Flash Cartoon Animation Book Review

Learn From the Pros With Glenn Kirkpatrick and Kevin Peaty's Book

Jan 2, 2009

Learn about Flash animation design and how to create Flash animation for television and the web with the book Flash Cartoon Animation: Learn from the Pros.

Glenn Kirkpatrick and Kevin Peaty are to animation what the British “Hairy Bikers” are to televised cooking. Long-haired, cowboy-hatted and tattooed, their outward appearance is not how one would expect ex-Disney animators to look. However, both are extremely experienced cartoonists, with particular expertise in the field of Adobe Flash animation.

Their book, Flash Cartoon Animation: Learn from the Pros, is evidence of their collective animation skills. Approachable, thorough and wonderfully illustrated with clear examples that highlight the lessons of the accompanying text, Flash Cartoon Animation is both an enjoyable and educational read.

Instructive Humor in Flash Tutorials

Due to the technical nature of Flash animation, such books are often little more than dryly written instructive manuals. Useful resources, but not exactly fun. In contrast to such books, Kirkpatrick and Peaty manage to inject a wry humor throughout their tutorials. For example, on the subject of humor itself in cartoons: “Humor's a funny thing. What people find funny is incredibly subjective. The French, as a nation, find Jerry Lewis funny – we certainly don't. The lesson is: don't aim your humor at the French”.

However, there is always an instructive point to their humor: “Alienate your audience by all means – just make sure to do it for the right reasons!”.

Flash Cartoon Animation Book Contents

Each section is broken down into further chapters that outline through example the principles and process involved in making a complete animation in Flash. Throughout, the authors use their own short animation, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, to illustrate their lessons.

Flash Cartoon Animation Book Review Summary

Flash Cartoon Animation: Learn from the Pros offers a complete guide to drawing, inking, animating and publishing Flash cartoon animation for both television and the web. As one would expect, the book is well-illustrated, but as readers of other Flash animation books might not expect, it is also written with a passion for the subject, and with an appropriately skewed sense of humor.

Most importantly of all, the explanations of the animation processes are clear, detailed and exhaustively cover all aspects of cartooning in the Flash medium. This is recommended reading for animators new to Flash, or experienced Flash cartoonists looking for a useful reference book to add to their library.

The copyright of the article Flash Cartoon Animation Book Review in Computer Books is owned by Nicolas McGregor. Permission to republish Flash Cartoon Animation Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.