Professor Paul Wells is director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University. He has also lectured extensively in universities across the world on animation. Joanna Quinn is a major figure in world animation, receiving two Academy Award nominations and winning Emmys, Baftas, and Jury prizes worldwide. She lectures at universities and film schools in Britain and abroad. Les Mills was the course director in Film and Animation Production at the University of Wales. He now runs an animation production studio in Cardiff with Joanna Quinn. Les's work has received an Oscar nomination and won three Emmys.

It covers a huge subject area in an accessible and readable way. The layout is good and helps the reader access areas of particular interest. The best thing about the book is the quality and relevance of the illustrations.

• Introduction. How to get the most out of this book. Thinking about drawing: Observation; Perception; Memory; Interpretation; Representation; Imitation; Experimentation. Practice: Composition and perspective; Life and figure drawing; Movement and dynamics; Thinking animation; Drawing characters. Pre-production and production procedures: The inciting idea; Script; Storyboard; Scenes; 2D to 3D. Drawing and narrative: Sketchbooks as narrative resources; Character as narrative. Drawing and adaptation: Commercials; Literary adaptation and graphic narrative; Adapting aesthetics. Drawing characters and concepts: Frederic Back; Paul Driessen; Richard Reeves; Michael Dudok de Wit; Luis Cook; Gerrit van Dijk. Glossary. Notes on drawing. Conclusion. Bibliography. Filmography. Webography. Picture credits and acknowledgements.