Customer Reviews

Cracking Animation: The Aardman Book of 3-D Animation

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
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Length:: 1:06 Mins

This is sort of a behind-the-scenes book that looks at animation production inside the famous Aardman Studios, creators of successful Wallace and Gromit films, Chicken Run and others.

The perspective is that of Aardman Studios so this book focuses on stop-motion animation. The 3-D in the title means the physical 3D, the actual construction of stuff, as compared to computer generated 3D (only a small section is on that).

The book starts with a long but interesting history of animation, right from the day stop motion was used for films up to the recent releases for Aardman Studios.

The second part jumps into the more technical side of making animation. There are chapters on basic clay animation, model makings, set designs, animating movements and expressions and using CGI. These are all furnished with lots of great pictures and insightful commentary from the staff. It's difficult not to marvel at the ingenuity behind making these animation. There are explanation on the camera tricks used, on how to create enduring characters on paper and in clay, and other production stories.

The final part looks at film making in depth, from scripting to animating, including thoughts given to creating other related content like games and websites. Several films were used as mini case studies, such as the early Peter Lord's Adam, Curse of the Were-rabbit, Chicken Run and other lesser known films.

This is a very insightful book on stop-motion animation, and on how Aardman Studios make theirs. Recommended to fans and enthusiasts.

(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I have been describing this book as a book that has changed my life. As an aspiring clay animator I have learned tons of tricks and feel so much more confident to get out there and move my clay!

He loves all things Aardman right now, and this book is perfect to let him read even more about their history, films and background, and is already giving us ideas about how to do our own stop motion animation!

this is a fantastic book for any budding animator. I got it for my 8 year old son who had completed a one week trick-box course over the summer and he has dived straight in. It explains many important processes and shows relevant examples etc. and most of these are from the well know aardman studios animations like wallace and gromit & shaun the sheep, which i believe was the inspiration for my sons animation in the first place. I too find the book very interesting and cant wait to get animating with my son on some of the projects he has planned.

nick elliott
loudBANG! design

My son is into animation and has even created some of his own and he was thrilled to get this book. Very informative.

Arrived on time, in great condition.

This present has given my daughter hours of pleasure and assisted her in developing her modelling skills....

Bought as a present for a teenage cartoonist and it went down very well. An informative, interesting and fun book about the subject and plenty of background on the Aardman studios.

I bought this for a friend of 12 who loves animation and making his own films, he said it was the best birthday present and just what he wanted! It's a great book for those into animation, he loved looking at it and is into doing his own animation using stuff with guidance from the book.

Does what it says on the box!!! An excellent book, very informative and looks at many different aspects of the animators` tasks/roles. Explains the background and history to some animation. Not so techinical that you need a degree but not dumbed-down either. A great book for anyone just interested in the subject or keen to perhaps look at where and how to start a career in animation. Highly recommended. Absolutely Cracking!

Bought this for my nephew who's keen on modelling and animation who found this very interesting and informative. He took great pleasure in showing me how different characters and effects can be created and proceeded to put some into practice. Great buy for anyone interested in 3D animation