by John Swanson

Product Name: Ideas for the Animated Short
ISBN: 978-0-240-80860-4
Published: March 2008
Authors: Karen Sullivan, Gary Schumer, Kate Alexander
Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Pages: 280
Current Pricing: US $29.95
Site: www.focalpress.com

This is from the publisher's website:

"Build your skills in the development of story ideas that will command an audience for your 2-5 minute animated short.
Packed with illustrated examples of idea generation, character and story development, acting, dialogue and storyboarding practice this is your conceptual toolkit proven to meet the challenges of this unique art form.
The companion DVD includes in-depth interviews with industry insiders, 18 short animations (many with accompanying animatics, character designs and environment designs) and an acting workshop to get your animated short off to a flying start!"

For a number of years now I’ve been searching through books for information about the art of storytelling. It is an art that is as important, or maybe more important, as the art of animation. Ultimately what is the use of great animation if it is not in the service of telling, at the very least, a story that will hold the viewer's interest? This is the subject of the book. In the words of John Tarnoff, the head of show development at Dreamworks “….without a compelling visual or dramatic narrative the graphical elements ore static, the 3D elements are distracting, and the timeline is boring or frenetic. Every film really needs some form of beginning, middle and end, whether it’s a short tone poem or a character-driven narrative.”

This book is about developing the story for a short film project. You may find yourself armed with all the technical skills to convincingly animate your super-hero, gopher, princess, a couple of tomatoes, or whatever, but might not know where to begin when it comes to putting them in an interesting narrative. This book does not spell out the formula for a successful story, instead one of it’s intended purposes is to point out all the things one should consider when writing a story that an audience will want to sit through. One of the things I came away with after reading the book is that each element we see and hear and are made to feel in a short film are all interconnected in some way. The characters should be designed, their world should be fabricated, and their dialogue (or in the absence of the spoken word - their actions) should work together to form some kind of 'truth'. It is through this truth that the viewer is able to connect with and be affected by what is happening in the story. I find that the ideas and examples found within the text and the DVD go a long way in filling in the blanks and questions you may have when it comes to accomplish this level of 'on the mark' storytelling. This book is a fine place to start to get your creativity flowing when it comes to developing story lines.

This wonderfully illustrated book covers a lot of topics related to the art of storytelling as well as some topics that will help you fine tune your story. You’ll learn things like the important roll of the storyboard to the process as well as a very good introduction to various acting techniques. These acting examples were literally brought to life on the DVD and were a good way to illustrate the acting topics covered in the text.

The above mentioned illustrations are presented graphically in clear B&W drawings and in narratives by ‘guest’ writers who tell us about their professional experiences. Both of these add to the understanding of the topics covered the same way the many short film examples and the interviews on the DVD enhance the reader’s comprehension of what the book is trying to convey.

Character design, the design of the story’s environment and a number of other considerations are all brought together in a way that get’s you thinking about the whole project and how each contributes to the whole. It was nice to see all the different character designs that Sean McNally went through before coming up with the final design for the gopher in ‘Gopher Broke’ From staging to dialogue it’s all covered. I liked the way the topics were explained using examples from animations that we all have probably seen at one time or another.

The DVD interface is navigated using four tabs – ‘Industry Animations’, ‘Student Animations’, ‘Beginning Acting’, and ‘Industry Interviews’. The first one contains three animations ‘Gopher Broke’, ‘The ChubbChubbs’, and ‘Early Bloomer’ as well as a great 2D animatic of ‘Gopher Broke’. There are sixteen inspiring ‘Student Animations’ - many with short ‘making of’ videos, character/environment design or 2D animatics. They cover the entire map of emotions from happy (Eureka) to sad (Our Special Day), from slightly macabre (Respire, Mon Ami) to the whimsical (Noggin) to the hilarious ( A Great Big Robot From Outer Space Ate My Homework). I thought the ‘Beginning Acting’ section help drive home some points made in the text. The ‘Industry Interviews’ are printable text base interviews that provide some great insight into the ‘real world’ aspect of the topics covered – definitely worth reading.

The three authors seem to have pretty impressive backgrounds. Karen Sullivan and Gary Schumer are both on the animation faculty at the Ringling College of Art and Design. Kate Alexander who we see on the DVD, is Associate Director at Florida Studio Theatre and has received a number of awards in acting, directing and public service awards. Together they have put together what I consider a good text and DVD on the topic of story telling that should give you a firm foundation in the development of your animation story ideas. Even if you never plan on writing your own stories this book will help you be a better animator because you will be introduced to the process of storytelling. I know this can only help you get the best acting performance from your character.

Briefly here is a list of the contents of the book:

Why read this book
Telling Stories
Where do Ideas Come From?
Building Stories
Building characters and Locations
The purpose of dialogue
Acting
Staging
Storyboarding
Animatics
Case Studies
Glossary