Here’s a list of recommended resources for further exploration

(This is by no means an exhaustive list: there are certainly many other wonderful publications that we’ve forgotten to include, and many new ones in production).

BOOKS

Most of these books are available from the BMCC library and/or the NYC Public Library System.

Global Overview

• “The World History of Animation” by Stephen Cavalier (2011)
• “A New History of Animation” by Maureen Furniss (2016) (The structure of this course was largely inspired by Furniss’ work).
• “Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, the World of Cartoon, Anime, & CGI” by Jerry Beck (2004)

Early Cinema & Animation

• “Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World’s Most Famous Cat” by John Canemaker (1991)
• “Muybridge’s Complete Human and Animal Locomotion, Vol. I: All 781 Plates from the 1887 “Animal Locomotion” ” by Eadweard Muybridge (1979)

Disney & Other Large American Studios

• “Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation” by Amid Amidi (2006)
• “Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age” by Michael Barrier (1999)
• “Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation” By Mindy Johnson (2017)
• “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation” by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston (1981)
• “The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design” by Tod Polson (2013)

Soviet, Canadian & European Animation

• “Cartoon Capers: The History of Canadian Animators” by Karen Mazurkewich (1999)
• “Soviet Animation and the Thaw of the 1960s: Not Only for Children” by Laura Pontieri
• “The Art of Czech Animation: A History of Political Dissent and Allegory” by Adam Whybray (2020)

Experimental and Independent Animation

• “Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey” by Clare Kitson (2005)
• “Experimental Animation: From Analogue to Digital” by Miriam Harris, Lilly Husbands (Editor), Paul Taberham (Editor) (2019)

Anime

• “Anime: A History” by Jonathan Clements (2013)
• “Animated film in Japan until 1919: Western animation and the beginnings of anime” by Frederick S. Litten (2017)
• “Japanese Animation: Time Out of Mind” by Chris Robinson (2010)
• “Starting Point: 1979-1996” Memoir by Hayao Miyazaki (2009)

Stop Motion

• “A Century of Stop Motion Animation: From Melies to Aardman” by Ray Harryhausen & Tony Dalton (2008)
• “Aardman Animations: Craft, Technology and Identity Beyond Stop-Motion” by Annabelle Honess Roe (2020)

CGI & Gaming

• “The Art of Pixar: 25th Anniversary: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation” by Amid Amidi (2011)
• “Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made” by Jason Schreier (2017)

Learning Animation

• “The Animator’s Survival Kit” by Richard Williams (2001)
• “Cartoon Animation” by Preston Blair (1980)
• “Timing for Animation “by John Halas and Harold Whitaker (1981)
• “The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking–From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3- D Animation” by Kit Laybourne (1998)

WEB

• Animator Island (www.animatorisland.com)
• Animation Resources (animationresources.org)
• Animation World Network (awn.com)
• Cartoon Brew (www.cartoonbrew.com)
• Sakuga Blog (blog.sakugabooru.com)
• Short of the Week (shortoftheweek.com)
• Women in Animation (womeninanimation.org)
• Origins of American Animation on the Library of Congress Site
• Anime News Network
• Vulture: The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation
• Professor NaRhee Ahn’s Anime Handout