His first lesson is a valuable piece of advice -- unplug! That’s right, turn off your stereo or radio when you work and concentrate. The largest drawing in the book shows Milt Kahl at work at his drawing table and young Williams asking, "Milt, do you ever listen to classical music while you’re working?" Turn the page and you find a giant two page illustration of Milt roaring, "Of all the s-s-s-stupid god damned questions…" On the final page Milt tells a very small Williams cowering in the corner, "I’m not smart enough to think of more than one thing at a time!" The author says he took the advice and, "My animation improved right away."

The book is about work methods. Williams' says, "There are no rules -- only methods… I really do think that -- apart from your talent, brain and skill -- fifty percent of the excellence in your work comes from your working method: the way you think about it, and the way you go about it."

Some of the wisdom in this book is attributed to the men who were Williams’ masters. There are wonderful moments that give glimpses into their work ethics, like Ken Harris telling him, "Come on, now, you can have fun doing the drawings later, but the important part first -- time it all out." In his discussion of the use of ones and twos he tells us, "Art Babbitt used to nag at me for using ones, ‘That’s too realistic -- one of the things about animation is that it’s not like life!’ But I would often add ones to Art’s work when he wasn’t looking and it came out better -- and he liked it better."

A great deal of the book is spent on walks because, as Ken Harris put it, "A walk is the first thing to learn. Learn walks of all kinds, ‘cause walks are about the toughest things to do right." He tells how Art Babbitt taught him to study people from behind and, "Follow them along and ask yourself: Are they old? Young? What’s their financial position? State of health? Are they strict? Permissive? Depressed? Hopeful? Sad? Happy? Drunk? Then run around to see the front and check." I think Babbitt’s questions give a good idea at how complex and expressive walks can be. Williams really covers the subtle nuances of body movements to give you the best education he can.

Related to walks and runs are sections on dancing, the movement of athletes and other activities. There are discussions about head movements and expressive uses of arms and hands. His discussion of flexibility in the face includes some of the most amusing drawings in the book.

The book doesn’t cover how to animate robots, spiders, crabs, car crashes, explosions and a lot of other non-human things. It doesn’t tell how the Japanese make female eyes sexy or how Harman-Ising made their animals so awfully cute. And there is no reason why it has to cover any of these things. My only negative criticism are two minor points in his brief encapsulation of animation history. He paints a vivid picture of several key events, but at least one date is off by a year and he makes a questionable statement about The Yellow Submarine (1967).

Williams has written and illustrated a brilliant volume and I suspect it will become as highly regarded as Frank and Ollie’s The Illusion of Life. I suspect it may be several decades before anyone tries to improve upon this work.

The Animator’s Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators by Richard Williams. London, U.K.: Faber and Faber, Limited, 2001. 352 pages. ISBN: 0-571-21268-9 (hardback US$50) and 0-571-20228-4 (paperback US$30).

Karl Cohen is President of ASIFA-San Francisco. His first book, Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators, is published by McFarland Publishers. He also teaches animation history at San Francisco State University.