The Art of DreamWorks Animation Hardcover – April 15, 2014

The media could not be loaded. 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 areAntz (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" bookOTHER- 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.

Bought for my sister for Christmas and she still looks through it today! Definitely would recommend this book to anyone that likes dreamworks !

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)

amazing, very worth it. it does a good job of giving you 10 or so pages on each movie that dreamworks has made! some go into more detail than others, but i wish that they went into more depth with ones that sold better like kung fu panda or httyd, even though there are still plenty of sketches for each movie. animation or illustration artists are gonna love it

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!