Richard Williams, "The Animator's Survival Kit"
Faber & Faber | ISBN: 0571202284 | January 7, 2002 | 352 pages | PDF | 35MB

Williams' book is also sprinkled throughout with his many varied and often amusing anecdotes, full of great trivia and many stories about the animating greats that Williams was fortunate to have worked with in his more than forty years of being in the business. But even with this he never wastes time or precious book space with extraneous fluff; at nearly 350 pages it's a fast, yet thorough read. (Many computer "How To" books could learn a lot from this approach.)

This book isn't filled with the so-called "secrets" of animation, this book is the holy grail itself. As an instructional self-teaching guide this book is invaluable to anyone thinking about working in the field of animation. A virtual classroom in and of itself.

Tony Mullen, Erwin Coumans, "Blender Physical Effects .Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!"
Sybex | ISBN-10: 0470192801 | June 30, 2008 | 400 pages | PDF | 34MB

Bounce, Tumble, and Splash! is the only book to cover the advanced simulation features of Blender, the premier open source 3D software that is a must-have for your animation toolbox. Expert author Tony Mullen provides you with the real-world know-how to create dynamic, highly realistic images of flames, cloth, hair and other physical phenomena from the world around you. This unique guide will help you push the boundaries of 3D and take your Blender skills to the limit.

You'll discover the very latest Blender physics and dynamics tools, including simulations for soft body, fluid, rigid body, and rag doll dynamics. Hone the skills to create stormy seas, flowing hair, or fiery flames with the sophisticated coverage of advanced Blender features included in this beautiful, full-color guide.

* Set particle parameters, define systems, and discover new Blender particle functionality
* Explore the new cloth simulation, improved tools for soft bodies, and the Demolition Python script
* Style the latest look in hair with strand particles, new styling tools, and new features for hair and fur
* Make a splash with fluid simulations and modifiers
* Use the Blender Game Engine and the Bullet physics library to create rigid body physics simulations
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Build realistic trees and plants with Blender scripts and third-party tools

Create dynamic hair effects using hair styling and soft body simulation for particles

Use the improved soft bodies to create jiggling, bouncing objects

Steve Roberts, "Character Animation 2D Skills for Better 3D, 2nd Edition"
Focal Press | ISBN-10: 0240520548 | April 20, 2007 | 304 pages | PDF | 12.4MB

This book is the culmination of almost 10 years of teaching drawn animation techniques to 3D computer animators.
You may think, ‘why on earth does a 3D computer animator need to learn how to do drawn animation?’ The answer to this question is that the basics of animation are all the same and often you can get an idea of the movement far more quickly using pencil and paper. A computer can take a lot of the drudgery out of animating, but you can end up doing a piece of animation without quite understanding how it happened and whether it works or not. One of the most valuable things I have learnt over the past 25 years of animating is to keep things simple!

The main value of an animation teacher is somebody who can cut to the chase and tell you the fundamental things that you need to know. You can then elaborate on top of this in your own way.
I have kept the examples and the animation exercises in this book as simple as possible, so that you are able to build a firm foundation of skills on which you can develop your animation further.
The form of the book is as follows. In each chapter I will go through the fundamentals of a given topic. Then there will be a drawn animation exercise to complete. Then and only then can an identical animation exercise be attempted using the software package of your choice.