Monday, September 08, 2008

"Controlling Illusion" is here!

Hello everyone, students, associates and friends of The Animation Academy. I'm very happy, excited and proud to present my first book, Controlling Illusion.

Controlling Illusion is a compilation of many of the class demonstrations I've done throughout my career as an art educator, with most of them originating from the sessions I've taught at the Academy. Much of the art stems from my Visual Development course, along with some work from Character Design. Here's the front cover, clicking on the image will give you a better view.




The art spans a 22 year period, and the book itself took two years to assemble and write. I decided at the outset that I would gear Controlling Illusion towards an educational experience by describing the lesson from each demonstration. The book is being used a reference text in class and so far, the results in our students' work really shows the difference that Controlling Illusion is making with their design and rendering skills.

You can purchase Controlling Illusion online through a special site I've created for that purpose. Follow the links below for info about the book, along with a view at some Sample Pages and also to see some of the early Reviews the book is getting.

To Purchase: http://controllingillusion.com/

Sample Pages: http://controllingillusionsamples.blogspot.com/

Reviews: http://controllingillusionreviews.blogspot.com/

Initial response to the book has been extremely positive acrosss the board. Controlling Illusion will help make a good artist better and a better artist great. Each page offers useful information and insights about each demo in a way that will walk you through the progressive stages of Vis Dev fundamentals. It's an educational anthology in art through an animation design and development venue that will inspire you to create. I'm very confident you'll enjoy it as a learning tool as much as you will its entertainment value.

Authoring is a lot of fun as I'm finding out, and I'm working on a second book as a result of my experience with this. Meantime, I hope you'll take a moment to take a look at the Controlling Illusion links and get a glimpse into this unique endeavour.

Controlling Illusion is a specialty art education book sold exclusively through The Animation Academy.

Thanks to all, and Keep Creating! That's the key.