Animation from Script to Screen

By Shamus Culhane

St. Martin's Press, 1988

6¼" x 9¼" , 336 pages

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This is a book for beginner animator but there is, in this book, advises and observations that an experienced animator will have fun relating to.

This book was published in 1988 so real Computer Graphics was just beginning to be a possibility. Nevertheless, Mr Culhane, as a great visionary that he is, spends a chapter explaining how Computer Graphics would, one day, make cell animation obsolete. He was not too far away from the truth but, unfortunately, he died before the CG became the truely artist tool that it is today. But that is just an anecdote about the author. The real value of this book is really that it was written by an author with enormous experience in the animation business. And it shows on every page of the book.

There are no "how to animate a bouncing ball" demonstration in this book. It is not that kind of How-to book. Mr Culhane takes a very different approach. He urges the reader to just draw once a day. But drawing the intuitive way, by letting the creative right-side of the brain do the drawing, making sure that no left-side task could get in the way. This is his advise as far as learning to draw is concerned. A very good advise IMO too.

Once this aspect is taken care of, Mr Culhane goes into every aspect of an animated film production. All the required production paperwork is reviewed along with a bunch of advises on how to be efficient with them. He spends about 40 pages on the "Directing" aspect where he gives his advises about not only how to select a style and such artistic aspects but also on how to handle the myriad of different professionals (and sometime no so professionals) that must be dealt with during an animated film production.

The "Layout" and "Animating" section, 90 pages, touches on the more artistic aspect of the film production. Still just a few "How-to" style of illustrations in this section although he touches every aspect that we are accustomed to like the usual "squash and Stretch", "Anticipation"' etc, plus much, much, much more. There are, in his writing style and in the advises that he dispenses, pieces of wisdom that I never saw in any of the other books about animation that I've read so far.

Next is a whole section about what he calls the "Noncreative jobs". This is the section where we get the most illuminating insights on how dull and boring most of the jobs that needs to gravitate around the animation production are. Boy am I glad that we have computers nowadays so we don't have to deal with most of all that sweatshop drudgery. Still, reading that made me admirative on how those pioneers were dedicated to that artform.

Near the end of the book, two chapters "Survival as an artist" and "Schools" were absolutely delicious to read. Just a few weeks after I finished reading "The Illusion of Life", where I was left with a very odd feeling that something was not right with this beatifying attitude toward Disney, I was pleased to find out that I was not alone. Culhane sees the management style of Disney as a detriment to the creativity of all the animators that had to go through this machine and as a detriment to the whole animation industry in general. That also explains why the book is filled with all sort of animation examples that were not from Disney.

At $16.95, this is, IMO, the first book that any aspiring animator should read. Not just because it is inexpensive but because it is full of very clever, insightfull advises that cannot be found elsewhere.

It is a true reality check for anyone wanting to get their feet into this industry. He shows that the animation industry is no more and no less better than any other industries. With its internal political fights and decision hierarchy where, in the end, the budget is the basis for all production constraints and the paying customer is the ultimate decider. My own experience is in the comics and multimedia businesses and I could relate to all the experiences he mentions. Life is life.