Dream Worlds; Production Design for Animation, by the prolific Hans Bacher.
I just picked up this book and I cant recommend it enough for anyone with an interest in animation, even the seasoned vets of the industry will find new tips, be reminded of some old ones, and hear some fascinating anecdotes of the second golden era of Feature Animation- the Late 1980s and 1990's. If you were like me, you were catching these films such as Mulan and Beauty and the Beast on their opening days and fantasizing about the future when you'd have opportunities to work on such masterpieces. Hans Bacher was there and with quite a bit of candidness writes about both the difficulties and triumphs of each project.
Along with those stories, he breaks down the pipeline for the production designer into easy to understand chunks and even has sections explaining what makes a good composition and notes on camera lenses etc. etc. Many of his own production paintings are included- and as a bonus- Bambi backgrounds he pulled from dvds via capture software (great idea!). Most of these actual backgrounds are long gone and the few that remain consist of multiple sheets of painted glass making reproduction difficult. Those Bambi background paintings are some of the finest to ever grace the silver screen. AMAZING!
Dream Worlds
ISBN # 978-0-240-52093-3
208 pages
