The animated version of the book's logo (it can be watched here ) plays this straight as the music syncs with each character's actions as they move in place to perform a choreographed walk cycle. Impossible Hourglass Figure: Despite demonstrating a perfect knowledge of anatomy, damn does he love his implausibly proportioned women! Book Review: Expanding 'The Animator's Survival Kit' ". Animation World Network . Retrieved 2023-01-30. Off Like a Shot: There's an example about how characters can anticipate running with this pose and then instantly disappear offscreen, leaving only a dust cloud or similar behind.

Lazy Artist: Discouraged; Williams makes a great point early in the book that fundamental drawing skills, particularly life drawing and anatomy knowledge, are imperative for any aspiring animator to learn.The Twelve Principles of Animation: Gives very specific advice on how some of the principles work. It even mentions The Illusion of Life at one point.

There is no one better prepared than Williams to assemble a book like this. He is a living link between the pioneers of the art form and the international animation community of today. Much of the information in the book relates directly to the creation of character animation regardless of the media used to create it.Broad Strokes: At the time he was writing the book, Richard wanted to move on past the devastating loss of his film The Thief and the Cobbler, so the book makes no direct mention of the film or its production. Key word here is direct—Richard did sneak in at least two allusions to the film's existence. The first is mentioning working with Vincent Price on an unspecified project, and the caricature of him included is a dead ringer for Zigzag, the character Price played in the film. The second allusion to the film is recycling an actual scene of animation from the film, of the Old Witch running. Ironically, Richard said in a 2013 interview that writing the book allowed him to make peace with the troubled history of Thief and be content with the workprint edit of the film. Rubber-Hose Limbs: Discussed, in that it explains this technique of animation, but it also explains how to get flexibility in limbs without literally bending them like noodles. The dachshund of the book's logo was revealed in the animated version of said logo to have a stretchy middle-body when he tried to get inline with the rest of the characters, much to his embarrassment. Animation Bump: Richard's book is intended to allow animators to do this on their own whim. The promo CD that comes with the book also has a very impressively animated sequence, which Richard claims took around a year to make! The new editions of the Animators Survival Kit do exactly what they are designed to do – give the reader direct access to a treasure trove of advice focussed directly on specific subjects. Like their predecessor these new books are perfect for anyone wishing to perfect their animation craft. After covering everything possible on walks, Williams moves on to one of the most important aspects of character animation: Flexibility. For beginners, making characters look loose and flexible is the toughest thing to master. With a variety of examples that show the movement of joints and how to overlap actions, Williams makes it easy to understand.