Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Elemental Magic: The Art of Special Effects Animation

I haven't seen it yet, but from the looks of it so far Elemental Magic: The Art of Special Effects Animation sounds like a very cool book. Check out the blog for it which has a lot of cool animation clips. You can get the book at Amazon.


8 comments:

Hammy said...

Funny thing is, I was just looking at that blog and a couple more others about 2D animation effects!

I also came across this blog
http://www.quaife.us/blog/blog.html

I guess if I ever have to handle effects for my own works I'd really like to try out 2D effects than using particles and all that. Even if there's ready made Paint Effects fire which is easier, I thought animating your own 2D fire effects couldn't get more fun. :)

Did you also know that at one of the shots for Big Trouble in Little China, there was a shot they wrote 'Carpenter' in Chinese for the electric effect? That's how you can have fun with doing effects manually, I thought. :)

Jean-Denis Haas said...

I did not know that, love it!

David said...

Hi, Hammy,

You wrote:

"I also came across this blog
http://www.quaife.us/blog/blog.html"


I thought I'd just mention that this is Kathleen Quaife's blog and that Kathleen is teaching for Academy of Art University Online : ANM 261 Effects Animation (Kathleen is also one of the one of several instructors who are teaching the intro level course ANM 180 Experimental Animation online)

Joe Gilland's book "Elemental Magic" is great . And I believe that Kathleen is also working on a book about traditional 2D effects animation. These books are filling a big gap in the literature.

Hammy said...

JD,

http://www.eeggs.com/images/items/3115.full.jpg

Here's the Easter Egg if you want to be spoiled where is that Carpenter word in the movie! I loved it when I spot it.


Hi David!
Thanks so much for letting me know!! I may need some help on my thesis with some 2D effects next Spring, although not a lot but I'd look into contacting Kathleen on this! :)

David said...

Hammy,

We could probably set you up to do a Directed Study with Kathleen for 2D effects if that's something you think would be helpful. Contact me or Vince about it.

-DN

dnethery -at- academyart - dot - edu

Hammy said...

Alright David! :) Writing to you now.

Jean-Denis Haas said...

Thanks for all that information!

kathleen quaife said...

Yep I'd be open to do that.
Kathleen Quaife