Your Cartoons Will Never Be the Same. The history of animation in America is full of colorful characters - and that includes the animators themselves! Jim Korkis shares hundreds of funny, odd, endearing stories about the major animation studios, including Disney, Warner Brothers, MGM, Hanna-Barbera, and many more.

Learn how to generate and develop successful story ideas that fulfill the unique storytelling challenges of animation shorts between 2-5 minutes in length.

A well designed, well written animated film has warmth, humor and charm. Since Steamboat Mickey, animators have been creating characters and films that are charming, warm and humorous, allowing people to connect with the animated medium. Animaton fans love the characters for a lifetime. This is the legacy of the countless animators and artists who created the classic characters and fun stories and the legacy of Disney Legend, Floyd Norman. Written with wit and verve, Animated Life is a guided tour through an entire lifetime of techniques, practical hands-on advice and insight into an entire industry. A vital tutorial in animation's past, present and future for students who are now poised to be part of another new generation in the art form. Apply artistic magic to your own projects and garner valuable insight and inspiration from a True Disney legend. With valuable advice, critical comment, and inspiration for every student of the arts, Animated Life is a classic in the making with completely relevant techniques and tools for the contemporary animation or fine arts professional.

Disney artists worked on many projects, both shorts and feature-length films, and their rich and varied work - whether in the form of concept art, animation drawings, storyboards, or gags - is a testament to the quality and innovation the studio achieved, even on unfinished projects. After a brief Introduction examining how the studio operated during Walt Disney's day, Solomon surveys the many categories of uncompleted film, illustrating each with beautiful examples of work by the staff artists: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shorts; Fairy Tale Projects like Hans Christian Andersen tales and the ambitious feature Chanticleer and Reynard; wartime propaganda films; early versions of Fantasia, and later efforts to expand elements of the film; and projects ranging from Hiawatha to Destino, a fantastic and unlikely collaboration between Disney and Salvador Dali.

Some of the most beloved characters in film and television inhabit two-dimensional worlds that spring from the fertile imaginations of talented animators. The movements, characterizations, and settings in the best animated films are as vivid as any live action film, and sometimes seem more alive than life itself. In this case, Hollywood's marketing slogans are fitting; animated stories are frequently magical, leaving memories of happy endings in young and old alike. However, the fantasy lands animators create bear little resemblance to the conditions under which these artists work. Anonymous animators routinely toiled in dark, cramped working environments for long hours and low pay, especially at the emergence of the art form early in the twentieth century. In Drawing the Line, veteran animator Tom Sito chronicles the efforts of generations of working men and women artists who have struggled to create a stable standard of living that is as secure as the worlds their characters inhabit. The former president of America's largest animation union, Sito offers a unique insider's account of animators' struggles with legendary studio kingpins such as Jack Warner and Walt Disney, and their more recent battles with Michael Eisner and other Hollywood players. Based on numerous archival documents, personal interviews, and his own experiences, Sito's history of animation unions is both carefully analytical and deeply personal. Drawing the Line stands as a vital corrective to this field of Hollywood history and is an important look at the animation industry's past, present, and future. Like most elements of the modern commercial media system, animation is rapidly being changed by the forces of globalization and technological innovation. Yet even as pixels replace pencils and bytes replace paints, the working relationship between employer and employee essentially remains the same. In Drawing the Line, Sito challenges the next wave of animators to heed the lessons of their predecessors by organizing and acting collectively to fight against the enormous pressures of the marketplace for their class interests -- and for the betterment of their art form.

A Sight & Sound Book of the Year Jez Stewart charts the course of this extraordinarily fertile area of British film from early experiments with stop-motion and the flourishing of animated drawings during WWI. He reveals how the rockier interwar period set the shape of the industry in enduring ways, and how creatives like Len Lye and Lotte Reiniger brought art to advertising and sponsored films, building a foundation for such distinctive talents as Bob Godfrey, Alison De Vere and George Dunning to unleash their independent visions in the age of commercial TV. Stewart highlights the integral role of women in the industry, the crucial boost delivered by the arrival of Channel 4, the emergence of online animation and much more. The book features 'close-up' analyses of key animators such as Lancelot Speed and Richard Williams, as well as more thematic takes on art, politics and music. It builds a framework for better appreciating Britain's landmark contributions to the art of animation, including Halas and Batchelor's Animal Farm (1954), Dunning's Yellow Submarine (1968) and the creations of Aardman Animations.

“Verde’s unique style and simple yet increasingly important messages of peace, mindfulness, and community make her stories a must-share...A must-purchase.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Walls do not just create barriers and divide spaces. They can be canvases for artmaking; opportunities to shape a community.” —The Horn Book “This story of urban renewal sends a welcome double message by Verde: neighbors and neighborhoods are more than the way they look, and ordinary people can band together to transform big things.” —Publishers Weekly A boy takes on a community art project in order to make his neighborhood more beautiful in this empowering and inspiring picture book by Susan Verde, stunningly illustrated by award-winning artist John Parra. One creative boy. One bare, abandoned wall. One BIG idea. There is a wall in Ángel’s neighborhood. Around it, the community bustles with life: music, dancing, laughing. Not the wall. It is bleak. One boy decides to change that. But he can’t do it alone. Told in elegant verse by Susan Verde and vibrantly illustrated by John Parra, this inspiring picture book celebrates the power of art to tell a story and bring a community together.

Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award! Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean—and definitely not inside the lines!—to be beautiful.

Celebrate your individuality with this picture book that honors all the wonderful things that make you . . . you. “A picture-book celebration of individuality and diversity. . . . Affirming and welcome.” —Kirkus “In all the world over, this much is true: You’re somebody special. There’s only one YOU.” This feel-good book reassures kids that, whoever and whatever they are, it’s awesome being YOU! Expertly written to include all kinds of children and families, it embraces the beauty in a range of physical types, personalities, and abilities. Kids will love discovering and recognizing themselves in these pages—and they’ll feel proud to see their special qualities acknowledged. Adorable illustrations by Rosie Butcher show a diverse community that many will find similar to their own.