Preston Blair - Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair, Revised Edition!: Learn Techniques for Drawing and Animating Cartoon Characters

WITH PRESTON BLAIR

FROM THE EDITORS

In 1948, Preston Blair authored and illustrated his first book for Walter Foster Publishing: Animation (now titled Cartooning: Animation 1), which is still in print today. How to Animate Film Cartoons followed years later, and in 1994, both books were combined with new material to create Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair. Although Preston passed away in 1995, his wisdom and legacy lives on decades later in this newly redesigned edition.

A lot has changed since the heyday of Preston Blairs career, when he worked on Disney Films (Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Bambi), Tex Avery cartoons at MGM, and at Hanna-Barbera (including The Flintstones). In 20th-century animation, Preston and his contemporaries employed many different techniques than the ones used today. These included using a metronome to determine the speed of frames of an action, using a stopwatch to time the number of frames per action, animating with cutouts, coloring animation cels, using backgrounds and cel overlays, and filming with an animation camera and a light box. Today, these functions are performed using high-end digital technology.

Yet no matter how much has changed since those early days, the foundational principles for creating believable animated personalities remain. In this book, Preston shows you tried-and-true methods for constructing cartoons, building personality-rich characters, creating basic and complex character movements, animating facial movements for dialogue, and much more. This is the core knowledge one needs to become a successful animator.

We hope you enjoy this new edition of Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair, which will continue to teach generations of aspiring artists the principles of animation for decades to come. Now, please turn the page and read the words of Mr. Blair himself, who will introduce you to his magical world!

The editors of Walter Foster Publishing

This book is dedicated to Hope and Ian, my wife and son.

Preston Blair

Animation is the process of drawing and photographing a charactera person, an animal, or an inanimate objectin successive positions to create lifelike movement. Animation is both art and craft; it is a process in which the cartoonist, illustrator, fine artist, screenwriter, musician, camera operator, and motion picture director combine their skills to create a new kind of artistthe animator.

The art of animators is unique. Animators bring life to their drawings, creating an illusion of spirit and vigor. They caricature the gestures and expressions in the drawings, give them a fantastic array of character and personality, and make us believe that the drawings actually think and have feelings.

This book was written by an animator to help you learn how to animatehow to make a series of drawings that create a sensation of movement when viewed in sequence. The pioneers of the art of animation learned many lessons, most through trial and error, and it is this body of knowledge that has established the fundamentals of animation. This book will teach you these fundamentals.

Animators must first know how to draw; good drawing is the cornerstone of their success. They must be able to dramatize and caricature life while they time and stage their characters actions and reactions. The value of all animators work is determined by the ability of their characters to sway the emotions of their audiencein other words, the characters acting skills. Animators must know how to entertain an audience; how to present gag comedy and how to portray an interesting or unusual happening of life. To do this, they study the great film comedians and read recognized texts on acting. This knowledge helps them to grip their viewers with suspense or make them smile and laugh with humor in the theater of animation.

The animation process, however, involves much more than just good drawing. Animators must have knowledge of the elements of screen writing: plot-setting, premise, character, conflict, crisis, climax, exposition, dialogue, and action. These factors determine the types of personalities, expressions, and actions they will need to create. Moreover, if the animation includes characters moving their mouths in speech or song, animators need a knowledge of phonetics; if it features characters responding to a musical soundtrack, they must have knowledge of music and rhythm. Animators must also know how an animation camera works and how to time the character actions to fit the speed of the film. The list goes on and on; the animators job is immeasurable.

Animation is a vast and virtually unexplored art form. It is, perhaps, more popular today than ever before, and new techniques and methods of animatingincluding computer animationare being developed all the time. There are many characters, styles, and background designs, however, that remain to be discoveredso pick up your pencil and get started!

The curtains part as you turn the pages. The journey will be an exciting and adventurous one.

Best wishes!