Friday, January 30th, 2015 Posted by Jim Thacker

The Animator’s Survival Kit: now available on iOS, OS X


The animated logo for the DVD edition of The Animator’s Survival Kit. A new iPad edition of the celebrated animation training manual will be released next month to celebrate Richard Willaims’ eightieth birthday.

Originally posted on 21 February 2013. Scroll down for updates.

Richard Williams is to release a new iPad edition of his seminal animation training manual, The Animator’s Survival Kit, adding a number of new videos and drawings.

First published in 2001, The Animator’s Survival Kit distils the triple Oscar-winner‘s 50 years of animation experience into a lucid, detailed, beautifully illustrated training manual.

Williams later released an expanded 16-DVD box set drawing on footage from his industry masterclasses and including over 400 animated examples. Ice Age director Chris Wedge described it as “a revelation”.

Expanded and interactive
The new app will contain both the Expanded Edition of the text and over 100 of the animated examples, along with new pieces to camera from Williams and his previously unreleased short Circus Drawings.

According to publishers Faber and Faber, the on-screen navigation will fade away when inactive to avoid distracting from the animation; and there will the the option to play examples frame by frame or onion-skin them.

Updated 19 April 2013: The Animator’s Survival Kit is now available on the App Store, price $34.99.

Updated 30 January 2015: The Survival Kit is now available for iBooks, meaning you can use it on a Mac as well as an iPad. You’ll need to be running OS X 10.9 or higher and have iBooks installed.

Visit The Animator’s Survival Kit website