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Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, the World of Cartoon, Anime, and CGI 1st (first) Edition by Beck, Jerry published by Harper Design
Table of contents, introduction, forewords by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Bill Plympton, references, index. Color and black and white illustrations throughout. 382, 2 pages. stiff paper wrappers. 4to..
Paperback
First published August 27, 2004
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About the author
Jerry Beck
73 books25 followersJerry Beck (born February 9, 1955 in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. The author or editor of several books on classic American animation and classic character, including The 50 Greatest Cartoons (1994), The Animated Movie Guide (2005), Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons! (2007), The Flintstones: The Official Guide to the Cartoon Classic (2011), The Hanna-Barbera Treasury: Rare Art Mementos from your Favorite Cartoon Classics (2007), The SpongeBob SquarePants Experience: A Deep Dive into the World of Bikini Bottom (2013), Pink Panther: The Ultimate Guide (2005), and Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons (with Will Friedwald, 1989). He is also an authority on the making of modern films, with his books detailing the art of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, DreamWorks' Madagascar, and Bee Movie. Beck is also an entertainment industry consultant for TV and home entertainment productions and releases related to classic cartoons and operates the blog "Cartoon Research." He appears frequently as a documentary subject and audio commentator on releases of A&E's Cartoons Go To War as well as DVD collections of Looney Tunes, Popeye the Sailor, and Woody Woodpecker cartoons, on which he serves a consultant and curator.
Early in his career, Beck collaborated with film historian Leonard Maltin on his book Of Mice and Magic (1980), organized animation festivals in Los Angeles, and was instrumental in founding the international publication Animation Magazine. In the 1990s, Beck taught course on the art of animation at UCLA, NYU, and The School of Visual Arts. In 1993, he became a founding member of the Cartoon Network advisory board and he currently serves as president of the ASIFA-Hollywood board. He co-produced or was a consultant on many home entertainment compilations of Looney Tunes, MGM Cartoons, Disney Home Video, Betty Boop, and others. In 1989, he co-founded Streamline Pictures and first brought such anime as Akira, Vampire Hunter D, and Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky to the United States. He himself compiled collections of cartoons of Warner Bros., Woody Woodpecker, and the Fleischer Studios. As Vice President of Nickelodeon Movies, he helped develop The Rugrats Movie (1998) and Mighty Mouse.
In 2006, Beck created and produced an animated pilot for Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon. That cartoon, "Hornswiggle", aired on Nicktoons Network in 2008 as part of the Random! Cartoons series. Currently, he is teaching animation history at Woodbury University in Burbank, California.
In 2004, Beck and fellow animation historian and writer Amid Amidi co-founded another blog, Cartoon Brew, which focused primarily on current animation productions and news. Beck sold his co-ownership in Cartoon Brew in February 2013 and started an Indiewire blog, Animation Scoop, for reports on current animation while continuing to write about classic animation at Cartoon Research.
Early in his career, Beck collaborated with film historian Leonard Maltin on his book Of Mice and Magic (1980), organized animation festivals in Los Angeles, and was instrumental in founding the international publication Animation Magazine. In the 1990s, Beck taught course on the art of animation at UCLA, NYU, and The School of Visual Arts. In 1993, he became a founding member of the Cartoon Network advisory board and he currently serves as president of the ASIFA-Hollywood board. He co-produced or was a consultant on many home entertainment compilations of Looney Tunes, MGM Cartoons, Disney Home Video, Betty Boop, and others. In 1989, he co-founded Streamline Pictures and first brought such anime as Akira, Vampire Hunter D, and Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky to the United States. He himself compiled collections of cartoons of Warner Bros., Woody Woodpecker, and the Fleischer Studios. As Vice President of Nickelodeon Movies, he helped develop The Rugrats Movie (1998) and Mighty Mouse.
In 2006, Beck created and produced an animated pilot for Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon. That cartoon, "Hornswiggle", aired on Nicktoons Network in 2008 as part of the Random! Cartoons series. Currently, he is teaching animation history at Woodbury University in Burbank, California.
In 2004, Beck and fellow animation historian and writer Amid Amidi co-founded another blog, Cartoon Brew, which focused primarily on current animation productions and news. Beck sold his co-ownership in Cartoon Brew in February 2013 and started an Indiewire blog, Animation Scoop, for reports on current animation while continuing to write about classic animation at Cartoon Research.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 16, 2024
A must-have for everyone who wants to know the history of animation throughout the years and we're not talking just american animation here, but european and asian too. Lots and lots of interesting info and historical facts along with so many films, features, shorts and tv shows to add to your watchlist and learn from.
August 18, 2016
'Animation Art' has one of the most hideously ugly covers around. It's a cheap, but also cheap-looking book with a design amateurish enough to be able to put you off (the biggest design failure being page 180, in which part of the text is lost).
This is a pity, as text-wise this book clearly is a labor of love. Written by no less than 22 authors (e.g. David Gerstein, Mike Mayerson and Fred Patten), it is a celebration of almost a century of animation, from the first experiments in animated drawing to the most modern CGI.
Moreover, unlike Leonard Maltin's 'Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons; Revised and Updated' or Charles Solomon's 'The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings' it doesn't restrict itself to the United States, but tries to encompass world animation, with notable chapters on e.g. Japanese, Chinese, British, French, Hungarian, Yugoslavian and Russian animation industries. In this respect, it's a more accessible and less cerebral version of Bendazzi's 'Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation'.
With such a scope histories, of course, remain sketchy and at their worst consist of lists of titles, only. However, this is compensated by an abundance of color illustrations, which certainly invite the reader to look for the films himself. Moreover, I could discover only a few small errors and omissions - the exclusion of Martin Rosen and Jan Švankmajer being the most unforgivable.
'Animation Art' is thus a great introduction to the rich world of animation, and as such recommended to everyone with even the slightest interest in it.
This is a pity, as text-wise this book clearly is a labor of love. Written by no less than 22 authors (e.g. David Gerstein, Mike Mayerson and Fred Patten), it is a celebration of almost a century of animation, from the first experiments in animated drawing to the most modern CGI.
Moreover, unlike Leonard Maltin's 'Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons; Revised and Updated' or Charles Solomon's 'The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings' it doesn't restrict itself to the United States, but tries to encompass world animation, with notable chapters on e.g. Japanese, Chinese, British, French, Hungarian, Yugoslavian and Russian animation industries. In this respect, it's a more accessible and less cerebral version of Bendazzi's 'Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation'.
With such a scope histories, of course, remain sketchy and at their worst consist of lists of titles, only. However, this is compensated by an abundance of color illustrations, which certainly invite the reader to look for the films himself. Moreover, I could discover only a few small errors and omissions - the exclusion of Martin Rosen and Jan Švankmajer being the most unforgivable.
'Animation Art' is thus a great introduction to the rich world of animation, and as such recommended to everyone with even the slightest interest in it.
March 24, 2017
Really inclusive, sometimes it briefly explains some interesting animation techniques. A really beautiful book with a lot of images of beautiful and really different animation. Some non-english film titles are missing in their own language.
July 10, 2010
This is an interesting book. It chronicles the entire history of animation from "Gertie the Dinosaur" to the latest films from Pixar and Dreamworks.
May 3, 2016
this book was really good
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews