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Books on animation scriptwriting

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Books on animation scriptwriting

Can anyone recommend good books on animation scriptwriting?
What about this one:
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.11/5.11pages/demottanimation.php3

Thanks a lot!

edikm's picture
Edik Mitgartz, Animator and Character Designer My showreel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgDNQlJmL8c

Edik Mitgartz,
Animator and Character Designer

My showreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgDNQlJmL8c

I have that book, and I think it's pretty good.

I also recommend "How to Write for Animation" by Jeffrey Scott:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585674281/qid=1147096200/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9564088-4207962?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

He's offering an animation writing apprenticeship program at the moment:
http://users.adelphia.net/~getjeffre...enticeship.htm

Sharvonique Studios
www.sharvonique.com

Animated By Sharvonique Blog
http://sharvonique.animationblogspot.com

AWN Showcase Gallery

Thanks, Sharvonique!
I'll check out both books.

Edik Mitgartz,
Animator and Character Designer

My showreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgDNQlJmL8c

This isnt necessarily for animation but ...
"The Art of Dramatic Writing" by Lajos Egri
is by far the best book on writing stories and character development in general. This is a great book no matter what you are writing for.

As far as screenwriting I keep a copy of "The Elements of Screenwriting" on my desk. Its more of a quick reference book that quickly explains the formality of the script, which is helpful especially in writing for animation cause you (or at Least I do) often wonder how in the hell do I explain that and in what so it makes sense to the reader.

I am happy to see a thread about writing. Have any of you heard about the use of a nine (9) act arc structure? I fell across in on one of my interest searches, and the author has made some big clames about this technique.

This isn't exactly writing, as in a script, but Don Bluth's "The Art of Storyboard" is really good.
James :cool:

This isn't exactly writing, as in a script, but Don Bluth's "The Art of Storyboard" is really good.
James :cool:

I have that book and it is good but in an elementary way. There is an even better book on storyboarding called "Exploring Storyboarding" by Wendy Tumminello. This book was written as a textbook.

What is this about a part story arc? I am interested where I could read more about it...

Let me know.

For writing, I like to referring to Chris Vogler's The Writers Journey, for story structure--based on Joseph Campbell's mythic stories model.
Vogler promotes a 12 point story structure that I find addresses most issues within a tale.
Robert Mackee is also very good and his book is recommended as well.

Joe Michael Straczinzki also wrote a excellent book on screen-writing that covers some animation stuff.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

I'm a Campbell fan because I got an excellent introduction to his work in school. I bought "Hero With A Thousand Faces" to get deeper into his theories and it sure helps to understand his approach to structure. Campbell wrote to examine stories psychologically, however, and often refers to Freud and Jung. In short, he didn't have script-writing in mind so books based on his theories but dealing more specifically with scripts-writing might be more helpful. (I won't deny that, being a psychology textbook, "Hero" can be a bit tedious to read at times.)
I also bought "Animation Writing and Development" by Jean Ann Wright not too long ago. It illuminates most aspects of writing for animation, development, premise, outline, script, revisions and even legal issues. It's not an in-depth read on structure and development but I think it covers a variety of bases pretty well.
If you're really, really reckless you could tackle Aristotle's Poetics, of course, like we had to in school. (Grammar school, that is, not animation school.)

What is this about a part story arc? I am interested where I could read more about it...

Let me know.

If you were talking to me, here is the link.
http://www.dsiegel.com/film/Film_home.html

Thanks to all of you, I'm going to check out these books. I'm just in the beginning of a new project where I must be involved very much in the writing, and I will post some stuff as I progress.

Edik Mitgartz,
Animator and Character Designer

My showreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgDNQlJmL8c

Terry Rosio & Ted Eliot

Ted & Terry's site http://www.wordplayer.com
has some great columns on writing scripts, and two essential readings for people interested in animation:
http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp22.Ink.and.Paint.html
and http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp28.Pencil.Test.html

Great stuff. Nothing beats tales from the trenches!

The other books mentioned previously in these posting are also good. If you find one good thing in a book, it's worth it, especially if it saves you hours of frustration.

Any Script Samples?

As we are all speaking of Scriptwiriting, does any have a sample script for me to use to create my own script? :)

Message By Echi Echi :D :) :) :cool:

Visit My new album website

My Gallery of My Characters, My Toons, My Life

Just browse the web. There are countless sites which offer full scripts, and not just transcripts but often earlier drafts of finished movies and shows. Here's one, for example: http://www.script-o-rama.com/tvscript.shtml

The two best books I've found on writing for animation are the Jeffrey Scott book, already mentioned and The DC Comics Guide to WRITING Comics by Dennis O'Neil, link. This is an inexpensive, clear and concise book on the mechanics of storytelling and character development which are applicable to not only comic book writing but animation and live action scripts.

I would recommend the DVD set of The Power of Myth. Campbell was a great speaker and story teller, and the set has great art galleries and other extras. I had the series on VHS for years and it's been a great influence.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005MEVQ/qid=1147375723/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1248692-8623023?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130

Just dug this thread back up because I'm reading Robert McKee's book STORY, and it's really good! He's basically talking to people who want to sell a script to a studio, but lays a much more solid foundation for a writer than any of the other writing 'how to' books I've read.

He digs back into very basic structures that go back to ancient Greece, and talks about the basics in a very lucid and methodical way. He is mister pro-active hero/up-beat ending at times, but then falls down to worship before nihilistic masterpieces like Dr Strangelove and Chinatown.

He really doesn'ty seem to get satire, and glosses over any particularly challenging movie as "counter-technique," but he's also giving me a good sense of the mechanisms to look for when studying the stuff I like. And I've found that occasionally disagreeing with a book like this will ultimately cause you to get more out of it.

I've listened to about half the book on audio cassette and also give it my recommendation so far. He does tend to center around classical structure, and anything that deviates from that he feels pulls it farther and farther from an ability to make money (but so far doesn't knock the actual technique or process...merely observes that order, and a particular order, is generally more successful in mainstream cinema in his opinion)

The one thing I can say about it, is it's definitely a screenwriting book by some of the things he says, but generally anyone interested in story and storytelling can learn from the material.