Ed Hooks is Stanislavsky for animators, but fun! I advise all my animation students to read Ed's amazingly insightful book.
—Dave Quesnelle, Professor of Animation, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators was the first book on the subject and is still the best. His analysis of character motivation and expressing emotion is the difference between animating and just moving furniture.
—Gene Hamm, Animation instructor, Academy of Art College, San Francisco

Character animators, using pencils and/or pixels, will discover a wealth of information about how to make their characters express empathetic emotions in the revised edition of [this book]. . . . Highly recommended.
—John Canemaker, Animator/Director of Animation, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

If I can't figure out what is wrong with one of my characters, I can pick up Ed's book, scan for just a short while, and come back with my direction. It's the I Ching for animators.
—Matt Brunner, Director, Xbox

Wonderful teaching! Ed Hooks is fascinated and fascinating.
—Michael Dudok de Wit, Winner, Academy Award, Short Animation, Father and Daughter

Animators need to know a lot about acting, but they don’t need to know everything. Acting for Animators sorts out the acting theory that animators need, presenting it in a form and with references that are more relevant to the animator’s world. It explores the connections between thinking and physical action, between thinking and emotion; it provides the steps for an effective character analysis and the dynamics of a scene. Using references to animation and live action, acting principles are highlighted and explained. Plus, the accompanying CD-ROM provides explicit examples, including videoclips of improvs based on the seven essentials of acting and highlights of Rudolph Laban’s movement theory.

This revised edition is illustrated by Paul Naas, an animator and director whose work includes film, TV, video games, location-based entertainment, and Internet animation. He was one of the first animator/instructors hired by the Disney Institute.