Puppets and people: Dimensional animation combined with live action in the cinema - Hardcover

S.S. Wilson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0498023125 ISBN 13: 9780498023125

Publisher: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1981

Synopsis

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About this title

From the Inside Flap

The magical techniques of special effects animation explained with reference to the history of this masterful blending of science and art.  PUPPETS & PEOPLE large scale animation in the cinema by S.S. Wilson. 

This is a very special book about the special effects technique used to create such lifelike film fantasy characters as King Kong and all the deep space action in Star Wars. It is the first complete and accurate account of the dimensional animation: a unique combination of art, craft and science that has enthralled millions of moviegoers with its seemingly magical power to make inanimate figures move and excitingly interact with live actors.

Each phrase of this fascinating process is fully detailed. Readers are taken right into the animators' studios to see how they work. Construction of the puppets is shown to be a task requiring extraordinary precision and artistry.  The complex methods of animation are clearly explained through understandable step-by-step descriptions of how each movement to be filmed is measured and controlled to get the most realistic effect.  And the secrets of combining puppet animation with live action are revealed in totally accessible explanations of the use of such cinematic processes as rear projection, front projection, static matte, and traveling matte.

S.S. Wilson, himself a maker of award-wining dimensional animation films, writes with a vigor, clarity, and urgency of one deeply committed to making sure his readers understand and appreciate even the most technical aspects of his subject. Every term is carefully defined: elucidating diagrams have been specially prepared to graphically depict important facets of the animators' art; numerous illustrations, many of them never before published, relate information furnished in the book to actual feature films in which dimensional animation was employed.

Although the book provides unmatched coverage of the technical elements of dimensional animation, it shows this from of film-making to have far more to it than technology alone.  Puppets & People makes a strong case for considering special effects animation an art and even offers several criteria for judging it as such. It is the first book to do this. And his examination of the animators skill, and creativity convincingly demonstrates that the finest examples of their work are indeed artistic.

Most film fans and all serious students of cinema techniques are sure to find Puppets & People  entertaining, instructive, eye opening reading. All the major contributors to the field discussed their work analyzed. The  most memorable moments in dimensional animation are recalled in text and pictures.  The history, development, and potential of this intriguing form of motion picture making re explored, from close-up views of the animated monsters and mythical beasts to objective evaluation of the possible impact of electronic special effects. This is an enormously interesting book of undeniable value.

About the Author

S.S. Wilson had a consuming interest in dimensional animation since he was five years old. It was then that he saw noted animator Ray Harryhausen's The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, which at the time Wilson thought of as The Monster That Ate the Roller Coaster. By thirteen, Wilson had taken over the family movie camera and was animating anything that would hold still.  He studied film at Pennsylvania State University and USC, where he made Recorded Live, a dimensional animation/live-action short tht won many international awards and was considered in Variety as "special effects up to the caliber of the best Hollywood studio output.  He has written such films as Tremors and Short Circuit.

Edition details

• Publisher: A.S. Barnes & Co.
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0498023125
• ISBN 13: 9780498023125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 170