 Today is a sad day for so many animators because today we've learned that the legendary animator and Titan in the animation industry Richard Williams has passed away today. It's a shock, I mean he was old but he had so much energy, he was still prolific online, he was still sharing his knowledge and speaking of knowledge, the majority of animators probably have this in their office. It's a book that relied upon as a student so many times, I mean I wouldn't be where I am now without this book would be such an understatement. And I was really lucky to see him actually at the Academy of Art when I was a student there, he had a lecture showcasing all his walks, his silly walks, the theory behind it. When he was running around in that presentation room it was absolutely fantastic to see and it was so inspirational and it was just it was so cool to see him especially since I mean I've watched Roger Rabbit as a kid and after that I don't know how many times I'm just such a fan and it really is a legend has passed away. So I thought that today I would record something about his book but actually more about his app because I don't think I don't know how many people actually know about the app and I thought I'll record this in my review closet because as a student when I moved to San Francisco I was first in the dorm at the Academy dorm but then I moved to a studio and it was just it was a studio, it was a room, a small room in the kitchen and the closet just like this one just about half the size. I took everything out and put a desk in there and then worked there and I animated and studied and you know that that was the Bible that I mean I still have all these post-it notes from my studies. So I thought if I'm already talking about Richard Williams it should be in here and not that this would serve as some form of review but I do want to show the book to people who might not have it because it is absolutely amazing but again the app I really hope that you have the app and if you don't I'm going to show you why it is so awesome and such a good supplement to the book. So quickly thumb through that book to show you what's in there. Let's put this here aside. Oh man I forgot it's even dedicated man. All right so you can see here I mean again I highly recommend that you get this but contents there's just a massive amount of knowledge in this book in terms of just his history his background and after that it goes into the classic assignment the bouncing ball. I don't know how many times I looked at this and it's not just dry theory again they're examples they are drawings and actually this this is the first time where I realized that this sounds super weird but that you can disagree with masters in terms of their experience and what they taught you to where you don't just take everything they say and go I'm gonna do exactly the same thing it's more about kind of absorbing the essence and taking what they've learned and then adapting it and then and kind of building on top of that if possible and this is the classic drawing where he asked Mil to you ever listen to classical music while you're working and then you have this massive reaction and actually I'm absolutely able to work in silence but I do like working with music where either the music supplements the the shot if it's an action shot emotional shot or something or or if it's something where it's a bit more repetitive and I got to go through some mechanics of a shot that's not I don't really have to think about a performance anymore then I put on some moving the background that I know already just has some background noise it's just something that I prefer when I work but it almost felt like I was between like how can I disagree with what Richard Williams is writing here but I'm not smart enough to think of more than one thing at a time I don't think I'm smart enough either but for some reason it works but but anyway so it goes through the history of charts in between and just all the classic you got the pendulum all the classic assignments are in there then you start having basic mechanics then of course you have more of an old-school approach if you are compared to if you're doing you know cg animation nowadays but the illustrations are fun there's so many examples and even after the basic exercises it goes into a bit more complicated subjects you got smears and then you got walks and there are so many fantastic examples of walks there the breakdowns it shows you how you can exaggerate them how you can really go way too far in terms of breaking the joints all in terms of entertainment and style speaking of style different camera angles or crazy lenses so many examples you have cartoony you have realistic walks talking about spacing showing it from all different angles again different styles and different types of breakdowns and how far you can go with the successive breaking of joints the content is just absolutely fantastic you got sneaks then you got walks and runs again different examples to illustrate how far you can go then of course he talks about weight the changing of the c curve the line of action and just the different types of how you can show weight it's just so good I have to admit I haven't looked at this book in a while but I absolutely have to go back in there you got takes and accents just the foundation of any education in terms of animation it's just covered in here dialogue lip sync I love pages like this where you just have all the different styles and versions of eyes just this book is full of that and he goes into animal action as well so it's not just humans use examples or differences between humans and animals man I've looked at this that definitely remember looking at this in class also love how it's illustrated with the the shadowy part in the different colors just for simplicity and for an easier understanding of the theory there and there you go there's a lot of stuff in it it's it's not a thin book again there is just a ton a ton of absolutely fantastic material in this and if you are one of the very few animators who doesn't have this book order now I'll put the link in the description and if you check on amazon potentially you might also see that there is a dvd set of his lectures and all of this anime I'm gonna talk about this for the app but the dvd set is not cheap it's pretty expensive so I can understand it's big in investment especially as a student but your school might have that dvd set ask them if they have that somewhere accessible in their student library or whatever however your school is organized and set up but if you go into the app store and you're gonna type in Richard Williams you're gonna get this you're gonna have the app and it's $35 I mean I have it so it's that's why it says open or you have the sample so if you check out the sample it will give you an overview of what the app does have but it says sample where you can only look at things so if it says the kit here you have the outline of what's being covered so if you go here that's the only thing if you go here then you can't really look it says full app only but if you go onto the sample you will see this and you have the pages at your disposal you can go through this check them all out but the reason why I love this is because when you have this tap on that and it gives you the movie and as it plays you can take this and you scrub through and you can see the theory that you had in the book fully animated but the super cool thing is if you tap here you have the whole thing says your slide to animate you can slide and it's frame by frame you can go here forward and back and you can look at this here and really look at every single frame that is absolutely fantastic same thing with this example put your finger here and look at that you can go and check out every single frame so cool and of course you can just play it and there you go now when you have the app this is what you'll see you'll see my camera set up you will see the intro fully animated intro here you can skip that then again you got the whole kit which means that here you got all of this here so take wait for examples then you can say re-chapter and then go through everything you need to know here same thing here you have that it plays it and then you also have that fully animated or you can go in here and really slide and check this out in the frame by frame detail you can either slide or tap frame through it again what I showed you before in the book for instance animal action we looked at before re-chapter you have that here and everything that I showed you before in the book is here for you to look at and again basic animal walk pattern you see this whole thing animated and explained and you can click here again and slide through and really check this out frame by frame you can go back out and when you go back to the home there's also extras that shows you a silent film circus drawing the intro animation and the promo 34.99 I think so 35 bucks much much cheaper than the dvd set and I think a really really good companion piece to the book I think both of these are absolutely worth it and I think it's a cool combination because you can go through the book and look at this where we want to and go through the theory and text but if you need some visual examples and you're a better visual learner then you can look at the app and again the app is so much cheaper than the dvds and it really might be a better supplement potentially for you in your animation education but I'm going to leave it at that against the sad day today I just wanted to highlight his legacy and this is just a small example of the legacy that he has left behind and I think I'm gonna watch Roger Rabbit tonight it's a fantastic movie also for any of you speaking French it's really good in French I know that sounds super weird but the dubbing is great I've seen the movie and the making of this is really good making up in French about Roger Rabbit but anyway this is just a legendary book and if you're starting out now in animation and you need material this book again is a must-have if there's one thing you need to buy this is the book so I'm gonna leave it at that Richard Williams what a generous person to have shared so much of his knowledge it's really bananas it leaves such a legacy and it's just easy to say that he is a titan of the animation industry so if you don't know too much about him go and research I'll put some links in the description so that you can expand your animation history knowledge if you don't know too much about him check out the book check out the app and if you need a movie to watch to remember him and celebrate him let's watch Roger Rabbit tonight