Books &Commentary &Layout & Design 06 Dec 2011 06:37 am
Setting the Scene – Book Review
- Setting the Scene: The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout is a beautiful new book by Fraser MacClean. This is a stunningly attractive book with a great number of illustrations going all the way back to Winsor McCay right up to recent Dreamworks films.
The book talks about the history of the layout artist and gives plenty of examples from the past to the present, 2D to CG. It addresses how McCay did his films, through the silent animation era, past the Golden Age of animation, right up to the present day’s more complicated methods for computer graphics. It’s a wonderful and heavily researched book with an enormous number of illustrated examples.
A Winsor McCay LO for Gertie
Original drawn layouts for the likes of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Chuck Jones/Maurice Noble shorts, Betty Boop shorts, Gulliver’s Travels and The Thief and the Cobbler dress this book giving it a strength that none of the words could offer. Storyboard sequences for Peter Pan, The Rescuers Down Under, Cinderella or Song of the South help get any point across in the most visual way possible.
The book is somewhat dense and took me quite some time to go through it carefully. The material is so interesting, though, that I was ready to give it all the time necessary. Every time you turned a page there’d be another beautiful illustration that just took a lot of time to study.
A planning drawing for the great multiplane scene in Pinocchio
from B&W to color
Johnn Didrik Johnsen’s LO for Tom & Jerry “Puppy Tale” (1954)
Probably my only complaint about this book would be that the type is small and harder to read. At times even the illustrations are a bit smaller than I’d like. This, of course, is because anything larger would require greater printing costs and make the book too expensive. So, I’d rather have what sits in my hand than something I’d think hard about buying. As it is, the book is a must own for animation enthusiasts, and there’s a lot to learn for anyone interested in the process of animated film making. I wouldn’t hesitate to wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.
Brad Bird’s planning sketch for “The Iron Giant”
I could keep pulling more and more illlustrations from this book. They’re all unique and totally illustrate what the author is talking about at the moment. And they’re all gorgeous. You have to take a look at this book. It’s is another beautiful book from Chronicle Books. They are batting a perfect score, as far as I can see.
on 06 Dec 2011 at 10:06 am 1.Oswald Iten said …
If I still had a doubt about buying this book, these illustrations would have convinced me that this book might even exceed my expectations! After all, how could I resist a book with Roger and Pongo on the cover?
on 06 Dec 2011 at 2:05 pm 2.Paul Spector said …
I’ve been in touch with Fraser for at least a year. He initially asked my permission to yank some images from my blog, which of course I gave him carte blanch. Then he sent me a copy via Amazon out of his own pocket. Michael, your word “dense” is exactly what was in my my own mind. A beautiful book and a lot to chew on. It sizes as a coffee table book but it’s so much more.
on 07 Dec 2011 at 6:26 am 3.Mark Sonntag said …
As an ex-layout artist myself, I recommend this book to anyone interested in that phase of animation production. Great illustrations too, I wish I could see more of Winsor McCay’s Gertie notes.