| This book is for anyone who has ever had a character in their heart that they’ve wanted to bring to life with as much fluidity, power, and grace as can be seen in the best animated feature films. This is a book for anyone who has wanted to become an animator but hasn’t gone to Sheridan College in Toronto or CalArts in Valencia. This is a book for animators who have progressed as far as they can on their own and want to hone their skills to the level of feature-quality animation. This is a book for feature-quality animators skilled on other software platforms who have a project that requires them to use LightWave.
This is the book I wish had been available when I was starting out as a LightWave animator.
This is not just a book on how to set up and point weight characters. It is not yet another book that covers the same basics that nearly every other book on animation presents as “all-there-is-toknow.” This book covers the complex animation mechanics that are locked inside every beautifully animated scene but that are difficult to understand until someone shows you how. It took many gifted people with careers in animation going back over 30 years to show me what I hadn’t learned in school or in the books I’d read. I’ve taught many people who’ve worked for me on projects ranging from films to video games how to see, understand, and internalize these techniques and subtleties. It is my goal in this book to pass this information on to a much larger audience, and by doing so, raise the level of animators and the way others perceive animators all across the board.
Animation is an incredible art. It encompasses so much technical and artistic skill that in my experience, nothing else comes close to the impact it has on the artist or the viewer. We’re moved by good animation in a way we can’t explain. And there are those of us who are so touched by it that it consumes us and we have to make it a part of ourselves. We give our lives to it. And once we finally understand how to breathe life into these ideas and archetypes we have had deep within our own mind’s eye, there is no better place to be than in the space that is created when you’re animating.
This book is here to give you the tools you need to stop fighting the computer. It is here to let you learn and internalize the things that make animation come to life so your evolution as an animator can really begin. This is only the first step, but it is a first step from the point of view of feature-quality animation, and that is what will make all the difference in the world.
About the Author
Timothy Albee has worked in the entertain-ment industry since 1990 as a writer, director, animator, concept artist, producer, and studio owner/executive. His credits include Walt Disney Feature Animation, Warner Brothers/ Infogrammes, Babylon 5, and numerous video game titles. He has written, produced, and directed three short films in addition to Kaze, Ghost Warrior and is the author of several books including LightWave 3D 7 Character Animation, Essential LightWave 3D 7.5, and CGI Filmmaking: The Creation of Ghost Warrior. |
