Animation Resources in Print

Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Hyperion, New York: 1981. ISBN 0-7868-6070-7 This book is a real keeper, if you can find it in a used bookstore (like AbeBooks), you can probably score it for $30.00 or so. It's primarily a history of the Disney Studio written by two of its great animators, but Mr. Thomas and Mr. Johnston include many, many helpful hints about animation in general.

Blair, Preston. How to Draw: Cartoon Animation. Walter Foster Publishing, Inc., Tustin, California: 1980.

Blair, Preston. How to Animate: Film Cartoons. Walter Foster Publishing, Inc., Tustin, California: 1980. These two books by Preston Blair are so simple, but deal with the craft of animation so very well that John Krikfalusi has said that he expects everyone he hires to have read these books inside and out, over and over and over...

Flew, Terry and Sal Humphreys. (2005). "Games: Technology, Industry, Culture". New Media: an Introduction (Second Edition). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195551494.

Laybourne, Kit. The Animation Book: a complete guide to animated filmmaking from flip-books to sound cartoons. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York: 1979.

Lemay, Brian. Layout and Design Made Amazingly Simple. Animated Cartoon Factory, Oakville, Ontario. This is such a good book. Its focus is (as the title says) primarily about designing background layouts, props and characters. While I happened to find it in the Emily Carr bookstore one day, I believe it's really only available from Brian directly.

Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media. Oxford University Press, New York: 1977. This book is another keeper because so much of animation uses the language of film. Watching many of the films cited in the book (like Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai and such) will broaden your idea of animation to encompass the concept of "film".