Build your skills in the development of story ideas that will command an audience for your 2-5 minute animated short. Packed with illustrated examples of idea generation, character and story development, acting, dialogue and storyboarding practice this is your conceptual toolkit proven to meet the challenges of this unique art form. The companion DVD includes in-depth interviews with industry insiders, 18 short animations (many with accompanying animatics, character designs and environment designs) and an acting workshop to get your animated short off to a flying start!With Ideas for the Animated Short you'll learn about: Story Background and Theory * Building Better Content * Acting: Exploring the Human Condition * Building Character and Location * Building Story * Dialogue * Storyboarding * Staging

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

Build your skills in the development of story ideas that will command an audience for your 2-5 minute animated short. Packed with illustrated examples of idea generation, character and story development, acting, dialogue and storyboarding practice this is your conceptual toolkit proven to meet the challenges of this unique art form. The companion DVD includes in-depth interviews with industry insiders, 18 short animations (many with accompanying animatics, character designs and environment designs) and an acting workshop to get your animated short off to a flying start! With Ideas for the Animated Short you'll learn about: Story Background and Theory * Building Better Content * Acting: Exploring the Human Condition * Building Character and Location * Building Story * Dialogue * Storyboarding * Staging

Accompanying DVD-ROM has industry and student animations with two-dimensional animatics, character and environment designs, storyboards, beat boards, three-dimensional model facial tests, and acting references.

Follow from start to finish the creation of an animated short from the pre-production thought process to story development and character design. Explore the best practices and avoid the common pitfalls of creating two to five minute shorts. Watch a specially created animated short, demonstrating the core techniques and principles at the companion website! Packed with illustrated examples of idea generation, character and story development, acting, dialogue and storyboarding practice this is your conceptual toolkit proven to meet the challenges of this unique art form. The companion website includes in-depth interviews with industry insiders, 18 short animations (many with accompanying animatics, character designs and environment designs) and an acting workshop to get your animated short off to a flying start! With all NEW content on script writing, acting, sound design and visual storytelling as well as stereoscopic 3D storytelling, further enhance your animated shorts and apply the industry best practices to your own projects and workflows.

A guide to creating short three-dimensional films that includes examples, exercises, case studies, and more to help producers understand the basic concepts, theories, and applications of 3D film production; includes a DVD with dozens of award-winning short films.

Accompanying DVD-ROM contains examples, an animation flick book program, and Web links.