The Art of DreamWorks Animation

This is an excellent retrospective artbook that looks back the concept art created for DreamWorks Animation films. Over the past 16 years, they have made 30 films, from the Antz in 1998 to Home (2014) which is the last film to be included in this book. It's a huge and 324-page thick hardcover book. It feels very substantial. Behind the subdued white cover are pages after pages of art. The layout is simple and effective at playing up the beautiful artworks. There are medium sized images to those that extend to the edges. The films included in the book are Antz (1998) The Prince of Egypt (1998) The Road to El Dorado (200) Chicken Run (2000) Shrek (2001) Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) Shrek 2 (2004) Shark Tale (2004) Madagascar (2005) Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) Over the Hedge (2005) Flushed Away (2006) Shrek the Third (2007) Bee Movie (2007) Kung Fu Panda (2008) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Shrek Forever After (2010) Megamind (2010) Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) Puss in Boots (2011) Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) Rise of the Guardians (2012) The Croods (2013) Turbo (2013) Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) Home (2014) It's a good mixture with some traditional animated and stop motion films in addition to the 3D animated films which represent the trend nowadays. Note that many films in that list have dedicated artbooks. The Art of DreamWorks Animation collects only selected pieces of art from each film, and many artworks especially from the more recent films are already featured in their dedicated artbooks. Artbooks for earlier films are either non-existent, or out of print, so it's great to see artworks from those films here. It will still be worth it to get this book even if you have other DreamWorks Animation artbooks. The artworks featured are absolutely beautiful. It's a thrill to see the concept art and production design. There are character designs, environment art and beat boards of scenes. The quality is just top notch. You get over 300 pages of art for the price of a book, it's seriously a good deal. I'm glad the most of the artworks are printed huge because you'll want to enjoy the little details that the artists have put into creating the different worlds and settings. The artworks are accompanied by commentary from the directors and artists who talk about the art and design. I do not like text boxes that overlay onto the art, but I can see they are unavoidable sometimes, especially when the art is printed full double page. Unfortunately, the artists are not credited. I would love to find out who those talented artists are. Overall, this is an awesome artbook, or a book of awesomeness which is how Po from Kung Fu Panda would have put it. Definitely one of my favourites for 2014. Highly recommended.

Really substantial book for the price, full color spreads and crammed full of inspiring development art! PRO - Great amount of environment/prop/keyframe design - Lots of beautiful full colored visual development art - Lots of sketches/process work - Lots of unpublished work that are not in "making of books" - Very satisfying display of art from every single Dreamwork film - Good way to see how films have changed from 2D to 3D and how that effects the design process. CONS - Some films don't have as many images as I would have like to seen - Not so many character development images, so if that's what you're looking for you're better of getting the individual "making of" book OTHER - Visual focused book, not much writing. Personally loved this book, a great buy for those who are seriously studying animation and those who simply enjoy beautiful work.

This whopper of a book is a delight for film fans and especially those crazy on animation pics. Virtually the history of animation frrom DreamWorks, it's a huge book covering the studio's works from "Antz" through to "Home" with hundreds of photos devoted to some thirty films with about to ten to twelve pages covering each. Beautifully designed with delightful imagery on every page and informative articles and comments from the artists involved in these unique creations. This collection is also great for those who don't want to purchase the individual books produced for some of these films. As you would expect from an Abrams book, a stunning publication at a very reasonable price.

Great book, kinda wish that it had more sketchings and concept art for several of the minor titles that it put into it. When I got the book I knew it was suppose to be all of the Dreamworks movies but there were some titles left out and others that were kinda pushed within 2-3 pages whereas others got full 5-6 pages or more (depending). I would like to see a sequel to this book in the future or even one that goes more into the storirs behind more of the movies. I still love it, and it is great reference but it needed more.

This book was everything i hoped for and more! The book is huge, for one, lots of content and full color pages. No shortage of character designs, background designs and concept art. Would definitely recommend for anyone interested in animation, design, or just the movies in general!

Has a very big size suitable for all the beautiful artwork that has inside. It features the first 30 movies from Dreamworks[2 of them from 2014 unreleased yet] has mostly images with very little text mostly commentaries from art directors, It is very inspiring and recommendable.

Great art book . It's great book full of an amazing illustrations and some sketches( not much sketches ) . If you are an illustrator I highly recommend this book for you. But if you are an animator not for you (no animation sketching)

As Parka's review says, this is a book of pure awesomeness. You have beautiful artwork from their movies plus art from the two movies it will soon release. Even if you bought the "Art of..." books of their movies, this book holds even more glorious concept art to behold!

Es una maravilla de libro de arte. Tiene 320 páginas. Incluye todas las películas de DreamWorks desde 1998 hasta 2015: - Antz - The Prince of Egypt - The Road to El Dorado - Chicken Run - Shrek - Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas - Shrek 2 - Shark Tale - Madagascar - Wallace & Gromit: The curse of the were-rabbit - Over the Hedge - Flushed Away - Shrek The Third - Bee Movie - Kung Fu Panda - Madagascar 2. Escape 2 Africa - Monsters vs. Aliens - How to train your dragon - Shrek Forever After - Megamind - Kung Fu Panda 2 - Puss in Boots - Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted - Rise of the Guardians - The Croods - Turbo - Mr. Peabody & Sherman - How to train your dragon 2 - Home Se excluyen: ”Joseph: King Of Dreams” (2000) y ”The Penguins of Madagascar” (2014). Vienen entre 10 y 12 páginas por cada película, llenas de Concepts Art, ilustraciones, dibujos, storyboards, diseño de personajes... además de información básica de cada película como quien la dirigió, productores, guionistas, diseñadores, directores de arte, etc. A nivel estético es un libro muy visual que trae más imágenes que texto, obvio, pues es un libro de arte. Para mí de los mejores actualmente espero que saquen una segunda parte. Me quedo con las ilustraciones de How To Train Your Dragon, aunque son muy parecidas a las que vienen en los libros de arte individuales (que también tengo porque soy una true fan de la animación).

This book is fantastic! It's a very nice and large hard cover book. Mine came shrink wrapped which was nice to protect it during shipping. The artwork inside is beautiful. There are plenty of sketches, paintings, concept art, etc. The book devotes 6-7 pages for each movie Dreamworks has released. Overall I am very happy to add this book to my art of and animation book collection.

The last time I had ordered an expensive book from Amazon.com and waited a month for it, it arrived without any cling/bubble wrap and shoved into a cardboard box that had managed to scruff all the edges making it look like a second-hand book. So when I ordered this book from Amazon.in, I sent them and the distributors of the book emails asking them to be sure that they packed it properly this time. And, contrary to all reviews on the internet that said that Amazon no longer paid any attention to the proper packing of their books or to complaints about the same, they did! The book arrived in pristine condition, wrapped carefully in bubblewrap and made me incredibly happy. The book is fabulous! It makes the almost month-long wait and the steep cost totally worth it. It contains beautiful full-page art work with a few pages dedicated to every movie the Dreamworks studio has made in the last two decades. The text is minimal and, what little there is, is in the form of boxed quotes from directors, producers and artists who were directly involved in the making of a particular movie. The illustrations have been printed on glossy paper and are sharp and clear with the colors popping out like all the shades of the rainbow as soon as you begin to flip through the pages. At first glance, I thought maybe the pages dedicated to each movie were too less to truly contain much information. However, at a more leisurely perusal I realized that just those few pages contained such high quality and intricate art work that to appreciate each nuance would itself take a lot of time for an amateur. The hand-painted backgrounds in some of the movies we have loved over the years are truly extraordinary. The book is also just the right size – neither too bulky nor too flimsy. The book is a brilliant tribute to the effort that goes into making a “small 90-minute children’s” movie. Tales of travelling to real locations in order to ensure authenticity of the landscapes in the movie are just an example of the incredible amount of dedication that the studio has to its projects. The anecdotes of artists working the whole day in order to gain 2-4 seconds of film makes me look at these animated children’s movies with new respect. This book is a wonderful addition to the collection of people who appreciate art and beautiful books. Its USP lies also in the fact that one can appreciate so many different styles of animation in a single book. Perhaps serious animators would chaff at the small number of pages or art work or text dedicated per movie, but it is full of inspiration for amateurs and aspiring artists alike and will make a must-have addition to any self-respecting collector’s stash.

Este libro me ha parecido por demás estupendo. Comenzando nuestra aventura con la afamada película de Antz y The prince of Egypt, que para mi es el pilar y un referente de la animación, seguido por otras películas que tienen una gran importancia y valor como Shrek, Madagascar o Kung Fu Panda. Este libro al ser un copilatorio tiene un poco de todo, advierto que si lo que se busca es una enorme cantidad de trabajos de cada una de las películas quedaran mas que decepcionados, ya que tan solo tiene entre 5 o 6 paginas por película. Esto en un un principio me disgusto un poco pero comprendo que si se agregaran mas paginas seria un monstruo de libro, que aclaro, sigo sin pensar que sea malo pero de cualquier modo he quedado satisfecho con lo que contiene. Ademas no olvidemos también la redacción del libro y es que en cada pagina se va relatando la experiencia vivida en cada uno de sus proyectos, la visión que se tenia y los retos a los que se enfrentaron. El libro es de una muy buena calidad y seguro los amantes de Dreamworks lo apreciaran muchísimo.

Etant un fan de leur style de dessin et d'histoire, je me devais de l'acheter et je ne suis pas du tout déçu ! Le livre a un nombre conséquent de pages, de belles illustrations et un détail du travail des équipes ayant participé à la réalisation des films, depuis Fourmiz (1998) jusqu'à la préprod de Dragon 2 (2014) <3. Je le conseille vivement !