Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- There aren’t too many books that deal with the business of animation, social relations, getting a job, etc. When I was young there were many books about cartooning that showed various jobs available to potential cartoonists:

One book: The Complete Guide to Professional Cartooning by Gene Byrnes is a good example of this. It had a whole chapter on “How Animated Cartoons Are Made” featuring lots of photographs from the MGM studio with particular focus on a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Fortunately this chapter of the 1950 book was posted by Dave King on his website: www.sweaterthieves.com.

I memorized this book when I was a kid, and it’s great to see it again. I was never really a big fan of Tom & Jerry cartoons, but the images in this book perfectly capture, for me, everything I assumed it meant to be working in an animation studio. I still remember another photo or two that I don’t see posted on the site. The memory of one of those pictures always gives me a jolt of a smile sending me back to the good-old-days of cel animation (not 2D computer animation.)

But if we’re talking about books available today, I only really know of one to recommend. Dave Levy‘s book, Your Career In Animation: How To Survive and Thrive is a great one. I have to admit the title turned me away originally since I thought it was another book for complete neophytes. It’s not; it’s much more.

This book offers general ideas which would help out anyone going into any career. David’s focus, however, is on animation: getting a job and how to survive once you get a job. It’s full of smart information and a lot of wit. I wholeheartedly recommend it for beginners as well as those working in the business. The author is a genial guy, and his manner comes across pleasantly in his writing style.

Shamus Culhane was a long-time animator and director of cartoons who owned his own studio in New York (and for a while in Italy.) He wrote two interesting books before he died in 1996. They have a different focus from each other, but there’s a lot of overlap. Both are entertaining reads.

Talking Animals and Other People is Shamus’ autobiography; it’s his version of his own history in the world of animation. The book is a well-written insider’s view into what it was like working in some of the studios during the “Golden Age.” It’s been years since I’ve read these two books; this is how I remember them.

There’s plenty of attitude and personality, as one might have expected from the author, and he articulates many stories about his experiences. However I’m not sure how reliable the history is. It’s not unlike an interesting interview with an animator; the stories aren great but sometimes the memory makes for an unreliable source. While reading it, I felt like I should be running to locate back-up sources to check it all out. There are good stories here, though, and there’s no doubt the man was there.

Animation: From Script to Screen gives an account of the different aspects of animation production and tries to fully detail what each of those jobs involves. Shamus wore many hats in the business and he uncovers aspects behind it all.

This book doesn’t have quite the attitude and personality of his first book, but it does give a good coherent breakdown of the work-a-day business behind animation. There’s a decent overview of world animation Shamus knew at the time. Published in 1988, the book obviously doesn’t spend a lot of time on the computer, but it gives a good view of animation. Both books have lots of illustrations, and many of them are interesting. The printing on the illustrations isn’t the best.

Next week we’ll finally get to the How-to books.

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