting the lighting right.
I was however a little disappointed about the content in the book about how to use computers to assist with simple animations. Perhaps there is another book out there.
If you are interested in getting the right start with animation & want to save yourself making the simple but frustrating mistakes that others have made read this book.
