Information on Richard Williams’ DVD series The Animator’s Survival Kit can now be found here.

My first impression was Holy Hell! - $1000 for the animation lectures - no way!.  But after watching some of the clips, and especially the 10 minute promo piece, I’m thinking it might be worth it.  Might.

It doesn’t look like there is much more information than what can be found in the book, but as with Robert McKee’s Story gig, I’ve found that you get much more from these gurus when you see them speak in person.  Besides, it’s kind of cool to see all these examples animated (even though some come off a bit too “swimmy” for my tastes).

As far as the key to great animation, check out the video clip on this sample page entitled Starting Right.  Richard retells the story found in the first chapter of his book wherein the Great One tells him to ditch the headphones.  The idea being that you can only be great if you are completely focused on the task at hand, rather than what Howard or NPR has to tell you.

I’m not sure if I completely agree with that.  True, there have been times when I’ve done better work with the headphones off.  But there have been several more times when having the headphones on kept my conscious mind busy long enough for my subconscious to do some pretty cool stuff.  I think it depends on what you are doing at the time.  For me, I rarely listen to stuff when first planning out a scene, but when it comes time to actually go in there and start animating, the music starts!

So I’m still on the fence.  There’s probably some great info in there, but a grand?

I’m not sold.