August 24, 2006

Cartoon Modern

I picked up this book at Strange Adventures yesterday and was thoroughly delighted with it's contents. This animation design style through the 50s book is authored by the guy who runs cartoonbrew.com.

This manual charts the evolution of the modern style in animation, which largely discarded the "lifelike" aesthetic for a more graphic and often abstract approach. Abundantly found in commercials and educational films, this quickly popular cartoon modernism shared much with the painting and graphic design movements of the era.

This period between the classic films of Walt Disney in the 1940s and the televised cartoon revolution of the 1960s was a critical period in the history of animation. Showcasing hundreds of rare and forgotten sketches, models, boards, cels, and film stills, this amazing book is a thoroughly researched, eye-popping, and delightful account of a vital decade of animation design.

No comments: