2619 Hyperion: Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Archive Series: Story

Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Story 272 p, 2008.

Simply put: this is a stunning coffee-table book that showcases storyboards, concept art and sketches that the Walt Disney Company (in all of its iterations) used to create the stories that we see on the screen. If you are a fan of the animated films, then you need to own this book. Presented with over 240 pages of images, the only text is the introduction by John Lasseter, the acknowledgements and the Film Synopsis and Credits section.

All of the images were prepared and presented by the Walt Disney Animation Library--the largest collection of animation in the world. The ARL was created as a tool for the Company to educate up and coming artists and to provide a research facility for the Company. Some of the images are seen for the first time and even in a unique media.

You might wonder how a book of this size that is dedicated to story explains the story process with only images. In many cases, the sketches and thumbnails presented are some of the first incarnations of the story; they help the animation and story units move forward and develop the stories that we finally see.

Images are the only way to do the book justice.








Thanks to Teoh Yi Chie at the Parka Blog for the inspiration for the following video!