Floyd Norman wrote one of the our forwards for the book. He is possibly the nicest man I have ever met. Here is a podcast interview with Floyd from the O-meon Geek's Guide website, who is also extremely humble. Below is the forward he wrote for our book.The theater was pitch-black as we made our way to our seats. I held my mother's hand because I couldn't see a thing in front of me. Once in our seats, I looked up at the towering screen and saw something I'll never forget. This was no ordinary movie, and the images on the screen were clearly not real. Yet they were hyper-real in a unique kind of way. The motion picture being screened that afternoon was Walt Disney's Bambi, and it was the first animated cartoon feature I had ever seen. Keep in mind, this was the 1940s, and television had not yet invaded our lives. The only way one saw an animated film was in a theater.
Though only a small child, I knew the images I was watching were colored drawings. Yet these amazing drawings moved with life, had personality, and spoke clever dialogue. What kind of magic was this, I wondered? Whatever it was, this was something I wanted to do. This was something I had to do. That desire to bring life to pencil drawings has never left me. From my first animated scribbles in junior high school to viewing my early test footage at the Walt Disney studio, I continually remain in awe of moving drawings.
Over the years, I've been privileged to work with and learn from the best in the business. Masters whose work I enjoyed as a child were generous enough to share their years of experience with me. Yet knowledge can come from the most unlikely of places, so I've learned from kids as well as codgers. That's because we all shared the same passion, and continually searched for ways to improve our art.
This book continues that search, and you'll find yourself a better animation artist because of it. That blank sheet of pegged paper on your animation desk needn't engender fear or trepidation, because it's an incredible challenge. It is the opportunity to create, for lack of a better word, magic.