Animation Resources

Books

Animation

• The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston)

• The Animator’s Survival Kit (Richard Williams)

• The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation (Ken A. Priebe)

• The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, and Inspiration from Disney’s Great Animators (Andreas Deja)

Storyboarding & Cinematography

• The Five C’s of Cinematography (Joseph V. Mascelli)

• The Art of Storyboard (Don Bluth)

• The Visual Story (Bruce Block)

• Storyboarding Essentials (David Harland Rousseau & Benjamin Reid Phillips)

Drawing

• Villpu Drawing Manual (Glenn Vilppu)

• Drawn to Life Volume 1 (Walt Stanchfield)

• Drawn to Life Volume 2 (Walt Stanchfield)

• The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature (Ken Hultgren)

• Principles of Creature Design (Terryl Whitlatch)

• Science of Creature Design (Terryl Whitlatch)

• 100 Tuesday Tips (Griz and Norm)

• FORCE: Dynamic Life Drawing (Mike Mattesi)

• Drawing the Head and Hands (Andrew Loomis)

Inspiration

• I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation (Natalie Nourigat)

• Creativity, Inc. (Ed Catmull)

• The Alchemy of Animation (Don Hahn)

• Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation (Mindy Johnson)

• Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell)

• The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance - What Women Should Know (Katty Kay & Claire Shipman)

• The Animator Letters Project: A Goldmine of Inspiration from a Hundred Accomplished Artists (Willie Downs)

Online Tutorials & Resources

CG Animation

• Pixar in a Box

• Zach Parrish & Brent Homman Workflow Demo

• Lynda

• Skillshare

• How to Become an Animator

• Script to Screen: The Dreamworks Animation Pipeline

• Pluralsight

• Disney Animated App

• Lighting Before and After

2D Animation

• Aaron Blaise: Creature Art Teacher

• Skillshare

• Toniko Pantoja

• Pencil Test Depot

Stop-Motion Animation

• Stoopid Buddy Studios Animation Camp

Visual Development & Storyboarding

• Schoolism

• Tonko House

• Skillshare

• Motivarti

• Character Design Reference Pinterest Board

Figure Drawing & Gesture Drawing

• Quick Poses

• Line of Action

• Sketch Daily

• Love Life Drawing

History of animation and career guidance

• Octane Seating Blog Post - Beyond the Frames

Film Analysis

• Every Frame a Painting

• The Nerd Writer

Brick & Mortar Animation Schools

• Ringling College of Art & Design

• SCAD

• Rhode Island College of Design

• California Institute of the Arts

• Sheridan College

• Academy of Art University

• Texas A&M

• Brigham Young University

• School of Visual Arts

• Royal College of Art

• Gobelins

• Rubika

• UCLA

• USC

• New York University (Tisch School of the Arts)

Online Animation Schools & Classes

• Animation Mentor

• AnimSchool

• Animsquad

• iAnimate

• Schoolism

Animation Organizations, Film Festivals, & Conferences

• Women in Animation

• Rise Up Animation

• CTN Animation Expo

• LightBox Expo

• SIGGRAPH

• Annecy

• ASIFA

• The Animation Guild

• Animation Show of Shows

Example Demo Reels & Portfolios

We did our best to list exemplary portfolios and demo reels of folks around the industry. Since most of our listeners are students and recent graduates, there is a slight bend towards portfolios/reels that got people their first break into an entry level position or training program.

Story

• McKenna Harris

• Donna Lee

• Andrea Walker

• Kai Lynn Jiang

Visual Development - Note, we recommend you scroll back in time on tumblr to see the work that likely got folks noticed!

• Camille Andre

• De’Von Stubblefield

• James Woods

• Maeve Broadbin

Layout/Pre Viz

• Andi Nakasone

• Kyle Lopez

• Tyler Kupferer

• Win Leerasanthanah

CG Animation

• Madison Healy

• Tarun Lak

• Sagar Arun

• Luiza Alaniz

• Andrew Ford

Stop-Motion Animation

• Dan MacKenzie

• Adam Taylor

• Yizhou Li

• James Mendola

Modeling

• Alena Wooten

• Jake Burstein

• Hana Starr

Rigging

• Kelley Williams

• Kelsey Grier

• Xiong Lin

Look Development

• Dan Lipson

• Chaiwon Kim

• Nicole Ales

FX

• Stuart Griese

• Elana Lederman

• Thom Wickes

Lighting & Compositing

• Masha Zarnitsa

• Walker Kennedy

• Mark McKinsey

Animation Artists to Follow

CG Animators

• Malcon Pierce

• Svetla Radivoeva

• Hyun-Min Lee

• Wayne Unten

• Trent Correy

• Michael Woodside

• Allen Ostergar

• Madison Healy

• Sagar Arun

• Tarun Lak

• Shawn Lee

• Vitor Vilela

• Minor Gaytan

• Jacob Frey

• Amanda Zima

• Mario Furmancyzk

• Andrew Chesworth

• Joshua Slice

• Benson Shum

• Pierre Perifel

• Magnus Moller

• Joshua Beveridge

• Victor Navone

• Ivan Oviedo

• Adam Green

• Alex Snow

• Nara Youn

Stop-Motion Animators

• Dan MacKenzie

• Kevin Parry

• Thiago Calcado

• Phil Dale

• Scarlet Nelson

• Mikey Please

• Tim Allen

Story Artists

• Natalie Nourigat

• Isabelle Gedigk

• Michael Herrera

• Lissa Treiman

• Sam Vilfort

• John Ripa

• Fawn Veerasunthorn

• Griz and Norm

• McKenna Harris

• Brian Kesinger

• Ryan Green

Visual Development

• Dice Tsutsumi

• Peter de Seve

• Helen Chen

• Ami Thompson

• Cory Loftis

• Brittany Myers

• James Woods

• Camille Andre

• Shiyoon Kim

• BJ Crawford

• Tyler Carter

• Ryan Lang

• Kei Acedera

• Lorelay Bove

• Neysa Bove

• Britney Lee

• Griz and Norm

• David DePasquale

• Michael Knapp

• Leo Matsuda

• Bobby Chiu