Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book brilliantly guides readers, using colorful images and step-by-step instructions, through all aspects of creating a digital short film, from the development stage (story, character design, animatics), through the production process (animation, camera direction, lighting), as well as the post-production phase (editing, submitting to festivals and contests). By the time readers complete "Inspired 3D Short Film Production", they will have received an overview of all the steps involved in creating a digital short, as well as having witnessed the production of a student's short film from concept through completion. Co-Author Jeremy Cantor's latest CG short film, "Squaring Off" will be featured in "North America's Best Animated Shorts" (DVD collection) scheduled for release this Spring. Co-Author Pepe Valencia is currently lending his character animation skills to "Tadpole," 'Sony Imageworks' second animated CG short. An exciting companion DVD features several student and professional animated shorts, and includes examples performed in the book's tutorials. "Inspired 3D Short Film Production" provides budding filmmakers with the necessary inspiration, examples, and pipeline suggestions to help them turn their story ideas into reality through the medium of the 3D animated CG short.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. xix)
• Chapter 1 Getting Started (p. 1)
• What Is a Short? (p. 2)
• What Is a Good Short? (p. 3)
• Milestones Related to CG Shorts (p. 4)
• What Kind of Short Do You Want to Make? (p. 9)
• What Will You Need to Create Your Short? (p. 11)
• The Six Laws of Animated Short Film Production (p. 11)
• Considering Your Audience (p. 14)
• You Can Do It (p. 16)
• Chapter 2 Story (p. 19)
• Defining Story (p. 19)
• The Three Main Components of a Story (p. 21)
• Where to Get Story Ideas (p. 27)
• Beginnings (p. 31)
• Endings (p. 32)
• Storytelling (p. 34)
• The Short Story (p. 41)
• Typical Short Story Types and Structures (p. 43)
• Storytelling Pitfalls That Can Ruin a Good Short Film (p. 50)
• Titles (p. 51)
• Format (p. 52)
• Tell Your Story to Others (p. 53)
• Summary (p. 55)
• Chapter 3 Character Development and Design (p. 57)
• Character Styles (p. 58)
• Character Types (p. 61)
• Character Development (p. 66)
• Character Development Tools (p. 69)
• Gender and Age Specifics (p. 87)
• The Sliding Scale (p. 88)
• How Do You Feel about Your Characters? (p. 89)
• Where to Get Ideas for Characters (p. 89)
• Show Them to Others (p. 94)
• A Few Examples (p. 94)
• Summary (p. 95)
• Chapter 4 Art Direction (p. 97)
• Connecting Style with Story (p. 99)
• Mood Should Be Suggested Rather Than Forced (p. 100)
• Coming up with a Visual Style (p. 101)
• Mood-Inspiring Art Direction Elements (p. 102)
• Graphical Elements and Icons (p. 113)
• A Few Examples (p. 113)
• Art Direction Progression (p. 118)
• Character and Background Connections (p. 119)
• Originality (p. 121)
• Think Ahead (p. 122)
• Summary (p. 123)
• Chapter 5 Storyboarding (p. 125)
• Why Storyboard? (p. 126)
• Principles of Preliminary Shot Construction and Scene Planning (p. 127)
• From the General to the Specific (p. 132)
• The Tools and Mechanics of Storyboarding (p. 134)
• Diagram Panels and Numbering (p. 138)
• Shuffleboarding and Shot Shaving (p. 139)
• Summary (p. 141)
• Chapter 6 Case Study 1: Virgil and Maurice (p. 143)
• The Beginning (p. 143)
• Story and Design (p. 143)
• Character Design (p. 144)
• Inspiration (p. 145)
• Pre-Production (p. 145)
• Story Reel (p. 146)
• Modeling (p. 147)
• Setup (p. 148)
• Texturing (p. 148)
• Animation, Rendering, and Editing (p. 149)
• End Result (p. 150)
• Conclusion (p. 150)
• Chapter 7 Production Planning (p. 153)
• Your Overall Production Pipeline (p. 155)
• Budget Analysis (p. 158)
• Scheduling Your Production (p. 178)
• Asset Organization (p. 186)
• Murphy's Law (p. 190)
• Backup and Restore Yourself Too (p. 191)
• Study Others (p. 192)
• Share Your Progress with Others (p. 192)
• Summary (p. 192)
• Chapter 8 Case Study 2: Silhouette (p. 193)
• The Beginning (p. 193)
• Story (p. 194)
• Evolution (p. 194)
• Characters (p. 195)
• Music (p. 196)
• Teamwork (p. 196)
• Modeling (p. 196)
• Texturing (p. 198)
• Animation (p. 198)
• Lighting (p. 198)
• End Result (p. 199)
• Chapter 9 Vocal Tracks (p. 201)
• Only Vocalize When It's Absolutely Necessary (p. 203)
• Writing Vocal Tracks (p. 205)
• Performing and Recording Vocal Tracks (p. 207)
• Processing Vocal Tracks (p. 214)
• Alternative Techniques (p. 216)
• Summary (p. 217)
• Chapter 10 Story Reels and 2D Animatics (p. 219)
• Creating a 2D Animatic (p. 220)
• Videomatics (p. 227)
• Show It to Someone (p. 228)
• Summary (p. 228)
• Chapter 11 3D Animatics, Layout, and Camera Direction (p. 231)
• Building a 3D Animatic (p. 231)
• Creating Individual Shot Layouts (p. 232)
• Stage Setup (p. 233)
• Basic Object and Character Movement (p. 233)
• Which Comes First--the Animation "Chicken" or the Camera "Egg"? (p. 234)
• Camera Direction (p. 236)
• Editing (p. 245)
• Economy (p. 249)
• Summary (p. 250)
• Chapter 12 Modeling (p. 253)
• Modeling and Production Workflow (p. 254)
• Step 1 Determine Your Needs (p. 255)
• Step 2 Gather Reference Material (p. 260)
• Step 3 Start with Drawings or Sculptures (p. 260)
• Step 4 Scan (p. 261)
• Step 5 Experiment and Choose the Right Tools and Techniques (p. 261)
• Step 6 Naming Conventions (p. 266)
• Step 7 Create Alternative Resolutions (p. 267)
• Step 8 Create Necessary Blend Shapes (p. 267)
• Tips (p. 268)
• Summary (p. 269)
• Chapter 13 Materials and Textures (p. 271)
• Assigning Materials (p. 273)
• Material Types (p. 274)
• Textures (p. 274)
• Background Plates (p. 281)
• Summary (p. 283)
• Chapter 14 Character Setup (p. 285)
• What Is Character Setup? (p. 285)
• Rigging (p. 286)
• Binding (p. 295)
• Other Setup Tools (p. 297)
• Facial Systems (p. 297)
• Setting Up Non-Characters and Secondary Objects (p. 299)
• Puppet Testing (p. 300)
• Naming Conventions (p. 300)
• Buy Instead of Build (p. 300)
• Summary (p. 301)
• Chapter 15 An Interview with Jim McCampbell (p. 303)
• Chapter 16 Animation (p. 311)
• What Is Animation? (p. 311)
• Character Animation (p. 313)
• Styles (p. 313)
• Blocking (p. 315)
• The Magic (p. 316)
• The Fundamental Principles of Animation (p. 316)
• CG Animation Basics (p. 328)
• Function Curves (p. 330)
• Dope Sheets (p. 336)
• Walks, Runs, and Other Basic Motion Tests (p. 336)
• Animating with Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics (p. 338)
• Facial Animation (p. 339)
• Using Reference (p. 343)
• Tips for Animating Animals (p. 344)
• Animating Non-Characters and Secondary Objects (p. 346)
• Playing to the Camera (p. 347)
• Objective Self-Criticism (p. 348)
• Summary (p. 349)
• Chapter 17 Case Study 3: Squaring Off (p. 351)
• The Beginning (p. 351)
• Character Design (p. 351)
• Character Setup and Animation Testing (p. 353)
• Animation (p. 355)
• Story (p. 355)
• Textures and Lighting (p. 356)
• Sound FX (p. 356)
• Music (p. 357)
• Titles, Credits, and Transitions (p. 357)
• End Result (p. 357)
• Chapter 18 Lighting and Rendering (p. 359)
• What Is Lighting? (p. 360)
• Lighting Fundamentals (p. 360)
• Attributes of Lights (p. 361)
• Lighting Styles (p. 362)
• Types of Lights (p. 363)
• Natural versus Artificial Light (p. 366)
• Shadows (p. 367)
• Lighting Techniques (p. 368)
• Rendering (p. 370)
• Rendering for Compositing (p. 374)
• Lighting and Rendering Production Workflow (p. 375)
• Summary (p. 377)
• Chapter 19 Visual Effects (p. 379)
• Particle Effects (p. 381)
• Motion Dynamics (p. 384)
• Ramping Up (p. 385)
• 2D Solutions (p. 385)
• Summary (p. 386)
• Chapter 20 Compositing (p. 389)
• Pros and Cons of Compositing (p. 389)
• The Compositing Process (p. 391)
• Compositing Techniques (p. 392)
• Summary (p. 395)
• Chapter 21 Sound Effects and Music (p. 397)
• Sound Effects (p. 398)
• Music (p. 401)
• Summary (p. 404)
• Chapter 22 Titles and Credits (p. 407)
• Titles (p. 407)
• Creating Titles (p. 408)
• Introductions, Epilogues, and Subtitles (p. 409)
• Credits (p. 410)
• Bloopers and Outtakes (p. 411)
• Summary (p. 412)
• Chapter 23 Case Study 4: Early Bloomer (p. 413)
• Kevin Johnson (p. 413)
• Sande Scoredos (p. 417)
• Chapter 24 Marketing and Distribution (p. 423)
• Marketing (p. 424)
• Distribution (p. 426)
• Final Thoughts (p. 431)
• Appendix A Shorts List (p. 433)
• Appendix B Suggested Reading (p. 443)
• General (p. 443)
• Story and Character Development (p. 443)
• Character Design and Art Direction (p. 444)
• Storyboarding and Scene Planning (p. 445)
• Production Planning (p. 445)
• Animatics and Film Direction (p. 445)
• Modeling, Texturing, and Character Setup (p. 445)
• Animation (p. 446)
• Lighting, Rendering, and Compositing (p. 446)
• Post-Production (p. 446)
• Appendix C Selected Resources (p. 447)
• Schools (p. 447)
• Festivals, Competitions, and Conferences (p. 447)
• Magazines (p. 448)
• Online Festivals and Magazines (p. 448)
• Online Forums and Other Animation and CG Resources (p. 448)
• CG History (p. 449)
• Story Principles (p. 449)
• Character Design and Art Direction (p. 449)
• Storyboarding (p. 449)
• Animation and Lip Synching Tips (p. 450)
• Digital Resources (Models, Rigs, Scripts, Etc.) (p. 450)
• Appendix D Full Image Credits (p. 451)
• Appendix E DVD Contents (p. 455)
• Index (p. 457)