Thomas Paul Thesen has spent six years in illustration at the University for Applied Sciences in Hamburg and then got his Master of Fine Art in Experimental Animation at CalArts in California. During his studies he was approached by Pixar Animation Studios to do inspirational character development on their feature film Ratatouille. After getting his MFA from CalArts he started to work as a character-animator for Dreamworks Animation and worked on the feature Shrek 2. He always wanted to go into visual development and switched departments to work on features like Bee-Movie or Puss-in-Boots. Since then he have been focusing on visual development, character design and illustration in his professional and freelance work. For eight years now he has been teaching animation for universities like SCAD, NYU Tisch, Hongik University or Hallam University.

Chapter 1: The Power of Images, Chapter 2: The Purpose of Images, Chapter 3: The Frame, Chapter 4: Aspect Ratio, Chapter 5: Composition, Chapter 6: Character Staging and Film Language, Chapter 7: Vectors, Chapter 8: Directions, Chapter 9: Shape and Form, Chapter 10: Mood, Chapter 11: Size, Chapter 12: Depth, Chapter 13: Light and Shadow, Chapter 14: Color, Chapter 15: Color Contrast, Chapter 16: Perspective, Chapter 17: Texture, Chapter 18: Movement, Chapter 19: Music and Sound, Chapter 20: Variation