Stop Motion Animation is also known as "Puppet Animation". You may have seen it before .... movies like Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicken Run, and the classic works by master stop motion animator, Ray Harryhausen. You also may have seen stop motion used in TV commercials, like the Brisk Iced Tea spots (Bruce Lee, James Brown, etc.) or the Chevron talking cars commercials. Stop Motion uses real miniature puppets fabricated from various materials like foam rubber, plastics, metal, or clay (like Gumby or the singing California Raisens). The puppets are about the size of a Barbie-type doll with an internal wire or jointed skeleton. Using a movie camera or video cam, the puppets/figures are placed in front of camera, then the arms, legs, head, etc. are incrementally moved (animated) frame by frame. When the film or video is played back at regular speed, the puppets appear to be moving on their own.
Having been involved with stop motion, doing professional work for about 16 plus years, I can tell you that "how-to" information about this esoteric and arcane animation art/craft is indeed very rare today. This is because "computer animation" techniques are now dominating the animation market and the public does not see the hand crafted works of stop motion animation, as often. Susannah Shaw's book includes difficult to find information about the overall production aspects of Stop Motion/Puppet Animation. At the time of this review, there are no other books that covers the entire stop motion process as well as this book does. Do a search on the internet and you will see that published books specifically about stop motion production, are almost non-existent. If the author cannot cover a particular area in depth, she has provided a very comprehensive appendix of resources, materials, suppliers, and other informational sources where you can find out more about Stop Motion Animation. This book is a great introduction for beginners, students, intermediates and for schools or universities who wish to cover this unique animation craft in their curriculum. Get it now while it is available and you can help keep Stop Motion ALIVE in the new millennium!
You should also add these other books to your animation library: "Creating 3D Animation" by Peter Lord; "The Animators Survival Kit" by Richard Williams; and "Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas" by Thompson & Burton.