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Williams is also the author of the bestselling book The Animator's Survival Kit which is considered an essential text for any aspiring 2D (and even 3D) animator

Williams is also the author of the bestselling book The Animator's Survival Kit which is considered an essential text for any aspiring 2D (and even 3D) animator. He spent decades on creating his own 2D animated film called The Thief and the Cobbler which was beset by endless problems and delays. The film was never completed in the form that Williams wanted. The fascinating story of this film can be found in this 2016 article: 13 Facts About The Thief and the Cobbler http://mentalfloss.com/article/74031/13-beautiful-facts-about-thief-and-cobbler http://mentalfloss.com/article/74031/13-beautiful-facts-abou... Another interesting fact: Williams worked as an animator on the 1968 film Yellow Submarine featuring the voices of The Beatles. I think you can see some of the visual influence from that film (such as the exaggerated forms) in The Thief and the Cobbler too.

jacobolus 7y ago
> bestselling book The Animator's Survival Kit Which is also an excellent (very expensive) video series. The videos are probably even more useful than the book.
- yesenadam 7y ago
  Thanks for the tip! Working torrent of 50+ avi videos here, looks like it: https://btdb.eu/torrent/4b9b9fd145162a92fd90faf1249d669328bc325b https://btdb.eu/torrent/4b9b9fd145162a92fd90faf1249d669328bc...
  - yesenadam 7y ago
    Since then I read 100 pages of the book.. then watched the first couple of hours of the videos. They cover almost the same ground, but the book explains things more concisely, accurately, while the videos feature, apart from animations of what's drawn in the book, photos and videos of the animators he's talking about, and Williams doing their funny voices and body language, telling stories, and drawing a lot of stuff on a whiteboard. Has him talking to camera as well as teaching a class. Seems like about 7 or 8 hours of video. Tip: I could hardly see what he was writing on the whiteboard half the time, but turned the video contrast and brightness down a bit and now can see everything. (There's also another torrent of mp4s, much bigger file size, but the quality seems worse than this one.) Awesome. Thanks again!
rootbear 7y ago
I saw a "boot leg" cut of The Thief and the Cobbler about twenty years ago. Some of the animation of a huge machine, toward the end of the film, is amazing. It looks like CG but it's completely hand drawn. It's a shame he was never able to realize it as he wanted to.

jacobolus 7y ago

> bestselling book The Animator's Survival Kit Which is also an excellent (very expensive) video series. The videos are probably even more useful than the book.

yesenadam 7y ago
Thanks for the tip! Working torrent of 50+ avi videos here, looks like it: https://btdb.eu/torrent/4b9b9fd145162a92fd90faf1249d669328bc325b https://btdb.eu/torrent/4b9b9fd145162a92fd90faf1249d669328bc...
- yesenadam 7y ago
  Since then I read 100 pages of the book.. then watched the first couple of hours of the videos. They cover almost the same ground, but the book explains things more concisely, accurately, while the videos feature, apart from animations of what's drawn in the book, photos and videos of the animators he's talking about, and Williams doing their funny voices and body language, telling stories, and drawing a lot of stuff on a whiteboard. Has him talking to camera as well as teaching a class. Seems like about 7 or 8 hours of video. Tip: I could hardly see what he was writing on the whiteboard half the time, but turned the video contrast and brightness down a bit and now can see everything. (There's also another torrent of mp4s, much bigger file size, but the quality seems worse than this one.) Awesome. Thanks again!

rootbear 7y ago

I saw a "boot leg" cut of The Thief and the Cobbler about twenty years ago. Some of the animation of a huge machine, toward the end of the film, is amazing. It looks like CG but it's completely hand drawn. It's a shame he was never able to realize it as he wanted to.