Amazon.co.uk have now launched the UK Kindle Store and claim to have the biggest selection and lowest prices of any e-bookstore in the UK. Over 400,000 books are now available for wireless delivery and a search for “animation” lists 444 books on the subject.

Here is our pick from the animation books in the UK Kindle Store:

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Animation from Pencils to Pixels: Classical Techniques for the Digital Animator. 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 help you become a well-rounded animator.

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Timing for Animation. Written by two internationally acclaimed animators, this classic text teaches you all you need to know about the art of timing and its importance in the animated film. This reissue includes a new foreword by John Lasseter, executive vice president of Pixar Animation Studios and director of ‘Toy Story’, ‘Toy Story 2′, ‘A Bug’s Life’ and ‘Monsters Inc.’ He sets the wealth of information in this classic text in context with today’s world of computer animation, showing how this is a must-have text if you want to succeed as a traditional drawn, or computer animator.

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Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model Animation. To make great animation, you need to know how to control a whole world: how to make a character, how to make that character live and be happy or sad. You need to create four walls around them, a landscape, the sun and moon – a whole life for them. You have to get inside that puppet and first make it live, then make it perform. Susannah Shaw provides the first truly practical introduction to the craft skills of model animation. This is a vital book in the development of model animation which, following the success of Aardman’s first full-length film, Chicken Run, is now at the forefront of modern animation.

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Animation: The Mechanics of Motion. Learn the key skills you need with this practical and inspirational guide to all the fundamental principles of animation. With extended pieces on timing, acting and technical aspects, Chris Webster has created the vital learning tool to help you get the most out of your animation and develop the practical skills needed by both professionals and serious students alike.

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How to Make Animated Films: Tony White’s Complete Masterclass on the Traditional Principals of Animation. Become Tony White’s personal animation student. Experience many of the teaching techniques of the golden era of Disney and Warner Brothers studios and beyond.all from the comfort of your own home or studio. Tony White’s Animation Master Class is uniquely designed to cover the core principles of animated movement comprehensively. How to Make Animated Films offers secrets and unique approaches only a Master Animator could share. Includes hands-on Tutorials, demonstrations and final sample animations. . Whether you want to become a qualified animator of 2D, 3D, Flash or any other form of animation, Tony White’s foundations bring you closer to that goal.

The UK Kindle Store also features a vast selection of fiction titles – including New Releases and Bestsellers – from UK authors including Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Martina Cole, Sophie Kinsella and Ken Follett. The selection includes exclusives to the Kindle Store such as contemporary classics from the Wylie Agency’s new Odyssey Editions imprint including Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, John Cheever’s The Stories of John Cheever, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Over 170 top UK and international newspapers and magazines are also available in the UK Kindle store for single purchase or subscription. UK titles in this selection include The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Economist, The Independent, The Financial Times and The Evening Standard. Kindle customers can also subscribe to over 9,000 blogs. All subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle and start with a free 14-day trial.

Oscar and BAFTA-nominated animation director Barry Purves has written a book that teaches the skills required to develop as a creative stop-motion animator or articulated puppet maker. Basics Animation: Stop-motion explores how all the elements of film-making camera work, design, colour, lighting, editing, music and storytelling come together to create animation.

The cover image is taken from the film Madame Tutli-Putli, 2007, discussed in the chapter on puppets.

Barry Purves has packed the book with tips and suggestions to help you get the most out of your own stopmotion films, accompanied by full-colour illustrations and case studies demonstrating how film-making masters through the years have used it in feature films, short films and TV series. Animation students will learn to use and exploit the particular types of movement, characters and stories that characterise stop-motion. Basics Animation: Stop-motion also examines the evolution of stopmotion, from its almost accidental beginnings to a much-loved form of storytelling in its own right one that continues to push boundaries.

Co-director of DreamWorks Animations Oscar-nominated Kung Fu Panda, Mark Osborne, commented: “To say this book is a perfect companion for anyone interested in stop-motion at any level is a tremendous understatement. Even by taking just a cursory glance through the pages, you will find that the wide range of photographic examples alone make this book a must have … As someone who has previously been a teacher in the medium, I am very excited to find a book that would make for a perfect textbook should I ever teach again.”

Final year Animation student Jack Tytherleigh, reviewing the book on Amazon, said: “If I had read this book 3 years ago, I can’t begin to imagine how much stronger my work would be right now. Although focused on Stop motion animation, this is an essential read for animators from all walks of life. It’s difficult to describe exactly what this book is, it is not just simply a reference to various techniques and skills, it is more a recording of over 30 years of experience. Barry Purves delivers a personal look into not only the advantages but also the drawbacks of each style of animation, offering advice and tips from writing to filming and from designing to modelling; there is always something more you can learn page by page. Broken up into sections for quick reference, you will not only develop your skills as an animator but also learn the history of the trade as well as being given practical and imaginative exercises to try out in your own time.”

In a review on Amazon, Hywel P Roberts said: “This book is a treasure to behold, animator or anyone with an interest in stop-motion. Structured in a practical manner, it allows easy access to a wealth of expertise; from someone who has brought an unprecedented amount of life to this art form. Barry gives an insight to the origins of stop-motion and uses a wide range of examples from animation to theatre, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the different process available in the making of a stop-motion animated film, thus allowing the reader to decide on the most suitable approach to bring their story to life.”

Basics Animation: Stop-motion by Barry Purves is available from the Amazon UK book shop.

Preston Blair’s Animation was one of the first books that I added to my animation library many years ago. It is said by many industry professionals to be the best “how to” book on cartoon animation ever published. He went on to produce two more books and all three have been made available free on a website called freetoon.com.

In the introduction to the book Preston Blair said: “The art of animators is unique. Animators bring life to their drawings, creating an illusion of spirit and vigour. 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.”

He continued: “This book was written by an animator to help you learn how to animate-how 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.”

Here is a sample illustration from a page entitled The Dance Kick.

Page from the 1st edition

I was interested to learn that when Blair put the book together in 1947, he used the characters he had animated at Disney and MGM to illustrate the various basic principles of animation. Soon after publication the rights to use some of the characters were revoked. He redrew most of the MGM characters, replacing them with general characters of his own design for the next edition. The complete first edition can be downloaded free from the ASIFA website.

Preston Blair’s Animation 1st Edition Part One
Preston Blair’s Animation 1st Edition Part Two

There is a PDF version of Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation at the On Animation blog.

The good news is that you are already an expert at many things. You have mastered at least one language and have learned to read. By following the technique of learning by doing, you will become an expert animator over time.

The best thing of all is that learning how to animate is great fun. The first time I run a new animation sequence that I have created, I feel like I have performed a magic trick. Maybe it needs a bit more work and polish but the satisfaction is immense.

So what is the special formula that elevates someone to the position of expert in their field? The answer lies in five key stages in the learning process.

When people exhibit a special skill in a particular area such as music, drawing or sport we tend to assume they are naturally gifted. However, scientific research has shown that the differences between experts and less proficient individuals nearly always reflect attributes acquired by the experts during their lengthy training.

Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. Neurologist Daniel Levitin says “In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, this number comes up again and again… It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery… This is true even of people we think of as prodigies”.

The 10,000 hour theory is also supported by the fact that when I was a lad craft apprentices were usually indentured for five years (40 hours a week x 50 weeks x 5 years = 10,000 hours).

If 10,000 hours seems impossible look at it this way: it is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years. Take it one step at a time and eventually you will reach you goal.

Author George Leonard identified five stages in learning in his book Mastery – The Keys To Success:

Key 1: Instruction. There is nothing better than being mentored by a master animator, either in the workplace or as a student. If this is not possible there are many books written by master animators. Also study sequences from the classic animation films, view them one frame at a time to see how it was done.

Key 2: Practice. The more you do something the easier it will become. Whatever you chosen medium, be it drawn, puppets or computer animation, put the knowledge you have gained from instruction into practice. Set yourself a specific goal, such as 10 second sequence, and work towards it. Once you have achieved this set yourself a harder goal.

Key 3: Surrender. Your early attempts at animation are bound to feel clumsy. Don’t let this put you off. Trust in your own ability and follow the guidance of your instructor (be it a mentor, a book or a film clip). Immerse yourself in your animation and keep going.

Key 4: Intentionality. You should bring willpower, attitude and imagination to the learning process. Keep focused and think ahead about what you want to achieve.

Key 5: The Edge. Almost without exception, those we know as masters are dedicated to the fundamentals of their calling. They are zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step. At the same time they are likely to challenge previous limits, to take risks for the sake of higher performance. But before you can play the edge there must be much instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.

Check out the following blog for more info on these key steps: The Five Keys to Mastery.

The 11 Second Club holds a monthly character animation competition in which animators from all over the world can participate. The challenge is to animate a character speaking a line of dialogue provided by the club. During the competition participants can share their progress with each other and evaluate each other’s work. At the end of the month, everyone votes for the submission they consider the best for that month. The idea is to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment.
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Cover of the Morph DVD.

If you are considering having a go at Plasticine animation then an easy way to start is with a “my own Morph” kit from Flair Create.

The Plasticine stop-motion character Morph first appeared on a children’s TV art show called “Take Hart” in 1977. He interacted with the shows presenter Tony Hart, providing short humorous sequences. Much of the action consisted of Morph changing shape, such as rolling into a ball. Or he would disappear into the table top as if sinking into water. These kind of actions suit the medium of Plasticine as it is infinitely changeable.
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Exaggerated squash and stretch is a great way to add amusement and believability to your animation. I have created a demonstration using a bouncing ball made of very flexible rubber.

This demonstrates Newton’s third law of motion, more commonly called action reaction. For every action in one direction, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the opposite direction; even if the object does not move.
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Tristan Oliver.

Director of Photography, Tristan Oliver, demonstrated the secrets behind Aardman’s animated Wallace and Gromit movie “The Curse of the Wererabbit” to a group of 11 year olds in a video clip on the BAFTA website.

In very clear language Tristan takes the children through the process from scripting to animation using clips, real models from the films, drawings and stories. Near the end of the video clip he takes questions from the children who demonstrate a great enthusiasm for the subject.
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Plasticine animation in progress.

Maybe you have been inspired by the adventures of Wallace and Gromit and would like to produce your own animated plasticine films. If you are wondering where to start here is a complete beginner’s guide to plasticine animation.

First some advice from amateur animator Fred O’Neil (writing in Animator’s newsletter issue 4): “Try putting a ball of plasticine in front of the camera, set the camera to single frame, and take one picture only. Taking care not to shift the ball from its original position, squeeze it very slightly, and take another picture. Continuing in this way, the ball you began with will assume various shapes, and in this way you can obtain inspiration. Work patiently and slowly for the whole effect can be spoiled large movements.”
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Model sheets from The Battle of Wangapore.

The basics of classic film animation remain the same whether you are creating a flick book or computer animation. Much can be learned by studying cartoon films frame by frame. Things to look out for are:

Anticipation – before a character moves forward they will make a small movement in the opposite direction.

Cycles – a series of movements such as walking that can be repeated several times.

Squash and stretch – this is best demonstrated by a rubber ball bouncing. When it hits the ground it will flatten slightly. When it bounces up it will return to the round shape and then go elongated. The same effect can be used on cartoon characters when they go through fast moves.
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