Animation on the Web

This book provides an insider's look at how animation is done on computers. It goes into many of the basics, but nevertheless, is not for complete beginners, since it assumes from the beginning that you've got some conception of how animation works and are familiar with some of the vocabulary. However, if you've worked a little with Flash, or have read books like 24 Hours to Flash, you should be able to follow along with this book. Much of the real content of the book is in chapters 2, 3, 4, and 6, where Wagstaff explains the behind-the-scenes details of how professional animation is done, and what makes the difference between a believable animation and a hack-job. Most of the remaining chapters provide brief descriptions of software tools that can be used for various animation tasks. These latter chapters, are of, course, already out of date, but the materials in the preliminary chapters are so well done that the book is well worth the price and will be for years to come.

I bought this book because a lot of people want animation on their web sites, and I needed to learn to do it. I didn't have any idea how to do more than a slide show, or know why I would even want to. After reading this book, I'm now an animation fan, and am designing my web sites with animation in mind. I can now make intelligent decisions about when to use what type of animation, and what tools and techniques to use.It's obvious that the author is extremely knowledgeable in both traditional and computer animation, and he relates his knowledge well. He starts the book with a solid introduction to the techniques animators have been using for decades. He refers to these techniques as he goes on to discuss both general computer animation and web animation. He believes that in the not-so-distant future, web animation will be similar to today's CD-ROM animation, and he writes with this in mind.The book is very well organized with chapters on many topics such as cell animation, video, 3D graphics & animation, QuickTime VR, etc. He completes each topic with a thorough overview of software tools, and walkthroughs of various techniques. He covers both Mac and Windows, noting which applications are available for which computers.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a must have for anyone who wants to make things move on a computer screen. Yes, the book is named "Animation on the Web" but it's full of wonderful information useful for anyone involved in Multimedia development, computer presentations, etc. Highlights include excerpts of an article on animation by John Lasseter, director of "Toy Story" and a brief but wonderfully funny section on applying Newton's laws of motion to Wile E. Coyote. Part of what I do involves multimedia development, and I expect this will be pretty dog-eared and beaten up by the end of the year. As I said, it's fun reading and chock full of great information.