Preston Blair’s “Advanced Animation” (1st Edition)

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preston.jpgCreated in 1947, “Advanced Animation” has often been called the best “how-to” book on cartoon animation ever published.

Found at ASIFA – Hollywood Animation Archive, they write:

Animation historian, Jerry Beck, whose excellent blog Cartoon Brew is in the bookmarks of just about everyone in the animation business, has been hunting for a first edition of Blair’s landmark book for many years. He finally found a copy in a collection of material that belonged to legendary animator, Dave Tendlar. If you are familiar with the revised edition, you’re in for a treat.

preston2.jpg

This is definitely worth checking out!

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    • jackuss

      I got the book in Dutch (since that is my native language) It really is a source of help, if you want to draw cartoons. (which of course will become 3d models later on :) ).

      Nice to see the very first edition :)

    • http://www.catnipgames.nl Hoxolotl

      I had heard of this book at least twice… and I must agree it’s a “must have” for every animator out there.

      Thanks Bart!

    • AnyMation

      I have the (changed) new version with the yellow cover. There is no animation book that is so packed with information! I also have his “How to animate film cartoons” – it is just as valuable.

      Preston was a genius.

    • http://www.martineschoyez.com.ar Martín

      I agree. A “Must have” along with “How to animate film cartoons”. Maybe the most importants to the 2d/3d animator. I have this books in spanish. ;)

    • http://cosmic-e.com Zalgren

      That’s wild comparing my copy to the original. So,e of the character changes were obvious but others I didn’t see until now.

    • TX_RX_FX

      The revised edition is superb, but to see the first edition as it was intended to be published is awesome!!

    • Len

      Very cool. We stand on the shoulders of giants.

    • Ryan Malm

      Preston Blair’s work in teaching materials is amazing; most of the material there is re-printed in a newer book called “CARTOON ANIMATION” also by Preston Blair, of which I have a copy, and can be found very cheap used on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Animation-Collectors-Preston-Blair/dp/1560100842/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202743154&sr=8-1

      Very cool stuff.

    • http://www.rgbk.org Bmud

      I read this when I was a little kid in the elementary school library. :P

    • http://www.virgiliovasconcelos.com Virgilio Vasconcelos

      This is really cool! =)

      I couldn’t stress enough how important this book is. Along with “Animator’s Survival Kit”, is a must have.

      Thanks for sharing! =)

    • http://www.blendedplanet.com Dave Weese

      I compiled these images into a hirez pdf for convenient browsing offline. Download at http://www.blendedplanet.com

      Go to the character design page

      Dave Weese

    • http://home.deds.nl/~mp/ ysvry

      I have the yellow one too, great book and info indeed, go and grab yourself a copy if you are serious about animation.

    • http://www.mbproductions.biz Mike

      Yeah I made em into PDF too – but what’s the license of this stuff Deve Weese?

    • amoose136

      That same image is in the book “The Animation Book” by Kit Laybourne. It it a good book too but it’s a little out dated.

    • Johan

      Uh, that guy drew like sixty hand positions. Amazing.

    • http://www.blendedplanet.com dave weese

      I put a comment about that on my site. This “book” has been freely available online for several years now. The later edition was even converted to a more web friendly format and somewhat expanded content. All freely available for download.

      So assume if the jpeg images of the pages are free for everyone, a simple compilation to pdf with no modification should be fine – kind of like changing the jpegs to tga’s.

      If anyone knows better please help me out. I am under the impression that this content is in the public domain or something…..?

      Like if someone mirrored my keying tutorial, I suppose I could see a situation why I might courteously ask them not to if I was depending on the exclusive of the web traffic the content created, but I don;t know if that would constitute a copyright violation…

      Actually the more I think about it, I’m gonna take that link down. If anyone wants to save themselves the hassle of converting to pdf, email me.

    • http://www.animationarchive.org Stephen Worth

      The material on the ASIFA site may still be protected by copyright. It is not public domain. The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational institution. As such, we have special provisions of “fair use” under copyright law. Some of these provisions do not apply to individuals who might choose to redistribute our media files.

      You can use an image or two to accompany links to our articles, and feel free to use the material for reference yourself. But please don’t repackage or redistribute the images or separate the media from the accompanying articles.

      For more information, please see the Terms of Use of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

      Thanks
      Stephen Worth
      Director
      ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

    • http://www.blendedplanet.com dave weese

      Fair enough Stephen. Thanks for the rapid clarification!

    • Tx_Rx

      Good to see the respect given to Stephen W’s polite post.
      Seems that the PDF’s have been pulled from the above sites.
      Make your own PDF but keep it off the web. :)

    • Squiggly_P

      The entire ASIFA site is a hugely valuable resource for animation history and reference. I highly recommend digging around the site, as there are character sheets for hundreds of characters, sketch pages by tons of highly talented and creative artists spanning the history of animation and lots of information on specific animated films and shorts from the past. They are one of my more frequent online stops :D

    • Bob

      On the site they compare the original version of the book with the reprint he was forced to make (After MGM changed their minds about letting him use their characters in his book). Like posters on the site, I agree that the original art was more alive. The original characters had more ‘character’. The generic characters are constructed the same way (so the purpose of the book –to teach drawing animated characters– remains fulfilled), its just that the original art is so much better, even though there is more detail in the newer characters. Its like comparing the new Saturday morning cartoons vs. the old cartoons from the ’30s and ’40′s. Something got lost along the way.

    • jayh

      So does anyone know where to get a copy of the revised book? Can’t find it on Amazon right now…

    • Coolibu

      Thank u so much!!!!

    • Sarang Bhargava

      Mr.Preston Blair also has a concise book of around 32 pages, the one which has basics of drawing characters.Can somebody let me know where can I get that from???

    • Sarang Bhargava

      And if please someone mail me this book, its very concise and very handy…..