Animation Movement Guidebook – Basic Course On Communicating Expression (Animation Boot Camp)

This book is a simple yet profound guide to creating “communicative” animation. It encapsulates the essence of movement learned from top animators.

How do you design an acting plan, draw movement, and convey it to others? Through workshops and lectures based on a wealth of examples, you can learn the necessary mindset for drawing animation movements.

It includes special lectures by animators Yoichi Kotabe, Nobuo Tomizawa, Hiroyuki Okiura, and discussions with Toshiyuki Inoue, Yoshihiro Komori, Ryotimo, Cedric HEROLE, among others. It encapsulates the essence of the “Animation Boot Camp,” a talent development program that has been ongoing for over 10 years under the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ media arts initiatives. It’s an enduring introduction to animation.
At the end of the book, there’s a flipbook collection by Takeshi Inamura that lets you enjoy animation by flipping through it! Also, URLs are provided to view the example movies, allowing for a deeper understanding by checking the movements in the videos.

Contents include:
Preface
How to Use This Book / Character Introduction / Author Introduction
About Line Test Environments
Glossary for Learning Animation

Part 1 What Does It Mean to Be “Good”? What Is “Expression”?
1-1 What Is a “Drawing”?
1-2 Is a Drawing “Good” If It Is Drawn Accurately?
1-3 The “Common Sense” for Becoming a “Communicative Expression”
1-4 Confirming Common Sense 1 – Checking with Onomatopoeia
1-5 Confirming Common Sense 2 – Feeling with Your Own Body
1-6 Common Sense in Character Animation 1 – Exercise “Walking”
1-7 Common Sense in Character Animation 2 – Acting “Surprised”
1-8 Real Example: Movie “When Marnie Was There” cut-0636

Part 2 Confirming “Common Sense”
2-1 Workshop 1 Balloon
2-2 Workshop 2 Ball
2-3 Special Lecture 1 About Common Sense (Lecturer: Takeshi Inamura)
2-4 Special Lecture 2 Expressing Waves (Lecturer: Yoichi Otabe)

Part 3 Feeling with the Body
3-1 Workshop 1 Feeling the Center of Gravity
3-2 Workshop 2 Feeling the Tempo
3-3 Lecture Feeling the “Movement”
Column: Theater Games

Part 4 Finding Poses
4-1 Workshop Drawing “Thumbnails”
4-2 Real Example: Examples of Thumbnails Drawn in Workshop
4-3 Lecture 1 Tips for Drawing Thumbnails
4-4 Lecture 2 “Key Poses” and “Breakdowns”

Part 5 Creating Acting
Steps to Create Acting – Four Steps
5-1 Workshop Walking
5-2 Lecture 1 Creating Acting
5-3 Lecture 2 Natural Walking
5-4 Special Lecture 1 Turning Rough Drawings into Three-Dimensional Drawings (Lecturer: Nobuo Tomizawa)
5-5 Special Lecture 2 Thinking About Natural Acting in Animation (Lecturer: Hiroyuki Okiura)

Part 6 Education at Animation Boot Camp
What Is “Animation Boot Camp”?
Interview: OB/OG Interview 1 (Akiko Gyono)
Interview: OB/OG Interview 2 (Yasutaka Akama)
Symposium: 10 Years of Animation Boot Camp (Toshiyuki Inoue / Yoshihiro Komori / Ryotimo / Akiko Gyono / Takashi Takeuchi / Tarté Yamamura)
Roundtable Discussion: Considering Animation Education from an International Perspective (Cedric Herole / Takashi Takeuchi / Takeshi Inamura / Tarté Yamamura)

Afterword
Movie List
Appendix: Flipbook Collection