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Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories
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!
With Ideas for the Animated Short you'll learn Story Background and Theory * Building Better Content * Exploring the Human Condition * Building Character and Location * Building Story * Dialogue * Storyboarding * Staging
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!
With Ideas for the Animated Short you'll learn Story Background and Theory * Building Better Content * Exploring the Human Condition * Building Character and Location * Building Story * Dialogue * Storyboarding * Staging
- GenresNonfictionArtFilm
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
16 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 11, 2009
Story is king.
I've that idea drilled into me after watching the behind-the-scenes documentaries and audio commentary from Pixar movies. I even make mp3 audio files out of the DVDs just to listen to the story!
I'm reading this book just to learn more about story structure, to understand what makes a good story. As the title suggest, it's targeted at making animated short films. Most of the story principles work for feature length film as well, as shown through the multiple examples in the book.
Chapter 1 talks on the core elements that must exist in a story. It also introduces the basic structure of a story.
Chapter 2 is on building content for the story, different ways at looking at the stories, and places to start from when searching for ideas.
Chapter 3 is on exploring human emotions and motivations, and how these can be used to create a believable character people can relate to.
Chapter 4 is on character and set design. There are tips on creating character profiles, designing appealing characters, building functional location sets.
Chapter 5 talks specifically on building a story using the story structure introduced. There are techniques in creating conflict between characters and understanding endings.
Chapter 6 explains the role dialogue plays, and how to use it in the story effectively.
Chapter 7 and 8 are on storyboarding and staging. There are tips on camera moves, pacing, composition and many other production techniques.
Every chapter comes with a lot of examples to emphasis the lesson points. And all these lesson points always go back to building that better story. At the end is always an interview with someone in the animation industry relating back to the chapter's subject.
After reading this book, it made me appreciate animated movies even more. Story is king. Audience can never forgive a lousy story, even if the film is lavished with state of the art visual eye candies. Story is the only thing that separates the good from the great.
The write up isn't too technical. It explains how storytelling works to people not in the industry. This book is more than highly recommended, I'll say it's essential for anyone into creating animation.
This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.
I've that idea drilled into me after watching the behind-the-scenes documentaries and audio commentary from Pixar movies. I even make mp3 audio files out of the DVDs just to listen to the story!
I'm reading this book just to learn more about story structure, to understand what makes a good story. As the title suggest, it's targeted at making animated short films. Most of the story principles work for feature length film as well, as shown through the multiple examples in the book.
Chapter 1 talks on the core elements that must exist in a story. It also introduces the basic structure of a story.
Chapter 2 is on building content for the story, different ways at looking at the stories, and places to start from when searching for ideas.
Chapter 3 is on exploring human emotions and motivations, and how these can be used to create a believable character people can relate to.
Chapter 4 is on character and set design. There are tips on creating character profiles, designing appealing characters, building functional location sets.
Chapter 5 talks specifically on building a story using the story structure introduced. There are techniques in creating conflict between characters and understanding endings.
Chapter 6 explains the role dialogue plays, and how to use it in the story effectively.
Chapter 7 and 8 are on storyboarding and staging. There are tips on camera moves, pacing, composition and many other production techniques.
Every chapter comes with a lot of examples to emphasis the lesson points. And all these lesson points always go back to building that better story. At the end is always an interview with someone in the animation industry relating back to the chapter's subject.
After reading this book, it made me appreciate animated movies even more. Story is king. Audience can never forgive a lousy story, even if the film is lavished with state of the art visual eye candies. Story is the only thing that separates the good from the great.
The write up isn't too technical. It explains how storytelling works to people not in the industry. This book is more than highly recommended, I'll say it's essential for anyone into creating animation.
This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.
August 2, 2022
چیزی که از این کتاب تا همیشه باهام میمونه تایم لاینیه که از روال روایت داستان ترسیم کرده. اکثر فیلم ها روی این محور قرار میگیرن.
قسمتی که با کاراکتر ها آشنا میشیم. شادی هاشون یا آسودگی هاشون ترسیم میشه و ...
لزوما نکات کتاب برای داستان کوتاه نیست. به نظرم خیلی از فیلم های هالیوود و ... هم روی همین اصول بنا شدن و البته خیلی از انیمیشن های کوتاه رو این اصول نیستن.
روی هم رفته اگر برگردم عقب باز هم میخونمش.
قسمتی که با کاراکتر ها آشنا میشیم. شادی هاشون یا آسودگی هاشون ترسیم میشه و ...
لزوما نکات کتاب برای داستان کوتاه نیست. به نظرم خیلی از فیلم های هالیوود و ... هم روی همین اصول بنا شدن و البته خیلی از انیمیشن های کوتاه رو این اصول نیستن.
روی هم رفته اگر برگردم عقب باز هم میخونمش.
August 25, 2019
Every film really needs some form of beginning, middle, and end, whether it is a short tone poem or a character-driven narrative.
This book has useful information about storytelling.
This book has useful information about storytelling.
December 30, 2022
All in a nutshell 🦄
August 16, 2013
A practical toolkit that could be useful not only for animators, but for anyone who wants to create a story for a short movie. It unfolds the structure of the story and pays attention to the obstacles in building characters, conflicts, etc.
Also I enjoyed very much the given examples :)
Great book, indeed. I recommend it. And don't forget: Story is a king!
Also I enjoyed very much the given examples :)
Great book, indeed. I recommend it. And don't forget: Story is a king!
May 25, 2014
A survey of different techniques to generate character, plot, visuals. Did not present any one technique extremely memorably. Still was an easy read and helpful as a breadth-first exploration.
November 29, 2012
A useful companion for professionals
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews