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Your recommendation for dvds on animation

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Your recommendation for dvds on animation

Hi everyone! I've been reading on some of you having your own animation dvd library. I've been planning on starting a collection of my own for a long time and use it for reference. I need some that I can study and playback frame by frame so I can watch the movements of the antics, takes and all. I am especially looking for some that has great special effects animation like explosions and smoke (like in Star Wars: Clone Wars and Samurai Jack, which I am planning to purchase soon).

So, may I ask for your recommendations on some good dvd (or VHS or whatever format) movies on animation? No, no more 3D, I've had my fill of 3D (I have some of Pixars already), now I just want to look back and want to study 2D once again, especially the cartoony ones.

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The Iron Giant has some nice FX work. The Frank and Ollie, and Grinch Stole Christmas DVDs are great to get. They have some really good stuff on it. The Grinch one has a bunch of pencil test stuff. Speaking of pencil test, pick up the Beauty and the Beast collectors DVD. They have the work-in-progress version of the film where it's the whole film in varius stages of completion. I also second the Looney Tunes DVDs as well as Batman: Volume 4.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Having just viewed it for the first time in years, my vote goes to Bambi (the original one) haven't seen that second thing yet. Has some terrific water scenes in it.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I am especially looking for some that has great special effects animation like explosions and smoke.

Hayao Miyazaki
Katsuhiro Otomo

The Japanese are really the masters of environmental animation, these days.

If you're looking for smoke, you can't do much better than Steamboy. Not technically smoke, but moves in a similar manner.

You might want to just study live action video of explosions and smoke: the horse's mouth.

Rec DVDs

Heavy Metal Special Edition contains a feature length lika (?) reel--it's not a rough cut, it's got every stage in the animation process represented from concept drawings and storyboards to finished animation. It's helpful to see errors as well as good decisions. I've noticed most 3D movie discs don't include much in the way of nitty-gritty story, how they did it, or animation elements.

I also treasure any TV series DVD that shows storyboards, concept drawings, animatics or what was pitched for a pilot, such as the Mucha Lucha TV series disc shows the 2 minute pilot, Futurama season 1 disc 1 has a full storyboard, and Aeon Flux box set shows some of the early shorts.

Sadly, good DVD extras are more of a rarity, and when present, they are often poorly described and not advertised--you have to stumble across them more often than not.

Aside from titles you need to think about how much you are going to spend and if you are going to buy used or new DVDs. Check out Suncoast Videos, they do used and new DVDs and they have a program called Replay which gives you a money certificate for points when you buy. If you plan out what you buy and when you could drive down your expenses.

Titles...there are so many. After you get some titles here you need to go hunting for others that may have been missed. Buy special edition titles, those extras are nice, like "Toy Story" box set, "The Incredibles", "Bugs Life", "Finding Nemo" which does not even include the foreign features and TV shows. Be Ware used DVDs can be a bad buy and new ones are yours once you break the plastic.

Happy Hunting. Look out for those quayle.

Disney's "Mulan" anyone? FX wise, the avalanche was out of this world!

movies

Having a library is very useful. I've built a pretty big collection over the last 18 yrs and it's always come in handy.

If you are looking for Flash style effects, you may want to look at Ryan Simmons site. He used to be an effects animator and does some tremendous Flash work.
If you can find them on the AWN forum still he had posted some effects model sheets.

he may have some useful information on his site . http://www.cartoonsolutions.com/about.html

I'm recommending a few that I seem to remember having effects , water, explosions, fire, smoke etc... Not necessarily the best movies but I did enjoy them.

If you are looking for a Sci-Fi Star Wars type movie , try "Titan A.E." Anyone that likes Star Wars will probably like this movie.

another good one would be "The Road to El Dorado"

some others "Quest for Camelot" "Lilo and Stitch" and "Mulan"

again these are just some I think might be good for an effects library.

Aside from titles you need to think about how much you are going to spend and if you are going to buy used or new DVDs.

Thanks for the reality check, Wontobe. I plan on hunting these recommendations one at a time, probably one a month.

My list so far, courtesy of you guys:

Any Looney Tunes DVD
The Iron Giant (I've been holding out for this for far too long)
The Frank and Ollie, and Grinch Stole Christmas
Batman Vol. 4
Bambi
Steamboy and works by Miyazaki and Otomo

Thanks, keep it coming.

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Try the Complete works of Frederick Back

Hello,

Check out the AWN store- they are offering a 4 DVD set of the works of two-time scar winner Frederick Back...

I ordered and just received mine yesterday...

Thanks.

FLCL is the only anime I have liked enough to get the DVD. (even though my friend got it off ebay for me all cheap-like. It is pretty expensive for a real copy at say, suncoast)

It is pretty awesome to go frame by frame to see how they animated it. Very nice animation as well. Alot of quick motions to reference.

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

Why not get one of the many short film collections that exists?
Check out chaletfilms.com ,they focus on harder to find animated films, documentarys and such. They have a series called Animatic worth watching.
And then you have the Spike and Mike Collections with a lot of alternative style animation.
And then there are a few books which presents animators and which includes DVDs with examples of work from those, do a search on Amazon for "Animation Now!" and "Animation Unlimited".

Hi there!

Fantasia (1940s ) is a great film for 2d effects animation amongst other great stuff!

All the Best

Potter

Any of the Dreamworks 2D features, while some not having great stories, are worth watching for the animation:

The Prince of Egypt (Animation is excellent, story is good)

The Road to El Dorado (Animation is excellent, story is horrible imho)

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (Animation is excellent, story is so-so imho)

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (Animation is excellent, story is good)

All of Hayao Miyazaki's Films:

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Some nice backgrounds and effects here, animation is okay, story is good)

Castle in the Sky (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

Kiki's Delivery Service (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

Porco Rosso (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

Princess Mononoke (Great backgrounds, effects, story is so-so imho, and great animation (Warning: GORY MOVIE) )

Spirited Away (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

I also recommend these other works by Isao Takahata:

Pom Poko (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

Only Yesterday (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

Grave of the Fireflies (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

I also recommend these films from Don Bluth:

The Secret of Nihm (Great backgrounds, effects, story, and animation)

All Dogs Go To Heaven (Great backgrounds, effects, pretty lame story imho but great animation)

Anastasia (While not the greatest story in the world it has some of the best animation you can get)

Bartok the Magnificant (While not the greatest story in the world it has some of the best animation you can get)

I also recommend ALL of Pixars works, all have excellent animation and stories

Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monster's Inc
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles

Also, Aardams's stuff is great:

The three original Wallace and Gromit shorts

Chicken Run

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Tim Burton:

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Corpse Bride

Warner Bros.

The Iron Giant

Cats Don't Dance (very cartoony)

James :cool:

this is a 15 year old boy so dont give me much criticizm but how do see frame by frame, what tools do you need to see it frame by frame. please tell me you just need a dvd player :D

but onto the topic, i have minimal knowledge on animation but even i can say that steamboy has some great steam affects as well as animation, but i dont think that youll enjoy the story too much though if its for studying who cares.

I promise myself i will become an animator :D

this is a 15 year old boy so dont give me much criticizm but how do see frame by frame, what tools do you need to see it frame by frame. please tell me you just need a dvd player :D

Most DVD players have the step button, I think the new Quicktime even has this feature. Anyway, it is a button on the controller labeled step.

I'll second all the Pixar recomendations, and repeat myself one more time by plugging the Fleischer Bros Superman--all 17 on one disc from Image for under $15.

I also just picked ip Behind the Scenes At Disney Studios. The 2 disc set is made up of some episodes of the 50s TV show Disneyland, a feature called The Reluctant Dragon which describes the animation process, and some short promotional films shot at Disney. It's all made to be easilly digested by the general public, so don't expect any huge revelations, but there's a lot of interesting stuff, and I find it pretty cool and inspiring to watch.

I know it's just a prehistoric version of Aftereffects, but I'm a sucker for anything about the multiplane camera!