Animation Now!

by Julius Wiedemann (Editor), Aida Queiroz

"For the person who gets a kick out of movies such as Shrek 2 and Finding Nemo, consider Animation Now!, a survey of 80 of the great cartoonists and animation studios worldwide, from Hollywood’s Pixar, Walt Disney, and DreamWorks SKG, to decidedly higher-brow practitioners such as South African artist William Kentridge." - Business Week, New York Just how do they do it? The artists behind the cartoons are the focus of this sweeping study that brings you everything you ever wanted to know about today’s best animation specialists. We’ve rounded up about 80 of the world’s most prominent artists/studios and arranged them from A to Z, including examples and descriptions of their work as well as biographies, filmographies, bibliographies, lists of awards received, and contact information. Profiles of the world’s best animation schools are also provided. The Aida Queiroz, Cesar Coelho, Léa Zagury, and Marcos Magalhães are the creators of "Anima Mundi", the Brazilian-based annual animation festival that draws more than 80,000 visitors every year from around the world.

Genres: Art, Reference, Nonfiction

351 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Julius Wiedemann was born in Brazil, where he studied design and marketing, and has lived and worked in Japan, Germany, and the UK. An eclectic expert on design based visual culture, Wiedemann has produced books on a range of topics, from robots to record covers. He holds the positions of Executive Editor for Design and Pop Culture at TASCHEN. Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design publications before joining TASCHEN in 2001.

Wiedemann has edited over 40 books in 10 years, he is a regular contributor to magazines, and has been on the jury of several awards all over the world. His publications have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, and his titles are immensely popular. As an editor his work is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary design, synthesizing a vast array of topics, including logo design, fashion design, graphic design, web design, and product design. Underpinning many of his books is a desire to understand creativity and explore the nature of reality in a world that increasingly takes place online and is populated by characters and creatures not entirely human but of our creation. The wonders of animation, manga, and computer graphics fascinate and inspire him.

Julius Wiedemann’s TASCHEN titles include the celebrated series Illustration Now! a staple of any designer’s bookshelf, as well as the compendium 100 Illustrators. He has also edited the Package Design Book collection. His award-wining Jazz Covers and Rock Covers books showcase his editorial variety and his publication on National Geographic magazine’s infographics demonstrates how wide his design knowledge and appreciation extends.

Reviews

[Miriam Cihodariu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really interesting for all those interested in the history of how animations come alive, even remotely. Also, it makes you wish you could draw better :). Not much more to say, since the book's essence and appeal lies precisely in its powerful visuals (and the text parts are pretty short as well).
I do recommend you to go through it if you have the chance, it's both entertaining and informative.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book showcases 80 of the world's most prominent artist and studios. Included glorious pages of art work, biographies and contact information. Unfortunately the writeup is short with an average of 5 paragraphs. There's also translation into another language (I've no idea what) just after the English write up.

The abundant of prints, cartoons, film stills and other screen shots makes this more of an art book resource. Because these animations contained all sorts of genre, the variety of style is great for inspiration. This is not just a study of animation, but a study of medium that can be used on screen.

For the price of an art book, it's well worth the money. The biographies are just goodies.

The hardcover version of the book doesn't come with the DVD though.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doesn't have much in the way of text, but really a great resource for inspiration. Acting as a kind of who's who in animation, this book covers most of the influential animators and animation companies producing work today. In addition to ample color photos of their work, it provides a short bio and most importantly...their contact information. Highly recommended to any filmmaker in need of creative stimulus or anyone interested in experimental film/animation.

[Henny · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda like the history of animation although maybe not really
part corporate biography, part animator's reference book for beginners.
although there are some names left out, still, a good pop-culture-esque book.