Over the past few semesters, I've really started to build up my library of reference books. As a rule, whenever an idea for a short creeps into my abnormally large noggin I grab these two books.
This book offers a great summary of the Animated Short process up to the point of production. If you have an idea for a story, no matter how well thought out it is, this book will help you refine it , read: simplify it. It covers character and contact improvement, do's and don'ts of camera angles, Story-boarding, intro to acting, and everything else you need to know to get started. There are more thorough books on the individual subjects, but if you can only buy, or only have the patients for one book, this should be it. They've even added a DVD with it so that you can not only view professional work, but that of other students as well. Very cool.
This is one that I've grown to like a lot more as I get more experience with the process. This
book concentrates more on the storyboard aspect, and why it's important (something that needs to be experienced before you fully buy into the idea). The title is misleading. It definitely
covers more than just story-boarding. This book provides a framework for your entire project. I've found that the more you apply this framework, the less your original idea becomes diluted in the process. I will probably be referencing this one a bit more, since I've put a higher value on a clean production process.
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