I know there are some videos for sale out there like Jeff Lew (did I get that right?)
Any others or books on animating that are worthy of purchasing?
While I have the money I am buying the A:M cd's and also looking for any good
reference stuff.
Thanks.

I would definitely say the TSM discs and the Materials discs from Anzovin Studios, mainly because they won't be making any more after the current supply runs out. They're both invaluable and I've been raving about the Materials discs over on the Off Topic forum.

I got a bunch of stuff when I first started that were really helpful!

My favorite and number one pick is Barry Zundel's Animation Master Training DVDs. Doesn't look like he offers the DVDs anymore, but you can buy the videos for download here. By far, I learned the most from these.

Jeff Lew's DVDs are here. Good action stuff and done in a really entertaining style. I need to watch these again, since it's been a looong time.

In the M.I.A. section are:

Christin McKee's "Animate!" CDs and Justin Barrett's "Animate a Face!" both from Anzovin and sadly no longer available.

Will Sutton's "Decaling/UV Setup," "Smartskin/CP Weights" and "Patch Modeling" that were all very useful and informative, but also aren't for sale anymore.

Anzovin's TSM2 was made available for free here on these forums. Do a search for it.

For my money, Barry's video tutorials are the best money spent. He takes you through the interface, modeling and rigging a character and animating, giving tips and insights that really turned things around for me.

While Jeff Lew and 'Barry's' are excellent, McKee's 3 CD set on 'Animate!' is by far the best and and Barretts "Animate a Face" is also supurb. You send me a pre-paid package to ship to you and include the CDs (so there is no expense to me) and I'll gladly copy them for you (as long as I'm not breaking a copyright laws and as they are no longer for sale it seems like it would be okay as long as I'm not selling them). I will only do this for one person as 'time' is what I lack the most.

Rusty

Even though a CD is out of print, it's still under copyright and the whole thing about not selling it for money doesn't negate that. (No one needs to chime in to tell me the law should be changed, I already know everyone thinks it should be changed. I'm just saying. The Anzovins made some really good instructional material; pirating them now seems wrong)

Hopefully there can be a way to make the Anzovin CDs available again.


Anyway, once you get to know your way around the software, a good, wide-ranging reference on how to animate well is Richard Williams' "The Animator's Survival Kit". It can be had for under $20 on Amazon.

On the face of it it is a book about 2D animation, but good motion and good poses are good motion and good poses in any medium.

Whoops. Okay forget my offer, it seemed reasonable at the time but I have no need to be associated in anyway with pirating anything. You can check ebay, sometimes someone is selling their Anzovin CDs. What a shame -- some of the best material I ever saw.

The Animators Survival Kit... well I read it cover to cover and admittedly I learned a lot from it and should probably read it again. Still, just for myself, I do not think it lives up to all the hype it gets. First it looks like a 3rd graders scribble book (wait 'till you see it!), it's huge, maybe 10"x12" but it's 342 pages could be reduced to about 100 pages as each page is... well... a 3rd graders scribble book... you have to see it. It weights a ton as it is make from very heavy paper -- if you have tendinitis or carpal tunnel forget it! I'll give it this; there is zero 'filler' in it... just a lot of white space! And I knew the minute I looked at it that there was no index. It seems like (just a perception) 80% of the book talks about in-betweens and how you can do this with them and that with them and oh, did I mention not to go over board with them. Maybe people just built up the book too much and so my expectations were way up there too high when I got my hands on it. The book has an almost cult-like following. Do I reccomend it? Absolutely.

Rusty

You can still resell the originals! If you've absorbed the knowledge, might as well let the CDs enlighten another person.

Wow! great responses Thanks!

That's right so you should be able to find someone who will sell theirs... I maintain a library for reference and review and won't sell at this time.

Rusty

Spleen, you could also contact Anzovin and see if they still have any left to sell.

I understand that it would be uneconomical to continue stocking low-volume products.

Perhaps we could persuade Anzovin to put their out-of-print CDs in some sort of on-demand CafePress situation (CafePress does do data CDs) where they could still make money off each sale and yet not have to manage the order taking and duplication.

so far I bought my A:M cd's and the Animators Survival Guide.
And the Animation Master Complete guide.

I also recommend the Barry Zundel lessons. After a hiatus from 3D to learn Flash and web stuff, I am jumping back into Hash. My Barry Animate DVD is helping to lead the way. The Barry Zundel Animate DVD gives all kinds of nuts and bolts explanations that you won't see in too many other places. You can check out his website for downloads.

www.keithlango.com offers some excellent free tutorials for animation as well as a subscription service for advanced training. Definitely check out his free tutorials. His workflow suggestions are very valuable and give great insight into what the pros in this industry are expected to do.

Eric

Don't forget Robcat's FREE video tutorials on various aspects of animation. They are all quite good.
http://www.brilliantisland.com/am/amtutorials.htm