"From traditional to computer animation, from film to gaming, a great text for all who teach."
- Robert Adams, Walt Disney Productions/Warner Bros

"All encompassing"
- Brian Martin, FOX NET Animator

this book is a well-written, smart tomes that makes you wish the author was one of your teachers in school. Because the book resonates with wisdom that comes with spending years in the trenches of Toon Town, it should be a must-read for anyone who wants to brave the waters of digital animation Overall, its a handsome companion to Whites earlier primer, The animators Workbook. Animation, Nov. 2006

Just add talent! Award-winning animator Tony White brings you the ultimate book for digital animation. Here you will find the classic knowledge of many legendary techniques revealed, paired with information relevant to today’s capable, state-of-the-art technologies. White leaves nothing out. What contemporary digital animators most need to know can be found between this book’s covers - from conceptions to creation and through the many stages of the production pipeline to distribution. This book is intended to serve as your one-stop how-to animation guide. Whether you’re new to animation or a very experienced digital animator, here you’ll find fundamentals, key classical techniques, and professional advice that will strengthen your work and well-roundedness as an animator. Speaking from experience, White presents time-honored secrets of professional animation with a warm, masterly, and knowledgeable approach that has evolved from over 30 years as an award-winning animator/director.The book’s enclosed CD-ROM presents classic moments from animation’s history through White’s personal homage to traditional drawn animation, "Endangered Species."

Using movie clips and still images from the film, White shares the ’making of’ journal of the film, detailing each step, with scene-by-scene descriptions, technique by technique. Look for the repetitive stress disorder guide on the CD-ROM, called, "Mega-hurts." Watch the many movie clips for insights into the versatility that a traditional, pencil-drawn approach to animation can offer. The valuable CD-ROM contains a complete animated film made by the author and teaches how to apply the techniques in this book! This work features a chock full of tips and secrets from this award-winning animation veteran. The glossary of animation-related terms is worth its weight in gold.

Tony White is a British Academy-Award-winning director and animator with two television specials and over 200 television commercials to his name. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Animator’s Workbook; and the author of Focal’s Animation: From Pencils to Pixels. White’s award-winning credits include teh Pink Panther Strikes Again for the Richard Williams’ studio. He lives in Washington State where he currently teaches at the DigiPen Institute of Technology and is the founding director of The Animaticus Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection, education, and evolution of traditional, hand-drawn animation (www.animaticus.com).

Just add talent!

Award-winning animator Tony White brings you the ultimate book for digital animation. Here you will find the classic knowledge of many legendary techniques revealed, paired with information relevant to today’s capable, state-of-the-art technologies.

White leaves nothing out. What contemporary digital animators most need to know can be found between this book’s covers - from conceptions to creation and through the many stages of the production pipeline to distribution. This book is intended to serve as your one-stop how-to animation guide. Whether you’re new to animation or a very experienced digital animator, here you’ll find fundamentals, key classical techniques, and professional advice that will strengthen your work and well-roundedness as an animator.

Speaking from experience, White presents time-honored secrets of professional animaton with a warm, masterly, and knowledgeable approach that has evolved from over 30 years as an award-winning animator/director.

The book’s enclosed CD-Rom presents classic moments from animation’s history through White’s personal homage to traditional drawn animation, "Endangered Species." Using movie clips and still images from the film, White shares the ’making of’ journal of the film, detailing each step, with scene-by-scene descriptions, technique by technique. Look for the repetitive stress disorder guide on the CD-Rom, called, "Mega-hurts." Watch the many movie clips for insights into the versatility that a traditional, pencil-drawn approach to animaton can offer.

* Valuable DVD contains a complete animated film made by the author and teaches how to apply the techniques in this book!
* Chock full of tips and secrets from this award-winning animation veteran
* The glossary of animation-related terms is worth its weight in gold

a little bit of everything

This book has a little bit of everything where animation is concerned. It has a lot of solid advice, though it can get wordy at times. This book touches on many concepts that other books go into with greater depth. You sort of follow the author through the production of his pet animated product, and the author teaches the principles of animation and animation production as we follow along, though the author himself admits many of the concepts he teaches on aren’t even adhered to in his own production. If you are interested in animation and want to take a nosedive into this world, give this book a whirl. If you are truly seeking in-depth animation techniques, look elsewhere.

Wonderful! A current and deep book!

Wonderful! A current and deep book! A book that shows the whole technique of the contemporary animation. Written by one of the great names of the animation. It is a wonderful reference for everybody that love animation. Pretty!

Extremely helpful book by Mr White

I’m glad Mr Tony White wrote this book because in it he doesn’t shy away from the fact that traditional 2D animation is an art superior to computer animation. He doesn’t hit anyone over the head with that view. He doesn’t have to; it makes itself known on nearly every page.

As one who is utterly bored by the digital revolution I am glad there are still skilled men like Tony White out there showing us the fundamentals of an art that may (or may not) be on the verge of extinction. His first book, THE ANIMATOR’S WORKBOOK is a masterpiece, a work in a class by itself, and is one book that I wished I had had when I was still young. Had I had that book in my hands in my formative years I have little doubt that I would have made a career in animation. That fine book cannot be recommended too highly and every aspiring tradional animator should have it.

This new book is excellent, too, in that it tries to keep the art of 2D alive while acknowledging the fundamentals of the current hot toy, 3D computer-based animation. For those in the 3D world who want to break away from the infantile and over-the-top productions currently in vogue and wish to bring back (if that is possible) some genuine art into this new animation realm this book will be a godsend. For many reasons this book is to be highly recommended. It shows again what a fine skill the author has, and it has inspired even me at this late stage in my life to begin to learn tradional animation. Buy it.

If I have one gentle criticism to make regarding this excellent book, it would be that the authors and book editors need to know that the reading public is growing increasingly tired of reading "he or she" when simply "he" will do nicely. Have we not all now grown up enough to realize that women are not offended when the pronoun "he" is used only, and that it is totally unnecessary to include a "she" after every "he"? Gosh, I hope so.

Lastly, the cd that was enclosed with the book included a delightful little production called "Endangered Species", Mr White’s lament to an art being lost. On my copy the narration was recorded so low that I could not hear what was being spoken. Hopefully future editions will correct this problem.

A dream and an number 2 pencil will take you anywhere

I have studied animation for the last several years. I am a Flash designer specializing in E-learning in the Seattle market. I am not just a casual reader of this topic.

Why I like this book. When you go to school for animation you have a lot of stuff thrown at you and no matter how good your notes are you can not remember it all. You need to refresh your skills. This book was not only good at that but also much more. It is a fun read, an interesting read.

This book covers the complete process from picking up the pencil to marketing/distribution. Tony knows his stuff, he should he has been a professional animator for many years and you have probably seen his works. If you have seen the Pink Panther Strikes Again ("does your dog bite?") you have, he did all the animation for the film.

Traditional animation is an art form and it seems like it is finally getting some of the respect it deserves. 3D is the rage these days, Pixel does an excellent job and nobody does it better, unfortunately there are more bad 3D feature films than good. Even Disney is hiring back some traditional animators and creating some old school, that’s cool.

If you want to learn animation pick up this book and The Illusion of Life and you will learn so very much. But the learning process also requires doing. Like the saying goes, "A dream and a number 2 pencil will take you anywhere".

Keith Johnson
Manager of the Seattle Flash User Group
Flash Animator/ E-Learning Specialist

Great Material for Every CG Animator

Lacking an understanding of traditional 2D animation skills is a complaint many times heard when talking with CG Animation studio employers. They’ll tell you that plenty would-be animators know how to click the right button in the software, but far fewer understand the foundational concepts and principles of WHAT they’re doing and WHY. If you’re looking for a well-written title on the subject of applying classic animation techniques and principles to the digital world, ’Pencils to Pixels’ is an excellent resource. Covering story development, the rules of filmmaking, the principles of animation, and an overview of creating 2D animation from start to finish, the book should fill in many of the ’gaps’ new 3D animators possess simply due to not coming from a 2D traditional animation background.

No need for this book though

The Animator’s Workbook will do you just fine.
This book does go over the tried and true traditional principles and how they are implemented in the digital animation environment.
Let’s face it there are hundreds of Animation Software Suites to choose from. I doubt this book will cover them all only the most well know and popular Animation Software packages.

You are better off Just buying a user’s manual if you already own the software mentioned in this book and get a more thorough book on Animation. The few software suites this book mentions are Toonboom Studio,Adobe Flash(formerly known as Macromedia Flash). I don’t remember all the details.

However if you are an absolute newbie to digital animation this book is a nice start in the right direction.

Don’t get me wrong Tony White knows his stuff I just don’t think this book will reveal much of anything new about animation if you are experienced with Animation Software and the logic behind it’s interface.

I recommend you borrow this book from a library before you decide to buy it.

The best book on making an animated film. period

The ultimate book for digital 2d animators, I cant imagine having a better animation related book.

Even though this book is mainly aimed at animators, it covers the entire production process for an animated film. The book covers writing, storyboarding, animatics, soundtrack recording, animation, and even 3d modeling. I was very impressed by the detail in the book, for instance one chapter (the rules of filmmaking) has 141 pages devoted to camera angles, and traditional film editing exclusively. The book is especially of interest to independent animators who want to make an animated film from start to finish with the use of the computer. However pretty much anyone with an interest in animation would like this book.

Animation from Pencils to Pixels is by far my favorite animation book.

Good Book a little to basic

I’m a professional 3D artist in Chile, i bought this book thinking that it’s was going to be a big help to improve my working piplines but i think is better for students of 3D animation because is to general, but that doesnt mean that is a bad book, i think that it will help in some areas but in animation in general i recomend animation survival kit of Richard Williams.

Great for Students!

Students of animation! This book is essential for your home or studio shelf. Animation From Pencils to Pixels is a comprehensive overview of animation production for the digital animator. As a text book it covers the lot - the mechanics of animation, funding your projects, the traditional aspects (yes, they’re still important), new tools and methods, the business and copyright of your work, getting the concept and where to go with it. It is a classy tome well laid out and encourages you to read on easily. Other books on animation go into more depth concerning the specifics in animation but for an overall appreciation of the art and industry you can’t go past this one. It is a good companion book to The Animator’s Survival Kit (can I mention that?) which has more depth on the nitty-gritties of animated movement. My only criticism is the "I, I, I...." stance of the author. But with the profile and experience that Tony has there is a lot here to learn from, while in the early years of discovering the art of animating.

Pencils and Pixels and Great Animation

Tony White is one of the best Animators and instructors writing books and sharing his knowledge on his website and in animation magazines. This is another great book by him. I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot about digital cartoon animation. Well worth the price.

I still miss my pencil

Tony White’s new book is a good bridge for us older animators making the transition from pencil and paper to pixels and Pixar. He outlines the whole process extremely well.
The only problem is that, these days, all the big studios are falling over each other to churn out digital animated features that look more and more the same.
Technology is all very well, but if it leads film makers to ignore the essential creative ingredients of story, story and more story, the whole animation industry will collapse like an overbaked souffle.
It might be unfashionable to laud the old Disney features these days, but they still stand head and shoulders over the current offerings.
I still miss my pencil.

An awesome Book

I found this an easy to follow book. My son was thinking of a career in Animation and was looking to get a deeper insight into the subject. Well it certainly excited him to the point where he can’t wait to begin studying. This book was so much fun and easy to follow. We all enjoyed it so much - you just have to read it! It is definitely a ’must have’.

An excellent overview by an excellent author.

The long-awaited sequel to Tony White’s ANIMATOR’S WORKBOOK is worth the wait.
ANIMATION FROM PENCILS TO PIXELS is unique among animation books since artwork from White’s short film ENDANGERED SPECIES is used to illustrate most of the sections of the book, though some student work is also included. Some material from THE ANIMATOR’S WORKBOOK is repeated, mainly in the sections that deal with action analysis. White has included valuable chapters on Flash and vector-based 2D animation. While drawing is clearly his first love there are also chapters on CGI ’3D’ animation written from the perspective of a professional animator.
The massive book (over 500 pages long) is readable and easy to navigate. Images are large and well-placed (this has been a notable failing in many animation how-to books.)
It’s quite ambitious to incorporate preproduction, production, and post in two media into one volume. If you want a good, well written overview of animation production in the 21st century, this is the book to get.
I would like to see ENDANGERED SPECIES on a full DVD copy; the PDF format in the original edition is a bit hard to play on this computer.