animator's survival kit: animated. worth the price?

rooster · Jan 2009

I just saw this, and was incredibly excited:
http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

I mean I read the book, and it was great- but seeing all the examples in motion, and richard williams giving the whole thing as a lecture.. brilliant..

until I saw the price. 730 quid, for 16 dvds.
45 or so pounds per dvd.

now.. looking at the footage, it looks awesome. but thats a heck of a wad of money, and no option to purchase one or two chapters..

has anyone got there mitts on this?

thomasp · Jan 2009

looks very interesting. read and liked the book as well. as for the price... just depends on how serious you are about animating i suppose.
as helpful as it may be, it surely won't replace attending animation mentor or similar courses careerwise - i work with a bunch of people from AM and the kind of contacts and exposure they get through this school are quite staggering and probably worth the fees alone.

low odor · Jan 2009

I used the book a bunch at work when I was animating...it's a great reference tool...I would drop the cash on it if I had the money.

Mark Dygert · Jan 2009

The book changed my life, I love it, but not that much...

Sage · Jan 2009

Looks awesome. I wish I had the money to get the dvds.

Mezz · Jan 2009

Oh wow, yeah, so awesome... Would also love it, but I'm afraid not at that price...

DockRock · Jan 2009

I'm afraid I am going to have to agree with everyone else on this one...It was an amazing book, full of all sorts of knowlegde and insight, but that is a lot of freaking money! Unless you have that kind of money of course. in which case i'm sure it's well worth the buy!

You wouldn't happen to have a birthday coming up and a ton of relatives would you?

Flynny · Jan 2009

If your already in a aniamtion job, its not going to be too much of a must buy.
But as a complete education for those who want to avoid crappy universities, damn get it already thisl be the cheapest course ever!

Looking into buying the whole set at some point myself be it sharing the cost with work collegues or whatever, looks amazing.

Josh_Singh · Jan 2009

With a price point like that, it looks like they expect companies to buy it for their employees.

Wells · Jan 2009

man, this looks awesome

pointed it out to a friend who agreed, then i told him the price.

he was shocked - at the bargain. he compares it to the two animation courses he took at SCAD, which easily cost more and had less

Andreas · Jan 2009

Flynny wrote: »

But as a complete education for those who want to avoid crappy universities, damn get it already thisl be the cheapest course ever!

Never thought of it this way. Much cheaper and much better than most animation courses out there! Richard William's as your own private tutor!

Considering how weak the pound is now, it is a much more reasonable price. Small studios should be buying this up now.

If you think about it, Gnomon charge at about 45 per dvd too...so it's not too bad.

rooster · Jan 2009

aye, at a per dvd price that's fine.. but imagine if you had to buy 16 gnomons or none at all :P

I wish you could get it per chapter or something, as I'd probably collect them all over a period

Mark Dygert · Jan 2009

Agreed, I'd probably do the same thing. But as a huge brick, its hard to justify. I could see this as a nice juicy prize in a lot of animation competitions.

sir-knight · Jan 2009

yeah... it may be a whole course in one... but is he around to critique your work like your peers and profs at school? Well okay.. your peers here can crit your work just as well, but profs can sit beside you and demonstrate what they're saying that applies exactly to what you're doing if you have the questions. That is one thing a dvd will not have that a course always will.

Mind you that's subject to the ability of the prof

I have the sample dvd from the demo he did at the ottawa animation festival for the set, I didn't attend the lecture but I should probably pop the dvd in and have a look.

2cool4school · Jan 2009

Well, I have the book and judging by some of the examples on the website it looks like he is just walking you through whats in the book. Seems like a video reference to the book.
I would like to see proof of alot more new principles before spending that much money, so I don't think it's worth it.
Seems like a cool guy though!

Tulkamir · Jan 2009

Josh_Singh wrote: »

With a price point like that, it looks like they expect companies to buy it for their employees.

Those were pretty much my exact thoughts. I imagine they are gearing this towards employers and schools. If want to get your hands on these and are working in the industry or attending a school, I'd make it your first course of action to be talking to them about buying it for their library.

pior · Jan 2009

Yeah, and as soon as a company purchases it one can be sure to find a "free" copy over the network the next day or two - kindof brings the price down :P

Also that animated walks logo is a goldmine in itself. Loving the weight shifting on the chromeball guy. Just learned something for free right there!

apocalypse · Jan 2009

That website went around work a couple of weeks ago and a bunch of us were going to pool some money together to buy them. Turned out that work bought it for us so we didn't have to. I haven't watched it all but from the first couple of DVDs I'd have to say that it is a valuable asset to have.

It's just like the book. IMO I found it better than the book. Especially if your challenged in the reading department like I am. (I tend to phase out when reading books, don't know why)

The price sucks but just to let you know, it isn't a waste of money.

animator's survival kit: animated. worth the price?

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