The future of the book is a hot topic amongst academics speculating  
on the battle between the worlds of print and images and sounds:  
where established traditional book publishers look on, as the new  
boys on the block, the media wiz kids and their electronic frenzy,  
are encroaching on their publishing territory. Completely electronic  
books are evolving and print books continue to be published; but  
what is really fascinating, is where print and electronic books meet  
and converge.

One such book is Animation A Handy Guide by Sheila Graber, published  
by A & C Black, which comprises an illustrated printed book together  
with a DVD. Pick up the book, put the DVD into your computer and  
click on the PC or Mac version file and your screen will show you an  
electronic image of the book. Moving between the print and screen  
book, you can begin a journey through a complex multimedia story,  
working on many levels that provide a variety of pathways through  
the words, images and sounds, as animation is explored. This book is  
invaluable, whether you are interested in animation, or multimedia  
story making. Sheila Graber combines and converges words and images,  
by using words sparingly. Full single pages of text exist, but  
interestingly, not in the printed book. Animation A Handy Guide is  
the most exquisitely constructed story combining words and images  
and sounds, and provides an innovative instance of multimedia story  
making.

The unusual approach used in this book will give you another way of  
thinking about and experiencing animation. Sharing stories with each  
other takes many forms and Animation A Handy Guide by Sheila Graber  
intertwines three ways of thinking about and understanding the  
evolution and creation of animation: as an historical development,  
as a ‘how to’ development of skills, and as a personal experience.  
The convergence of these three dimensions results in a dynamic book,  
which pulls you in and carries you along on a journey that is  
labyrinthine.

The history of animation is presented as a colourful backdrop  
providing context and delight; the animation techniques are a  
journey of discovery; and the sharing of the personal animation  
experience of the author, encourages the reader to consider  
themselves and their own potential works. This is achieved by  
focussing on twenty key events in animation history from cave art to  
the development of three dimensional computer generated images: and  
for each of these key events the reader is at first given a written  
and visual historical account of the animation invention or  
discovery that took place, and then shown how to use the resulting  
techniques to create animations for themselves, and finally shown  
how the author used these animation processes herself: And all this  
is before you take into account the DVD.

The DVD follows the book structure, and each page is seen on screen,  
but the book is now in a non-linear, interactive and networked  
environment and so it takes on a new life. The action buttons are  
very clear and easy to use and the pathways are seemingly endless.  
The animation movies referred to in the printed book can now be  
activated from the screen book; but in addition to this there are  
other ‘small movies’, for example, a documentary about how an  
animation is made, to be seen before the ‘big movie’ of the  
animation itself: Or a movie showing ‘how to achieve a particular  
technique’: Or an animated flick book. Every section also has extra  
information as text or illustrated text, which elaborate on the  
history, act as ‘how to’ animation guides, or relate to Sheila  
Grabers’s own works. Apart from the interactivity facilitated by the  
structure of the DVD enabling various pathways and layers of  
different kinds of knowledge presented in a variety of ways: the  
screen book is also networked in that there are ‘live’ web links  
that can take the reader to other vast areas of information and  
knowledge about animation.

There may be a question in your mind about whether a printed and  
screen book are both needed. My answer would be absolutely yes. One  
situates and reinforces the other. The printed and screen book offer  
different sorts of reading experiences. One is linear and the other  
is non-linear, interactive and networked and this changes the  
relationship of the reader to the book. The printed book is a  
beautifully illustrated overview of the whole concept and  
permanently present providing context and navigation. It acts as an  
anchor, for instance, while working on one of the screen pages, you  
can easily scan the printed book backwards and forwards, while the  
page you are concerned with stays on screen. On a screen you can  
only see one page at a time, and if you have clicked forward several  
times while reading and interacting you have to come out of the  
emersion with the book to click back to try to find out where you  
were, no such problem with the printed book beside you. This is a  
perfect partnership between a print and electronic book.

Animation A Handy Guide is about visual imagery and has been  
beautifully illustrated throughout with thoughts expressed through  
words and images often superimposed over each other in a  
symbolically rich, converged verbal and visual language. The  
accompany DVD provides an audiovisual dimension bringing the works  
from the page to the screen. This is a fascinating and stimulating  
mixed media experience. If you want to create stories through  
animation, this book must join the others that you have on your  
bookshelf because it offers a freshly innovative approach, which is  
inspirational. If this is your first book on animation then you are  
about to enter a magical world.

Carol Lorac
Co-Director London Multimedia Lab, LSE