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| Introduction | |
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| Getting Started | |
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| What Is a Short? | |
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| What Is a Good Short? | |
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| Milestones Related to CG Shorts | |
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| What Kind of Short Do You Want to Make? | |
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| What Will You Need to Create Your Short? | |
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| The Six Laws of Animated Short Film Production | |
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| Considering Your Audience | |
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| You Can Do It | |
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| Story | |
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| Defining Story | |
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| The Three Main Components of a Story | |
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| Where to Get Story Ideas | |
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| Beginnings | |
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| Endings | |
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| Storytelling | |
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| The Short Story | |
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| Typical Short Story Types and Structures | |
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| Storytelling Pitfalls That Can Ruin a Good Short Film | |
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| Titles | |
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| Format | |
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| Tell Your Story to Others | |
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| Summary | |
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| Character Development and Design | |
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| Character Styles | |
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| Character Types | |
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| Character Development | |
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| Character Development Tools | |
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| Gender and Age Specifics | |
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| The Sliding Scale | |
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| How Do You Feel about Your Characters? | |
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| Where to Get Ideas for Characters | |
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| Show Them to Others | |
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| A Few Examples | |
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| Summary | |
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| Art Direction | |
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| Connecting Style with Story | |
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| Mood Should Be Suggested Rather Than Forced | |
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| Coming up with a Visual Style | |
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| Mood-Inspiring Art Direction Elements | |
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| Graphical Elements and Icons | |
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| A Few Examples | |
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| Art Direction Progression | |
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| Character and Background Connections | |
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| Originality | |
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| Think Ahead | |
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| Summary | |
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| Storyboarding | |
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| Why Storyboard? | |
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| Principles of Preliminary Shot Construction and Scene Planning | |
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| From the General to the Specific | |
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| The Tools and Mechanics of Storyboarding | |
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| Diagram Panels and Numbering | |
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| Shuffleboarding and Shot Shaving | |
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| Summary | |
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| Case Study 1: Virgil and Maurice | |
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| The Beginning | |
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| Story and Design | |
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| Character Design | |
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| Inspiration | |
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| Pre-Production | |
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| Story Reel | |
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| Modeling | |
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| Setup | |
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| Texturing | |
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| Animation, Rendering, and Editing | |
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| End Result | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Production Planning | |
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| Your Overall Production Pipeline | |
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| Budget Analysis | |
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| Scheduling Your Production | |
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| Asset Organization | |
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| Murphy's Law | |
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| Backup and Restore Yourself Too | |
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| Study Others | |
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| Share Your Progress with Others | |
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| Summary | |
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| Case Study 2: Silhouette | |
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| The Beginning | |
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| Story | |
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| Evolution | |
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| Characters | |
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| Music | |
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| Teamwork | |
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| Modeling | |
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| Texturing | |
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| Animation | |
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| Lighting | |
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| End Result | |
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| Vocal Tracks | |
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| Only Vocalize When It's Absolutely Necessary | |
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| Writing Vocal Tracks | |
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| Performing and Recording Vocal Tracks | |
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| Processing Vocal Tracks | |
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| Alternative Techniques | |
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| Summary | |
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| Story Reels and 2D Animatics | |
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| Creating a 2D Animatic | |
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| Videomatics | |
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| Show It to Someone | |
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| Summary | |
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| 3D Animatics, Layout, and Camera Direction | |
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| Building a 3D Animatic | |
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| Creating Individual Shot Layouts | |
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| Stage Setup | |
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| Basic Object and Character Movement | |
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| Which Comes First--the Animation "Chicken" or the Camera "Egg"? | |
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| Camera Direction | |
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| Editing | |
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| Economy | |
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| Summary | |
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| Modeling | |
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| Modeling and Production Workflow | |
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| Determine Your Needs | |
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| Gather Reference Material | |
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| Start with Drawings or Sculptures | |
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| Scan | |
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| Experiment and Choose the Right Tools and Techniques | |
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| Naming Conventions | |
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| Create Alternative Resolutions | |
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| Create Necessary Blend Shapes | |
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| Tips | |
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| Summary | |
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| Materials and Textures | |
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| Assigning Materials | |
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| Material Types | |
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| Textures | |
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| Background Plates | |
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| Summary | |
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| Character Setup | |
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| What Is Character Setup? | |
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| Rigging | |
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| Binding | |
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| Other Setup Tools | |
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| Facial Systems | |
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| Setting Up Non-Characters and Secondary Objects | |
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| Puppet Testing | |
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| Naming Conventions | |
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| Buy Instead of Build | |
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| Summary | |
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| An Interview with Jim McCampbell | |
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| Animation | |
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| What Is Animation? | |
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| Character Animation | |
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| Styles | |
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| Blocking | |
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| The Magic | |
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| The Fundamental Principles of Animation | |
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| CG Animation Basics | |
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| Function Curves | |
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| Dope Sheets | |
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| Walks, Runs, and Other Basic Motion Tests | |
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| Animating with Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics | |
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| Facial Animation | |
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| Using Reference | |
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| Tips for Animating Animals | |
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| Animating Non-Characters and Secondary Objects | |
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| Playing to the Camera | |
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| Objective Self-Criticism | |
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| Summary | |
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| Case Study 3: Squaring Off | |
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| The Beginning | |
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| Character Design | |
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| Character Setup and Animation Testing | |
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| Animation | |
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| Story | |
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| Textures and Lighting | |
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| Sound FX | |
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| Music | |
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| Titles, Credits, and Transitions | |
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| End Result | |
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| Lighting and Rendering | |
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| What Is Lighting? | |
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| Lighting Fundamentals | |
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| Attributes of Lights | |
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| Lighting Styles | |
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| Types of Lights | |
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| Natural versus Artificial Light | |
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| Shadows | |
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| Lighting Techniques | |
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| Rendering | |
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| Rendering for Compositing | |
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| Lighting and Rendering Production Workflow | |
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| Summary | |
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| Visual Effects | |
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| Particle Effects | |
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| Motion Dynamics | |
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| Ramping Up | |
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| 2D Solutions | |
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| Summary | |
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| Compositing | |
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| Pros and Cons of Compositing | |
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| The Compositing Process | |
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| Compositing Techniques | |
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| Summary | |
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| Sound Effects and Music | |
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| Sound Effects | |
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| Music | |
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| Summary | |
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| Titles and Credits | |
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| Titles | |
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| Creating Titles | |
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| Introductions, Epilogues, and Subtitles | |
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| Credits | |
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| Bloopers and Outtakes | |
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| Summary | |
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| Case Study 4: Early Bloomer | |
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| Kevin Johnson | |
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| Sande Scoredos | |
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| Marketing and Distribution | |
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| Marketing | |
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| Distribution | |
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| Final Thoughts | |
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| Shorts List | |
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| Suggested Reading | |
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| General | |
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| Story and Character Development | |
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| Character Design and Art Direction | |
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| Storyboarding and Scene Planning | |
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| Production Planning | |
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| Animatics and Film Direction | |
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| Modeling, Texturing, and Character Setup | |
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| Animation | |
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| Lighting, Rendering, and Compositing | |
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| Post-Production | |
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| Selected Resources | |
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| Schools | |
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| Festivals, Competitions, and Conferences | |
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| Magazines | |
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| Online Festivals and Magazines | |
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| Online Forums and Other Animation and CG Resources | |
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| CG History | |
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| Story Principles | |
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| Character Design and Art Direction | |
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| Storyboarding | |
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| Animation and Lip Synching Tips | |
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| Digital Resources (Models, Rigs, Scripts, Etc.) | |
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| Full Image Credits | |
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| DVD Contents | |
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| Index | |