Great Animation Links

If you have an interest in doing animation, these sites might be of interest to you. It is by no means a comprehensive list of everything available but it does have some of the better links for those interested in producing and exhibiting animated films. I will from time to time edit the list as new links come to my attention or as links become unavailable. I plan to keep this page simple with just simple links and a few words of explaination.

E-mail me at idave@earthlink.net if you have any sites that you would like me to consider adding to this list.

Animation Organizations

ASIFA Central Animation Association
Since I live in the Midwest (United States), this is a good resource to have. This is the central chapter of ASIFA which is an international animation society. There are links that will take you to other chapters here, if you live elsewhere. It is a great place to meet other animators and compare notes.

On-Line Animated Works

HotWired: Animation Express
This site features independently produced animated films.

iFilm
A showcase of independent films (both live action and animated). This site accepts submissions and viewers can leave film reviews and rate films.

Atom Films
Another showcase of independent films with a similar mission to iFilm.

Nose Pilot
An animated film produced specifically for the web.

Library of Congress: Origins of American Animation
This section of the Library of Congress' website has on-line animated films from the years 1900 to 1921. Click on the "Special Presentation: Notes on the Origins of American Animation" link to view the films.

Animation Equipment Sources

Animation Toolworks - VIDEO LUNCHBOX
This company makes a piece of equipment called a "Video Lunchbox" which is a self-contained frame grabber unit that is used for animation tests. It is used a lot by stop motion animators to check work.

Welcome to Armaverse!
A supplier of armatures for stop motion animation.

Animation How-To/Technical

ANIMATO
A very comprehensive resource for the technical side of things of traditional animation techniques. It is also the place to buy the pencil test program called "Animac" that works on older Macintosh computers.

Animation Meat
A good resource for 2-D animation technique. It has some good Macintosh info for those using that computer platform.

Welcome to the Clay Animation How-To Page
A how-to for clay animation.

At Last, Foam Puppet Fabrication Explained!
An explaination of how to build foam puppets for stop motion animation.

White Papers - 3:2 Pulldown
Explains the concept of 3:2 pulldown which is how film, which is 24 frames-per-second, manages to be transferred to video (NTSC) which is 30 frames-per-second.

MESSYOPTICS, animation camera services
This is the site index of a place in San Francisco that is an animation camera service. The reason this is being included in this section is that there are a number of links on how certain things in animation are accomplished. (Example: Multi-Plane Animation).

IdleWorm: How to Animate
Some basic traditional animation principles are presented here.

Miscellanious

The Looney Tunes SoundSource
A fun place to get Looney Toons sounds that you can use as system sounds on your computer. I think they are all in the WAVE format. (Mac users: Use the freeware SoundApp program to convert these to Macintosh system sounds. You should be able to find it at Shareware.com.)

Sally Cruikshank's "Fun On Mars" website
This is the website of Sally Cruikshank, one of my favorite animators. There is some very innovative web-based animation here. Because of some of the Java that this site uses, you'll need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view this site totally.