Book Reviews for 2021

The last time I had to write a book review was when I was in High School and under great distress. Today, I am happy those days are gone and have the opportunity to review a few new books that I really want to let you know about.

The following two publications are from 3Dtotal Publishing and I am not receiving any payment to promote these books. I was looking for a books about the basics of Character Design to help explain the subject to my animation students. I happily discovered "Fundamentals of Character Design" to be that "go to" book on the subject.

When you open this softcover book, you will find quality color printing and paper. You will discover on the very first page, a pledge from the publisher that for every book sold, they will plant a tree. What a great idea!

Here's what you will find in the Table of Contents as every chapter is written by a different artist. 

• What is Character Design? 
• Research and Ideation
• Key Design Principles
• Figure Basics
• Pose, Movement & Gesture
• The Face
• Age
• Accessories
• Putting it all together
• Working with multiple characters
• Working in Character Design

A really informative text with tons of colorful character designs to inspire and learn from. This is a great book for anyone interested in learning more about the subject and process of character design.

I'm also very impressed with, "How to be a Children's book Illustrator" as well. This is a thick, hardcover book covering everything you need to know about Illustrating and working as an Artist of Children's books. 

They have also included several sample stories illustrated by different artists and then include their comments about their design process from start to finish. 

If you would like to view these books and others, I will post a flip thru video on the Animateducated YouTube channel soon. 

Happy New Year!

T

Animateducated final interview for 2020!

I began this YouTube channel called Animateduated, (pronounced animated educated) a few years ago with the idea of interviewing Animators, Directors, Artists, Authors and other creative folks. Recently it hit 400 subscribers and is gaining more. Here is a promo explaining what interviews I did in 2020... 

To gain any actual income from a YouTube channel, you must obtain over 4000 public watched hours and have over 1,000 subscribers before you can have ads placed on your channel. At this posting, we are up to 527 and have 417 subscribers. 

At this current rate, we should reach our goal in about 9 years, unless I can post a video of my cats doing something really hilarious, which could go viral and that goal could be reached in a week or so. I've discussed this idea with our cats, but unfortunately, they have decided to cease being cute or silly whenever I try to record them.

Below is the final interview for 2020, featuring Stop Motion Animator, Teresa Drilling. Teresa animated Leon the Snowman in "Elf" and is featured in a Netflix documentary called "The Holiday Movies that Made Us". 

If you enjoy these interviews, please let a comment below or subscribe to the YouTube channel to show your support. 

Happy Holidays from Animateducated!

Raft Animation interview

Several animation professional have come together to form a new animation studio called RAFT animation. Michaela Hart is a producer who has teamed up with Chris "Surf Up" Jenkins to form this new studio that wants to produced Educational Entertainment with an Environmental theme.

They produced an animated PSA featuring their mascot character called Oliver the Otter can be seen below.

I got an opportunity to speak to Michaela Hart and Chris Jenkins during the beginning of the Pandemic of 2020 to find out more about their new studio.

Enjoy this interview? We are almost at 400 subscribers and would like to give away a special prize to our 500 subscriber to the YouTube channel! More details to come when we are closer to 500 subscribers!

Thank you for watching and supporting Animateducate!!!