How to draw animation

How to Create Animation Drawing with 7 Best Software

Shanoon Cox

May 06, 2022• Proven solutions

We can’t deny the fact that hand drawn animation is always adorable and will always be, no matter how much 3D animation gets the limelight. The animations have always given us pleasure, not only in childhood but at our adult times too. And, the animation drawing can be so enthralling.

It feels great to think that we can ourselves perform animation drawing process effortlessly via some easy-to-use animation software. So, if you’re a newcomer to this animation field or a skilled one, you’ll always need very helpful software for the purpose. This article will help you in making animation with the help of some animation drawing software ultimately giving that delightful experience.

Here we recommend using FilmoraPro. You can use it to make drawing animation video by adding keyframes, so the animation will be smooth and natural. You just need to build a white plane to easily start making animation. Besides, color correction and audio mixer will raise up your video to a new level. Download it to have a try (Free)!

7 best software to animate your drawing

1. Adobe Animate

Adobe Animate is one of the leading 2D animation software in this animation industry that many designers use. For better results, it is suggested that you combine it with Capture so that you can capture various interesting color schemes or transforming the image into vector and other things before starting animation with Adobe Animate. This will create an effective hand drawn animation.

2. SketchBook Motion

SketchBook Motion is for iPad users to make their animations.With the help of this app, you can drag and drop into a document easily. You can instantly share your animation drawings as iMessage stickers, animated GIFs or MP4s.

3. Animation & Drawing by Do Ink

It is an easy to use and one of the best hand drawn animation apps for iPad users. This app has a large number of features and drawing editing options. For example, you can make frame-by-frame or single frame animations, create motion paths just by dragging fingers, and enjoy custom color palette and more.

4. Animation Paper

Here is the next animation drawing software named as Animation Paper. It is simple to use and offers a lot of features. It can be considered as one of the most effective software to create animations. From layers to cutouts to paint features, it has all that pro software and a pro designer needs.

5. Pencil2D

Pencil2D is next in the list and is one of the lightweight software. It is an open source software and completely free to use. You can simply and smoothly sketch, ink or paint by switching between raster and vector workflows. The animated file can be exported to MP4, animated GIF or AVI when using this software. There are many drawing tools given by this animation drawing software like fast hand tool, dotted cursor etc.

6. Toonator

Toonator is an online tool that can help you making your own animations. It lets you draw your own imagination on the screen and turn it into animated effect. It’s an easy to use online platform to help you draw animation online. Here are the positives and negative of this tool.

7. FlipAnim

Here is the last option you can try for animation drawing. This also lets you draw animation online in an easy way. You get different color options to draw as well as set animation speed. It is fun to use FlipAnim and you can share your work on this tool as well similar to the above one.

Final Verdict

Animation drawing is a way to show your creativity and is fun at the same time. We have mentioned you 7 best software through which you can make your own masterpiece and share with your friends and share globally. We hope now you are satisfied with this article and whether you are a beginner or expert, you have started animation with FilmoraPro. Download it now to have a try! Thanks for reading.

Основы анимации: как нарисовать движение и действия.

Russian (Pусский) translation by Lexie Bykova (you can also view the original English article)

На что похож мультфильм, в котором нет действия? Во что превратится мультфильм, который не рассказывает историю? Наверняка вы видели, как художники в студии рисуют этюды с живой модели. Такие занятия очень полезны для понимания анатомии, и как себя ведут мышцы в движении. Однако специфика передачи такого движения не дает полной ясности! Она ограничена воспроизведением реальной жизни, не более. Движение и деятельность в мультипликации изображаются совершенно иначе. Поэтому знаний, как правильно прорисовать тело, недостаточно. Особенно важно освоить техники, которые позволят «оживить» форму. Именно об этом мы расскажем в этом курсе!

Что важно знать

Когда художник работает над персонажем, который оказался в определенной ситуации, ему/ей важно в первую очередь создать действие. Любая сцена, в которую вы помещаете свой персонаж, должна помочь зрителю увидеть намерение, побуждающее его к действию. Увидеть мотивы, чувства, навыки (или их отсутствие) и личность в целом. Этой цели необходимо достичь даже при полном отсутствии диалога. И здесь у рисунков есть преимущество: мы можем поиграть с языком тела и раздуть эмоции до предела. Вам не придется раскошеливаться на актеров, студию и прочие расходы. Достаточно бумаги и карандаша. Воображению нет предела!

Чтобы достичь этих результатов в анимации, нужно нацелиться на две вещи:

Постепенно мы поймем, какую роль играет каждая из них в композиции рисованой сцены.

1. Кривая движения

Кривая движения должна быть плавной и иметь направление, чтобы нам было очевидно, что намеревается сделать каждый персонаж.

Обратите внимание, как странно выглядит дизайн, основанный на сложных кривых движения.

В мультфильме мы видим идеальный пример простоты и ритма. Кривая движения дает художнику возможность усилить эффект своих сцен. Учитывайте кривую еще до того, как приступите к прорисовке пропорций персонажей. Уверяю вас, конечный рисунок с движением вас более чем удовлетворит.

Чтобы разобраться, какие именно техники и методы помогут вдохнуть жизнь в мультяшных персонажей, нам надо познакомиться с теоретическими принципами, на которых основаны эти техники.

2. 12 базовых принципов анимации

Базовые концепции состоят в следующем:

Я не ставлю себе цели ошеломить вас полным набором анимационных техник, поэтому сосредоточимся на самых главных и попытаемся понять, как они могут оживить «скучный» дизайн.

Сжатие и растяжение

Это основная, если не самая главная, техника, которой мы должны пользоваться в создании динамики движения персонажей. Вся концепция сводится к сжатию и растяжению пропорций персонажа или объекта в соответствии с движением. Эта техника позволяет нам добавить весомости и плавности движению. Посмотрите, как она применена к объекту:

Обратите внимание на физические аспекты отскакивающего мяча: когда он летит вниз с ускорением, его форма растягивается. Когда мяч ударяется о землю, он вытягивается по горизонтали (что подчеркивает силу гравитационного притяжения).

Пример выше идеально иллюстрирует эту технику. Вряд ли в реальной жизни вы увидите, чтобы мяч так деформировался при отскакивании, но в мультипликации это прекрасно срабатывает!

Пример того, как эта техника применяется к выражениям лица: заметьте, что форма верха черепа не меняется, и только нижняя челюсть вытягивается книзу.

Эта же техника применена к действию. Вам сразу видно, что персонаж несет тяжелый груз. Заметьте, что вся нижняя половина тела сжата, а верхняя растянута.

Потрясающе, правда? Эта техника подводит нас к следующей теме:

Преувеличение

Обратите внимание, как глаза персонажа выпрыгивают из орбит, а тело как будто сковано. Это преувеличенное отображение естественной реакции, которую можно наблюдать в жизни.

По правилам студии Дисней, эта техника должна правдоподобно отражать жизнь, но в более экстремальной форме. Преувеличение подразумевает изменения в физических характеристиках персонажа или в элементе сцены, в которой он находится. Однако помните, вам важно четко понимать, какое именно движение вы иллюстрируете с помощью этой техники, чтобы не ввести в заблуждение зрителя.

Преувеличение: обратите внимание на траектории движения персонажа. Они помогают подчеркнуть точку приложения силы, с которой он пытается поднять груз. Так вы точно убедите зрителя, что мяч чрезвычайно тяжел!

Подготовка или упреждение

Классический пример подготовки: персонаж вот-вот побежит и покинет сцену!

Теоретически подготовка создается из мгновенного движения, которому одновременно противоставляется движение в противоположном направлении. В анимации это подразумевает, по большей части, подготовку к непосредственному действию и возврат, чтобы завершить цикл.

Заметьте, как в анимации вверху мы добавляем действие: в начале есть краткое предвкушение движения, которое впоследстви служит толчком к движению. Затем мы наблюдаем, как тело совершает возврат из движения к состоянию покоя.

Нацеливание и акцент

В анимации мы называем «нацеливанием» эффект, который предшествует «акценту». Оба необходимы для того, чтобы заметно выделить выражение удивления. Они совершаются по следующему алгоритму:

Давайте проследим, как работает этот алгоритм.

Шаг 1

Начинаем с рисунка персонажа с радостным или естественным выражением лица:

Шаг 2

Персонаж видит нечто удивительное и, в предвкушении момента, опускает голову вниз и зажмуривается. Это движение увеличивает впечатление того, что он видит нечто невероятное!

Шаг 3

Далее следует реакция на удивление, голова поднимается.

Шаг 4

Персонаж успокаивается и возвращается в исходное состояние.

Во время этого процесса аниматоры применяют технику, которая называется таймингом сцены, при которой добавляются промежуточные фазы, чтобы создать плавный переход между кадрами.

Чуть позже мы еще вернемся к «таймингу».

Медленный вход и медленный выход

Влечение

Посмотрите, как в рисунке вверху специфически отражено влечение каждого персонажа. Чтобы подчеркнуть определенные черты, достаточно незначительных деталей, например, женский силуэт или удлиненное лицо дворецкого и зажатая, но неизменно элегантная поза. Здесь важно понимать природу каждой характеристики, когда вы добавляете их в свои сцены.

Пронаблюдайте, какие специфичные движения и действия совершает каждый персонаж, чтобы раскрыться для зрителя. Будут ли они вести себя как чувственная женщина? Как воришка? Как мошенник? Как дворецкий? Как официант? Как стилист? Какие специфические особенности отличают именно этого персонажа? В какую одежду они одеты? Мы должны постоянно наблюдать за нюансами поведения людей в реальной жизни, чтобы использовать эти детали для собственного преимущества.

Бегло пройдемся по каждому из оставшихся принципов, чтобы достичь общего понимания:

Постановка

Постановка создается, чтобы направить внимание аудитории к важному компоненту в кадре. В постановке могут исползоваться дополнительные сценарии или объекты. По сути, эта техника необходима, чтобы сосредоточить внимание на самом важном, и удалить все незначительные детали. Этой концепцией вовсю пользуются в комиксах. Цвет, свет, угол камеры используют для того, чтобы сосредоточить внимание зрителя на самых важных деталях.

Я добавил машину в кадр, чтобы подчеркнуть смысл происходящего. Теперь у нас есть четкий контекст, и все становится понятным!

Сквозное действие и Поза к позе

«Сквозное действие» означает подробную раскадровку анимационной сцены с начала до конца. «Поза к позе» относится только к прорисовке ключевых кадров, промежутки между которыми позже дополнятся фазами. Интересно то, что первая техника используется только в анимации 2D. Но техника «Поза к позе» все еще применяется в раскадровке фильмов и анимации 3D.

Инерция и Оверлэпинг

Заметьте, как волосы и футболка движутся с разной скоростью, следуя за движением.

Когда движение, совершаемое персонажем, следует по определенной траектории, мы называем его «аркой». Представьте цикличные движения рук дирижера оркестра, или последовательность движений конькобежца, или олимпийского атлета, выполняющего прыжок в высоту. Каждый из них проделывает множество движений, которые сливаются в цепочку плавных последовательных элементов. Если в какой-то момент вы разорвете эту цепочку и заставите своего персонажа сделать что-то не вписывающееся в нее, ваша анимация будет выглядеть странно.

Фоновое действие

Фоновое действие добавляется к главному действие в кадре, чтобы усилить эффект, который вы хотите произвести. Представьте персонажа, который идет по улице и не обращает внимание на то, что происходит вокруг. В то же самое время мимо него проносятся машины, чтобы подчеркнуть опасность. Или вообразите выражение сомнения на лице канатоходца. Это примеры фоновых действий в кадре, которые подчеркивают его смысл.

Тайминг

Конечная прорисовка

Конечная прорисовка отностися к точности рисунков на бумаге. Рисунки должны иметь вес и объем, чтобы их правильно видели и трактовали. При этом здесь не идет речь о детальной прорисовке, чтобы сделать рисунок реалистичным. Мы говорим о том, как вы представите публике свое теоретическое знание рисунка. Художник, освоивший основы дизайна, может создать иллюзию объема в своих рисунках даже на эскизе 2D. В этом состоит искуство иллюзии правдоподобности.

Некоторые стили анимации требуют чрезвычайного реализма в изображениях объектов, одежды и других предметов, чтобы представить сцену зрителю. К примеру это могут быть определенный исторический период, который должен быть изображен до мельчайших деталей. По этой причине знание теоретических и практических основ рисунка и анатомии человека незаменимы.

На платформе Tuts+ есть несколько статей и курсов, написанных разными авторами, которые помогут вам углубиться в основы рисунка. Там вы сможете пройти разные стили рисования и станете полноценным художником.

3. Последовательные движения и циклы ходьбы

Взрослые люди ходят уверенно и, как правило, не делают резких шагов. На самом деле, мы едва отрываем ноги от земли. Наши движения сведены к необходимому минимуму, основная цель в том, чтобы переместить тело вперед.

В анимации все отличается. С помощью походки персонажа можно рассказать целую историю. Поэтому мы воспользуемся техникой преувеличения и таймингом, чтобы добиться желаемого результата.

Проанализируем упрощенный процесс на рисунке внизу:

Пример простого цикла ходьбы: тело слегка поднимается вверх в стадии переноса.

Обратите внимание, что руки движутся противоположно ногам; а, когда тело поднимается вверх в стадии переноса, одна нога прямая.

Теперь заполняем промежутки дополнительными фазами и завершаем основной цикл ходьбы в анимации:

Разные виды ходьбы и бега

Как я упоминал, в анимации (и в жизни) есть разные походки, и ими можно пользоваться для того, чтобы передавать нужные чувства и желания персонажей. Разные шаблоны передают это:

Знаменитые шаблоны анимации: они были созданы на основе книги Престона Блэйра «Мультипликационная анимация». Уверен, вам знакомы эти картинки по разным мультфильмам.
Пример прогулочного шага: тело все время движется вверх-вниз.

Отличия в ходьбе четвероногих животных

Посмотрите вверху, как ведут себя передние и задние лапы в стадии переноса тела: голова слегка опускается вниз, когда задняя нога переносится вперед. Обратное происходит во время переноса передней лапы.

В анимации есть и другие виды походок животных, которые следуют собственному ритму. Ниже рассмотрим две из них:

Соединяем все вместе

Перед тем как мы закончим, я нарисовал анимационную последовательность, в которой соединил примеры нескольких техник, обсуждаемых выше. Вы можете различить, где какая используется?

Конец!

Благодарю каждого, кто был моим спутником в этом удивительном приключении. Продолжайте практиковаться, и увидимся в следующий раз!

Animation for Beginners (Where do I start?)

Where do I start?

One of the most common questions I get (almost on a daily basis) is:

“I want to get into animation. Where do I start?”

In this massive guide I try to cover (almost) everything you might need to know about animation if you’re trying to get into the animation industry.

I’ll cover some of the basic concepts of animation, vocabulary, principles, software, hardware, books, courses as well as some of the options for people who want to get into the animation industry, but are overwhelmed or intimidated.

I’ll go over what is animation, what it takes to make animated movies (2D or 3D), and even how to start looking for a job in the industry.

Easy to learn, hard to Master

It’s easier to get into animation today than ever before.

Software’s getting cheaper (or even free), and most modern computers can handle the more simple animation tasks (mostly 2D).

The catch is that although anyone can start animating right now, the art of animation still takes time to master.

The good news is.

You don’t need to be a Disney-grade animator to create really cool animations.

You can start small and simple and slowly develop your skills and unique style. You don’t even need to know how to draw well.

And also.

We built an entire course dedicated to understanding the basic principles of animation, so that you can cover your basics before jumping into animation. It’s this one, right below.

Animation Foundations course

Learn the basic principles of character animation, including a survey of the different types of animation, basic vocabulary, and the 12 principles of animation. If you’re just starting out and want to make sure your basics are covered – this course is the best place to start.

Table of contents:

What is Animation?

Animation is the art of bringing life to an otherwise inanimate objects, or illustrated / 3D generated characters.

It is created by projecting sequenced images quickly, one after another, to create the illusion of life.

But that’s not really the first thing you imagine when you hear the word Animation, isn’t it?

That’s just technical stuff.

You’re probably thinking of Disney, Pixar, or Ghibli. We’ll get there.

The most important part of all of that is the word life. Bringing life is the true essence of the animator’s job. And there are many ways of doing that.

It could be by drawing.

It could be by moving character rigs on a 3D software.

It could be with puppets, cut-out characters, or lego figures.

So what does being an animator mean?

Before we jump it, you can watch this video where I explain the differences between animating in 2D and 3D. This will give you an idea of what an animator actually does.

It might also give you a clue about what direction you might want to pursue.

Animation Vocabulary

Now that we covered the basic idea of what animation is, it’s important to understand the vocabulary and specialized terms used in the animation and filmmaking industry.

These terms will come up often, so let’s take a few minutes to go over them:

Timeline

The timeline is the part of the animation software that represents the animation’s progress over time.

Depending on the software, we might use the timeline to make changes to the timing of the animation, as well as the position of the elements.

Frame Rate

The frame rate of an animation is the number of individual images (or frames) that are being displayed over the span of one second. It is a setting you can adjust in the animation software.

Animation is usually done in 24 frames per second (FPS).

Working on One’s & Two’s

Working on One’s or Two’s is a term used in hand drawn animation.

Working on one’s would mean doing a new drawing over every single frame of the animation.

Working on twos means holding each drawing for two frames, so one second of animation at 24 frames per second would only be 12 drawings, not 24.

In 2D animation working on two’s looks fine in most instances, and there are even cases where drawings can be held longer. In 3D, though, working on one’s is the standard.

Shots & Scenes

Normally in live action filmmaking, the term ‘shot‘ refers to the images between camera edits, while a scene is all the shots and dialogue that take place at a particular location for a continuous block of time.

In animation, however, we often use the term ‘scene’ and ‘shot’ interchangeably. When we talk about a scene/shot, we often refer to one specific continuous piece of animation in between camera cuts.

Keyframes | Breakdowns | Inbetweens

Key frames, breakdowns and in-betweens are important terms, but they mean slightly different things d epending on the type of animation.

In hand drawn animation, keyframes (or just keys) are the major important poses that define the scene. Breakdowns come between keys and define what the motion from key to key will be. In-betweens are all the frames that come in between to smooth out the motion.

In 3D, a keyframe is any position on the timeline where the animator has defined the position of the character. In-betweens are all the frames that the computer interprets or automatically generates to move the character from key to key.

Images taken from The Animator’s Survival Kit / Richard Williams

Timing | Spacing | Easing

Timing, spacing and easing are closely related terms.

Timing means the total number of frames that will be used for a movement. Spacing is the amount of change that comes between each frame. Decreasing the spacing, makes an object slower, while increasing the spacing makes it look faster.

In digital animation, easing is how spacing is controlled, usually through a motion graph on the timeline.

Onion Skinning

When animating, it’s very useful to be able to see more than one frame at a time.

In paper animation this is done by having multiple drawings on a light table, but in modern animation programs there’s often a feature called onion skinning. It lets you see semi-transparent representations of the frames behind or ahead of the current frame you’re working on.

Compositing

Compositing is the process of putting all the individual pieces of a scene together to create the final visual output.

You might have a background, multiple characters, and some scenery all being developed separately. Compositing is how all those pieces get put together into a single scene.

The 12 Principles of Animation

The foundation of any animation education is the 12 principles of animation.

The 12 principles were a set of core concepts that were developed in the 1930’s by animators at Walt Disney Studios as they were transitioning from doing shorts to feature films. It was a gradual process of discovery and refinement as the animators tried to push their work to a new higher standard.

These 12 principles were first compiled by the legendary animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in 1981 in their book The Illusion of Life.

Creating the illusion of life is what the principles are all about. They help us create characters that look like they have weight, personality, and exist in a real world with real physics at work.

Even though they were developed by 2D animators, they still apply to 3D and any other type of animation.

1. Squash & Stretch

Squash and stretch describe how an object changes shape in response to forces acting on it.

Squash is when the object is compressed by an impact of an opposing force. Stretch is when an object is distended by something pulling on it, or by moving quickly.

2. Anticipation

Anticipation is a smaller movement that comes before a major one, and signals that the major movement is about to happen.

3. Staging

Staging is the presentation of a shot in a way that makes the content of the shot as clear as possible, and the narrative function of the shot as strong as possible.

4. Straight ahead vs. Pose-to-pose

Straight-ahead and pose-to-pose are different approaches to animating.

Straight-ahead means creating each new frame in sequence from beginning to end. Pose-to-pose means creating the key poses for each action first, and then filling in the in-between poses.

5. Follow Through & Overlapping Action

Follow-through and overlapping action refers to the tendency of different parts of a body to move at different speeds.

This includes the concept of drag, which is when one part of the body lags behind when a motion starts.

6. Slow in & Slow out

Slow-in and slow-out refer to the tendency of objects to gradually accelerate (and then decelerate) when moving from one position to another.

These are sometimes referred to as ease-in and ease-out, or simply easing.

7. Arcs

The principle of arcs come from the observation that living things don’t move in straight lines, but rather in curved motions.

Creating graceful, clear arcs often elevates the animation and reveals the experience level of the animator.

8. Secondary Action

Secondary action refers to smaller movements (or gestures) that support the primary actions of a character.

These actions make the shot clearer by emphasizing the attitude or motivation behind the movement.

9. Timing

Timing is controlling the speed of an action through the number of frames used to represent it.

It is one of the most fundamental of the 12 principles and takes years to master.

10. Exaggeration

Exaggeration means representing a subject in a heightened or more extreme way, rather than strictly realistic, in order to push your animation further.

11. Solid Drawing

Solid drawing means posing characters in a way that creates a sense of volume, weight and balance.

Drawing for animation requires being able to draw the characters from any angle or pose, with three-dimensionality in mind.

12. Appeal

Appeal is a broad term for any qualities of a character’s design that makes them inherently compelling to watch.

This includes the design of the character, as well as how the character is animated.

For a deeper look at the 12 principles.

It covers the basic principles of character animation, and goes deeply into each of the 12 principles of animation, as well as basic animation workflows and techinques. If you’re just starting out and want to make sure your basics are covered – this course is the best place to start.

Types of Animation

There are many different types of animation, some of which you’re probably already familiar with, so let’s do a quick rundown of the different types of animation and what the differences and similarities are.

3D Animation

Toy Story 4 | Pixar Animation Studios

3D, also referred to as CGI (computer generated imagery), is the most popular type of animation for feature films currently, and it’s become common in TV and short films as well.

This is also the same type of animation used to create digital characters for live-action films and animation for video games.

An animator uses a digital puppet (called a character rig) to position the character, and then use a system of motion paths (or splines) to define the movement of the character between those poses.

The computer proceeds to interpolate the frames of the animation in between the key frames. The animator then refines these frames until they are satisfied with the animation.

3D animation is a technically intensive process, which often involves many separate specialists to model the character, rig it with bones and controls, animate it, and then texture and light it for the final output.

2D Hand-Drawn Animation

The Jungle Book | Walt Disney Production

This is the classic type of animation you’re probably most familiar with. In the old days, animators drew characters frame by frame, and then those drawings were transferred onto clear acetate sheets called cels for painting. That’s where the term cel animation comes from.

Through the 1990s almost all animation studios stopped using cels and started scanning drawings into the computer for digital coloring, and now many hand-drawn animators skip paper altogether and draw directly into the computer using a tablet or Wacom Cintiq monitors.

So hand-drawn animation could be done entirely analog or entirely digitally, or some mix of the two. The important thing is that hand drawn animators still create their animation frame by frame using the same techniques and principles as in those old days of paper and cels.

2D Vector Animation

Rick and Morty | Adult Swim

Nowadays there are new ways to create 2D animation using a 2D digital puppet. These are 2D characters which are built with a system of bones and controls that can be manipulated in a way similar to a 3D character rig.

The difference between 2D rigged characters and hand-drawn characters can get a bit blurry. Programs like Toon Boom Harmony and Adobe Animate CC let you seamlessly mix and match hand-drawn animation with 2D puppet techniques, sometimes even within the same character.

A character could have bones that let the animator pose it, but also have other parts that are animated by hand.

Stop Motion Animation

Kubo and the Two Strings | Laika

Stop motion has several variants, but they all involve manipulating real world objects. These objects are moved slightly, and photographed one frame at a time. When shown in sequence, these frames create the illusion of movement.

In higher-end stop motion, like the ones created by Laika (Coraline, Kubu and the Two Strings), a specially rigged puppet is shot on a miniature stage.

Claymation is a similar technique. In it, malleable characters are used, though they’re generally made out of a substance called plasticine, not actual clay.

You can also do stop motion with regular figurines, and objects, like all those great Lego animations you can find on YouTube.

Another variation of stop motion is paper cut-out animation. In this style, characters are built out of paper shapes. They might be pinned together at the joints to make a posable figure, or pieces might be set in place so that they can be swapped out. They are then moved and photographed frame by frame, just like a stop motion puppet. That’s how South Park was originally animated.

Another rare type of stop motion is called pixelation. In pixelation, real people are used instead of puppets.

All of these types of stop motion share an important characteristic:

They all have to be shot straight-ahead, which means starting at frame one and shooting each frame one after another, all the way through the end of the scene.

If a mistake is made on one frame, it’s very difficult to fix it without having to start all over again. You can’t just redraw that frame like you can in 2D animation. This makes this type of animation particularly intense and it requires a lot of patience.

Motion Graphics Animation

The last big category of animation is motion graphics. Motion graphics focuses on making dynamic and interesting presentations of moving text logos and basic illustrations.

Motion graphics can be both 2D and 3D, and you’ll find them everywhere in commercials, explainer videos, sporting events, the news and other TV productions.

Proper character animation is generally outside the scope of motion graphics, but many of the core animation principles apply to motion graphics too.

For a more in-depth look at the 5 types of animation, check out our complete guide on the 5 types of animation, including detailed history of each type, and the best schools, software and courses.

The Process of Animation

Now that we understand the basic concepts of what animation is, lets go over the workflow of creating animation.

First, I’ll go cover the basic steps of the animation filmmaking pipeline (all the moving parts it takes to create an animated movie), and then I’ll breakdown the process of actually animating a shot from start to finish.

So what are the steps of making an animated film?

1. Story

The first (and probably the most important) part of making any film is a good story.

If you don’t get your story right from the start, then no matter how great your film looks, people will not enjoy watching it. Story comes first. make sure it’s good and that it works before you move on.

In animation, the story often evolves and changes during production, since you’re not restricted to whatever shots you got on set, so the more work you put into developing your story, the more you reduce wasted time during production.

2. Script

Once the idea for the story is ready to put into words, the next step is writing the script.

It’s important to transfer the idea into words as soon as you can, so that we can spot any issues with the story before getting into production.

3. Concept Art

Once the script is ready, concept art is often created to establish the visual style of the film.

That’s a really fun step, and is the first chance we get to see parts of the film come to life on paper. It’s all about exploring and trying things out.

4. Storyboard

Next is creating a storyboard, which is probably one of the most important steps in figuring out the film.

Storyboarding allows you to look at your film as a whole and spot story and pacing issues. Making one also provides you with something you can show other people for feedback. Most people react better to a storyboard than a script.

Once we’re happy with the boards, we move on to creating an animatic.

5. Animatic

An animatic is the movie version of your storyboard.

If storyboard is like a comic book, then an animatic is like a movie.

We bring all the boards into an editing program and edit them with the correct timing, add some temporary music and sound effects (just enough to convey the different story beats), and when we’re done we have the first version of our film ready to watch.

As great as a storyboard is, an animatic really gives us a first glimpse into what our film is going to be like.

6. Creating Assets

At this point, depending on your animation medium of choice, we’ll be creating the different assets for our film.

For 3D animation we’ll create the models for the characters, environments, sets, and the props. We’ll use the concept art and model sheets as our reference. These models will then have to be rigged with a 3D skeleton with controls, so that we can animate them in our scene.

For stop-motion animation we’ll build our sets, our puppets, the props and different pieces of clothing needed for the film.

7. Previs

Before we get into animating our scenes, there’s another important step in making sure the story works, and that is creating a previs (or pre-visualization).

A previs is the next incarnation of the animatic, this time using 3D models.

We set up our shots in the 3D program, with the final camera angles and motion, and create very basic animation for the characters, just enough to convey the action they’re suppose to be doing.

We then bring all of these shots to the editing program, just like we did with the animatic, and we now have a previz version of our film, with the correct 3D models and camera motion.

because animation takes a very long time, this is the last chance we can have to make any serious story changes in our film. It will be a huge waste if we had to make story changes after the animation phase.

8. Animation

We’re finally ready for animation!

This is where we finally bring life into the film. The characters start to move, and we can see the soul of the film come to life in front of us.

It’s an amazing thing to see, but it also takes a long time. Done incorrectly, it can ruin our movie. Bad animation is like bad acting: Even if the writing and story are solid, people won’t notice if the delivery is all wrong.

We’ll go deeper into the 6 steps of animation later on in this section.

9. Texturing | Lighting | Rendering

This step applies mostly to 3D animation, though 2D animation goes through similar post-production steps similar to this, and stop-motion animation spends a long time doing compositing and miscellaneous effects on top of their shots as well.

In 3D, models need to be textured, which means creating different materials assigned to the different parts of the models. Some simulate metal, some plastic and even a few for skin and hair.

We then light the shots with virtual lights, replicating as closely as we can how light works in real life.

Then when our shots are textured and lit, we start the rendering process, which is the computer calculating all of the data in our scenes, and creating still images from it.

We then take these images to a compositing program, like Nuke or After Effects, extract the necessary data from the images, and combine them to create our final images.

10: Editing | Color correction

Once our images are composited and ready, we bring them back into our editing program and replace our previs shots with our new composited shots, just like we replaced the animatic shots with the previz.

We are now able to see our finished film on the editing timeline for the first time, but, it’s not really finished yet. We need to do some color correction and grading.

Color correction is the process of manipulating the colors of each individual shot so that it matches the one the comes before / after it. We also make sure each shot doesn’t have parts that are too white or too black, basically working so that we get a consistent and correct color all throughout the film.

Then we grade our film, which is the more fun and creative part, in which we try to create a visual style for the whole film, and give it a distinct look.

11. Music | Sound design

Ideally we’ve been working with a musician from day one of production, making sure the music fits what we were trying to do with the film, and making sure the film works with the music.

Music is not usually something we simply slap on at the end, and so I prefer to have it with me throughout the production so it becomes an integral part of the story.

The sound designer then finalizes all the film’s sound effects like folly, ambiance and voices, as well as mastering and mixing in the final audio of the film.

If you want to know more about making animated shorts.

Check out the course bellow

Making an Animated Movie course

Watch the complete 30 video lessons course about the process of making animated short films from start to finish.

We’ve designed this course to be tailored specifically for aspiring animation filmmakers interested in making taking their first steps to making their own movie a reality.

The 6 steps of animation

We’ve talked about the workflow of the animation filmmaking pipeline, now lets go into the actual steps of character animation.

Here are the 6 steps of animation:

Step 1: Shooting Reference video

This is a very important and overlooked step. It’s weird how people really think they know what certain actions look like, and how long they take, but end up getting it wrong.

Physical actions are something you need to analyze before animating, especially if you’re a beginner.

You have a shot of a guy throwing a baseball? Search YouTube for videos of pitchers throwing balls.

Don’t assume you know what an action looks like just because you’ve seen it before.

Looking at an action as an animator is completely different from looking at it as a viewer.

Step 2: Posing

After shooting a reference, it’s time to create the key poses of the shot.

These poses are called key poses because they are the most important poses of the shot. These are the poses that convey the story of the shot. We need to make sure we get those poses right, because we’re going to build on those for the rest of the process.

Step 3: Blocking

Once we’re happy with our key poses, we start breaking down the movement from each pose to the next by adding ‘in betweens’ (also known as breakdown poses or passing poses). These are the poses that connect the key poses.

We keep adding more poses until the movement looks as good as it could, while still staying in stepped mode (stepped mode is when you don’t allow interpolation between poses, which results in a very choppy/blocky motion).

Step 4: Splining

Splining is a 3D animation term. It’s the process in which you convert the interpolation of the keys from stepped to spline.

In other words – you make the computer connect the movement between each of your poses, and that makes the movement look smoother.

The problem is that the computer doesn’t do a very good job at interpolating. It only works with what it has. That’s why the better the blocking is – the better the splined version is going to look.

Step 5: Refining & offset

Now that all of our keys are in spline mode, we need to work on them. We refined the animation curves and make sure the movement looks smooth.

It’s also a good idea to offset some of the actions so it doesn’t look so ‘stop and start’, as if the character is doing all the motion at once.

By the end of this step your shot should look pretty solid and almost finished.

Step 6: Adding life

This step is the a lot of fun.

We’re already finished with the grunt work of animation, and it’s time to add small imperfections that bring life to the character.

Maybe an extra blink or a mouth twitch here and there. The difference between the last 2 steps is small but it could make the difference between good animation and great animation.

Animation Software

After «Where do I start», the topic I’m asked about the most is probably software. Everyone wants to know about tools.

Is it Maya? After Effects? Flash?

Here is a break down our options when choosing an animation software based on the type of animation:

3D Animation Software

This is a beginner’s guide, so 3D software might be advanced for some of you, but I think it’s important to be familiar with what’s out there so you know what the industry uses and what you should consider pursuing if you plan to make this your career.

Having said all of that, Blender is a free program, so you’re welcome to jump in and play around with it (with the help of our Blender course), and Maya offers an educational license for free, so if you’re just learning you’ll be able to get started without investing any money just yet.

Autodesk Maya

The industry standard for computer animation. If you want to do animation professionally, this is the program you should focus on. 3D animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering software with an integrated, powerful toolset. Use it for animation, environments, motion graphics, virtual reality, and character creation.

Blender

A free, open-source, 3D program, Blender provides a broad spectrum of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing functionality in one package. Through its open architecture, Blender provides cross-platform interoperability, extensibility, an incredibly small footprint, and a tightly integrated workflow.

Price: Free

Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D is a motion graphics artist’s best friend. It is a 3D program for the After Effects user. Very intuitive, and works directly with After Effects without the need to render first. This would not be my first choice for serious 3D film production, since it is designed from the ground up with motion graphics in mind, but it is an amazing versatile program.

2D Animation Software

2D animation is a great place to start your animation journey. Most of the programs below are inexpensive and relatively easy to learn.

Animate CC and After Effects are great choices for playing around with 2D animation in both a hand-drawn form or by creating puppets, while Character Animator doesn’t require any drawing at all, and uses your face as the driver for the animation. And if you wanna go pro, Toon Boom Harmony and TVPaint will be your best options.

Animate CC (Formerly Flash)

Probably the most popular 2D animation software out there. Animate has a long lineage of animation making, dating back to the early days of internet video publishing. Its intuitive interface and relatively cheap price point make it a great pick for getting started with 2D animation.

Toon Boom Harmony

Harmony is a more advanced 2D software ideal for both frame-by-frame animation and rig-based animation. It has advanced rigging systems, effects and camera tools. It is vector based, but the more advanced version also has the option for bitmap drawing.

TVPaint

A french animation software, TVPaint is the all-in-one 2D animation software you’ll ever need. It’s definitely more robust and complex than Photoshop, but it’s also much pricier. This software is for professional animators and studios.

Price: €500 (€250 for students)

Character Animator

A newer animation program with an interesting twist. Instead of animating the traditional way, Character Animator uses you use your web-cam and microphone to automatically animate a pre-built character in real-time, almost like motion-capture. This is a great option for beginners since it requires the least amount of animation experience.

After Effects

An interesting choice for 2D animation. After effects gives you great control when creating rigs for 2D using the puppet tool and different expressions. It’s a good choice if you’re already comfortable with the Adobe environment.

Stop-Motion Software

Stop-motion is how many young aspiring animators get their first animation experience, using action figure, legos, or even clay.

We listed 2 very different options here. One aimed at beginners who are trying animation for the first time, and the other is a prodessional-grade animation software aimed at taking your work to the next level.

Dragonframe

Dragonframe is the industry standard for stop-motion animation, and was used on films such as Kubo and the Two Strings and Shaun the Sheep.

If you’re planning on making a professional stop motion video, Dragonframe is the best tool for the job. Its comprehensive software can be used with many different attachments, such as a device that controls the camera, lights and even pull focus.

Stop Motion Studio

Stop Motion Studio is an entry-level stop motion app for all devices and platforms that connect to any digital camera, phone or tablet to create great stop-motion videos with simplicity and ease. This is a great choice if you’re just starting out.

Animation Hardware

Hardware is getting cheaper, and software is getting more efficient. You can run most animation programs on most modern computers, and drawing tablets are getting very affordable.

Here is a short list of what we recommend for animators of all levels:

One by Wacom

The perfect choice for beginners.

This intro-level Wacom tablet is the cheapest way for you to get into using a tablet. This allows you to do hand-drawn animation on a budget, and will benefit 3D animators as well, as tablet is often easier to use than a mouse in a 3D program.

Wacom Intuos Pro

Taking it to the next level.

If you need more drawing real-estate, or if you’re using a tablet for 3D animation, this is the best all-around choice for the job. You’ll see these tablets at most production studios, and it’s a popular choice for animation students who want to do good work, but can’t afford the high-end Cintiq tablets. It comes in 3 sizes, with Medium being the most popular one.

Wacom Cintiq Pro

Going pro.

For high-end animation production, the Wacom Cintiq is the ultimate choice. It’s basally a giant monitor (13″, 16″, 24″ or 32″) that you can draw on directly. It makes precise drawing much easier and more responsive than a regular tablet, but it comes at a much higher cost.

Computer

The nice thing about using 2D programs like Animate CC or even Toon Boom, is that most modern computers are capable of running them just fine.

When you get into 3D, things can get tricky, but they don’t have to. If you’re rendering massive worlds with complicated lighting setups, you’ll need a strong computer with an expensive graphics card, but there are other options:

Animation Books

Different arguments could be made for which is the best book for learning animation, but here are a few that will help you learn and refine your skills, regardless of the type of animator you want to be.

The Animator’s Survival Kit / Richard Williams

This book is an animator’s bible. It thoroughly covers the basics of spacing, timing, walks, runs, weight, anticipation, overlapping action, takes, stagger, dialogue, animal animation and much more. It’s not called a «Survival Kit» for nothing.

This book will teach you EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW to start your training as an animator.

Cartoon Animation / Preston Blair

Originally released in 1994, Cartoon Animation (also known as «The Preston Blair Book»), has been an amazing reference source for creating cartoon-style animation.

With this book you’ll learn how to develop a cartoon character, create dynamic movement, and animate dialogue with action.

The Illusion of Life / Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

This book started as an animation guide and turned into a detailed survey of the progression of animation, both within the Disney studios and in the world of animation in general.

Written by two of the nine old men who defined the Disney animation style, this book takes the reader through all the steps of discovery and research of the best methods of animation.

Setting Up Your Shots / Jeremy Vineyard

A great book for getting a basic understanding of shot composition and camera movement for better storytelling and filmmaking.

This book is great for first-time filmmakers as well as experienced ones looking for great shot references.

Animation Courses

Bloop Animation is first and foremost an animation learning platform with premium video courses. Some focus on software (like Maya or Animate CC) while others teach you specific skills (like animation foundations or storyboarding).

Online courses have become insanely popular in recent years, and are now highly-produced, and a very effective alternative to traditional schools.

Why?

It’s cheaper. Much cheaper.

Art schools are insanely expensive. Spending 20-40k dollars a year (most likely getting into debt) is a huge decision, and it’s getting less and less valuable.

Online courses, even the expensive ones, will only set you back a few hundred dollars (maybe a few thousands if you’re doing an online certificate program which takes several months). That’s not close to how much a traditional art college costs. This makes it much more accessible for a wide range of artists who in the past would have to give up on their dreams, or borrow a ton of money.

It’s a great test-drive

Maybe animation isn’t for you? Wouldn’t it be great to find that out before spending tens of thousands of dollars + precious years of your life?

Taking an online animation course is a cheap and efficient way to check if you’re up for the task. See if you like it. You can always decide to pursue a degree after the fact, but this is a great way to do your research and make sure going down this path is right for you.

You don’t really need a degree anyway

One of the benefits of working in a creative industry like animation is that your work speaks loudly than any credential in your resume. If your demo reel is good – you will be hired. No one will care what school you didn’t go to.

You can take them while working

A great thing about online courses is that you can take them on your spare time.

If you’re transitioning from a different profession and work full-time, you can take these courses on the weekends, evenings and lunch breaks.

You can customize your own learning path

One of the awesome things about online education is that you can combine sources from different places.

In a traditional school you have to stick to the program (usually 3-4 years) and often take a lot of courses you have no interest in, or that don’t really contribute to your personal growth path. With online courses, you can construct your own learning path.

Yes, our courses do include a constructed path for you to follow, but it’s only made out of things you NEED to know to animate, and nothing else. Plus, you can always skip a lesson you find it irrelevant.

It’s a great way to maximize your education

Online courses can benefit you WHILE being a student in a traditional program.

When I went to art school I CONSTANTLY looked for online tutorials (online courses weren’t as popular back then, but there were still a few) and watched whatever I could get my hands on.

Doing that while at school really pushed my skills and motivated me to work harder and get better. School can only take you so far, and it will guide you in the right direction, but it’s up to you to make sure you push yourself to master your craft.

Here is the complete list of our video courses:

Software Courses

Blender Animation

A complete course to character animation with the FREE 3D program Blender.

Animate Animation

Learn how to make cool animations for YouTube, or 2D frame-by-frame animation for commercial use.

After Effects Animation

A step-by-step course to character animation with After Effects.

Maya Animation

Learn to animate with the industry leader in animation and visual effects.

Toon Boom Harmony Animation

A complete course for high-end 2D animation with Toon Boom Harmony.

TVPaint Animation

Learn to animate with the industry leader in 2D frame-by-frame animation.

Moho Animation

Learn 2D animation with the professional all-in-one software Moho.

Character Animator Animation

Learn to animate in real-time, using your own face. No animation skills required.

Stop-Motion Animation

A complete course for stop motion animation using the industry-leader software Dragonframe.

All-Access Pass

Get full life-time access to our entire course library with a single purchase.

Skill Courses

Animation Foundations

Learn the fundamental principles of character animation.

Storyboarding Foundations

Learn the fundamentals of creating professional storyboards for any project.

Editing Foundations

A step-by-step course to video editing with Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve

Making a Graphic Novel

A step-by-step course to creating and publishing graphic novels and comic books.

Making an Animated Movie

A step by step course to making animated short films from start to finish.

Stick Figure Animation

A masterclass by Animator vs. Animation creator Alan Becker, YouTube’s most popular animator.

Stop-Motion Animation

A complete course for stop motion animation using the industry-leader software Dragonframe.

Teaching Animation

A complete course for teachers and parents interested in teaching animation.

All-Access Pass

Get full life-time access to our entire course library with a single purchase.

Getting into the Animation Industry

So how do you take the next step? What if you want to make animation your career?

How do you get your foot in the door?

Animators generally need 3 things to get a job in the industry:

For many professions, having a good resume or cover letter is the most important factor in getting a job. For animators and visual effects people it’s all about the demo reel.

Over the years I have made many demo reels for myself, and watched dozens of other people’s reels. Before you start sending your reel to a bunch of studios, I beg of you, read our demo-reel guide. I have collected a ton of information about how to create an effective animation demo reel that actually gets you hired. Don’t skip it.

So I have a demo reel. Now what?

Since I don’t know you personally, I’ll give you the best advice I think would benefit most people: The best way to get noticed is to create things.

Having a BFA in animation or a diploma from an online school will definitely help, but it won’t guarantee a job after graduation.

You know what I did the day after graduation?

Continued animating for my reel. And that’s what I did everyday until I got my first freelance work. And then after work kept working on more shots so I’ll be ready for the time the freelance project was over.

You need to keep making. Always.

There’s always enough time to work on your reel, especially in the first year of your animation career. When you add stuff to your reel, make sure you follow our Demo Reel Guidelines so you don’t waste your time.

If you keep creating things and putting them out there, while constantly applying to studios, you will eventually get noticed, and hired.

Career paths for animators

Film / TV

The most obvious career path (though not the easiest) is working on movies and TV shows (Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network etc.)

Even though the most common perception of what an ‘animator’ does is animating characters like Wall-E or the dog in Up, a lot of animation work in this industry happens in VFX and mechanical animation in live-action films as well. Almost every effect-heavy live-action film you see uses animators to some degree.

Most of the work in the film and TV happens in California, and getting into the major studios might take years of applying before getting in the door.

Commercials

Working in commercials takes a different set of skills than film and TV. Though you might still be animating characters, the timeline of production is much quicker, and you would be expected to do more different tasks rather than specialize.

Also, =commercial work will often be motion-graphics rather than character animation. That means knowing After Effects and/or Cinema4D is more relevant if that’s your path.

Animating on commercials might not be what you went to become and animator for, but it can still be a lot of fun, and there is much more work to be had, and locations are almost a non-issue, since most major cities have production companies producing commercial work to some degree.

Pre-visualization (Previz)

A less known field for animators is previz work. Previz animators create a pre-visualization of the piece (commercial, movie, etc. ) by animating temporary figures in a mock environment to allow the director get a sense of their shots and composition.

You’ll be surprised how many studios and production houses use previs, and some companies are dedicated to only create previs for different productions.

With the massive growth of the use of previz in both commercial, TV and film, previz animators can get work in a multitude of fields and locations, though as an aspiring animator you might not get to do your best work (since animation has to be done quickly and quality isn’t much of a factor) and your work will not actually be seen by an audience.

Video Games

The video game industry is massive and there is a lot of work for animators in it. The work itself varies greatly from motion capture to full character-animation, to creating animation cycles that loop throughout the game.

If you’ve even played a Blizzard game, or watched some of the cinematic pieces from Final Fantasy games, you know that video games produced some of the greatest pieces of animation, and pushed the technology just as much as films did. Working in this industry could be a lot of fun, and it employs animators in both 3D and 2D and offers a great variety of work.

Motion Graphics

I’ve mentioned motion graphics when I wrote about working on commercials, but motion graphics artists work on a much wider verity of projects. From explainer videos to event projections to software UI demonstrations.

Motion graphics life is often the life or a freelancer, jumping from one project to the next, using mostly After Effects (sometimes in combination with Cinema4D)

Independent

A new rising type of animator is the independent animator. They mostly use YouTube as their main platform and make their living through ads, sponsorships and merchandise, and ore and more of these animators surface all the time.

Other animation filmmakers can use crowdfunding to fund their movies, or get studios to fund their films on an indie budget.

Director

Unlike most jobs, there’s no clear path to becoming a director.

Going to film school does not guarantee a directing job after, and there’s rarely a job opening under “Director” online. Some people get there at 21, and some spend their whole life trying and never make it.

The same goes for being an animation director. Some start out as animators, some story artists (storyboarding) and some transition from live action, never having animated a day in their life.

How does, then, one becomes an animation director?

Animation directors like Andrew Stanton, Richard Williams and John Lasseter were animators before they became directors, and it’s probably the more common way to go about it, since animators are very involved in the storytelling aspect of the film.

So the path would be:

But, of course, it’s not that simple.

First, you will be working as a junior animator for many years, and it will probably take you almost a decade to get to a place where someone would even consider making you a director. And even then, the chances are close to zero.

To me, the path of working as one of hundreds other animators for 10 years, just for the chance of maybe being noticed, doesn’t seem like a very safe path.

What I did instead, was create a little cube and a little ball, and made my own film. And then I made another one. And I’ll probably keep going.

So guess what? I became a director. Nobody officially gave me the director’s license, I just made movies. And t hat’s the only certain thing I can tell you about how to become a director – start making movies.

Ok so I need to make my own films, now what?

If you’re going to chose the director’s path of making your own films, I suggest starting with short films. Making a feature film is a goal that might take a very long time to achieve, and is not a realistic goal for animation if you’re just starting out.

As for what your films should be about, I suggest keeping to super-simple characters/environments, and focusing on a good story.

When I started working on Lift Up, the story itself came from my limitations of not having good modeling skills. That’s why the film is about a cube and a ball. If you wanna read more about it in detail, read our complete guide for making an animated short. It’s free.

Focus on storytelling skills

The skills of being a good director are mostly about being a good storyteller, as well as understanding pacing, composition and acting. These are all skills that a good animator should have as well, so if you’re coming from animation it might be easier for you.

Focus on showing off these skills in your short, showing interesting compositions and cinematography. These are what people are looking for in a director. Not fancy renders or complex modeling – but good storytelling.

Remember – no one can make you a director. It has to come from you.

Animation for Beginners: How to Animate a Character Walking

In this tutorial I will be taking you through the steps of how to animate a character walking in place. Basically you will be creating a walk that loops infinitely, so if you were to incorporate a walk like this into a movie, perhaps the background would be scrolling from right to left behind the character to give the illusion of forward movement.

A walking character is one of the most important things to learn as an animator. Animation is all about creating the illusion of movement. One of the things that characters do the most to get around and move is walking! So let’s get to it!

1. Draw Our Main Walking Poses

Step 1

Start by drawing the floor guidelines. When I animate a walk, I like to draw a guideline for each foot so that the footfalls are consistent. We are animating a simple side view walk, but the foot that is farthest from us will be slightly further back than the foot that is closest to us. In order to make this illusion convincing, the character can’t be floating all over the place. The character needs to be grounded.

Step 2

Draw our first pose/extreme. I like to start with the character in mid-step. The leg closest to us (the right leg) is making contact with the ground. We are working rough, and our walking character is a simple automaton with a round head, so I’ve only indicated the eyes with dots. We will only animate the legs and body; the arms we will animate later. Let’s concentrate on getting the legs right first.

Step 3

Draw our second extreme, in which the leg in the back is passing the leg in the front. The foot closest to us (the character’s right foot) is flat and grounded and is sliding back. Of course, he’s not actually sliding, but to give the illusion of walking in place, the feet «slide».

Notice how the body is higher up now. In most cases, people do not stay the same height as they walk—they bob up and down as one leg passes the other. Even though the leg farthest from us is partially blocked by the front leg, let’s make sure the leg “attaches” correctly to his hip on the side farthest from us. Don’t be afraid to work rough and sketch through the body to work out where the leg attaches.

Step 4

Let’s draw our third extreme pose. Now the back leg is forward and the front leg is back. Don’t forget to keep lining up those tootsies to the floor guidelines!

The top of the character’s body should be at the same level as the first extreme. It’s pretty much the same pose as our first extreme, except the legs are reversed.

Step 5

Let’s draw our fourth extreme. Now the character’s body is higher up because the front leg is passing the back leg—the body is at the same level as our second extreme.

Let’s see how our walk looks so far! Looking good! Now let’s sweeten it and add some in-betweens!

2. In-Between Our Poses

Step 1

Let’s add an in-between between extreme 1 and 2. Notice how that back foot is starting to come up and that front foot is making first contact with the ground. You don’t want the back leg to start to come up before the front foot makes contact with the ground, or the character would fall on his face. No matter what drawing you are at, in-between or extreme, the character should always be balanced!

Step 2

Now add an in-between between our second and third extreme. Keep checking that the feet are not floating and that the character looks grounded.

Let’s take a look at that in-between in relation to our second and third extremes. When I animate an in-between, I like to favor the drawing that I am animating towards.

Step 3

Now let’s add an in-between between our third and fourth extreme.

Step 4

Finally, let’s add an in-between between our fourth extreme and our first extreme. This makes our first drawing our last drawing, making it a true animation cycle that loops infinitely. Wow, that’s a lot of walking!

Let’s see how it looks so far! Nice! It’s just missing one thing.

3. Animate the Arms

We still need arms! Now that we have the feet and body looking good and moving well, let’s add the arms. It depends on your animation—the character may be carrying something and the arms wouldn’t have to move, or maybe your character is cold and his hands are in his pockets. In this case, I’m going to show you a simple walk with the character’s arms swinging with the walk.

We’ll add arms to the extremes one through four first, and then add the arms to our in-betweens, in the same order in which we drew them.

The arms usually swing opposite to the legs: the right arm swings forward as the left leg moves forward and so on.

Step 1

Add arms to the first extreme. The arm closest to us is swinging back, and the leg farthest from us is moving back.

Step 2

Add arms to the second extreme. The arms are in mid-swing. I «cheated» the arm farthest from us so we can see it peeking from behind the body, but normally the arm would probably be directly behind the body and would be blocked altogether.

Step 3

Add arms to the third extreme.

Step 4

Add arms to the fourth extreme. The arms are in mid-swing.

Step 5

Now add arms to the drawing between your first and second extreme.

Step 6

Now go ahead and add your arms to the rest of your in-betweens, making sure you in-between the arms’ swinging action. Don’t forget to work rough and not get bogged down with making it look perfect. It is important that you get the animation to work and look convincing before you worry about adding detail.

Let’s take a look… Looks great!

4. Tighten Up Our Animation Drawings

Now that we have our animation looking sweet, we can lose the red floor guidelines and start tightening up the line for our walking character. I’m still working lose with an ink line, but making things neater such as neatening up the roundness of the head, making sure the eye looks good in all frames, fixing the thickness of the arms and legs, etc…

I left my rough line in light grey and am inking my final line in dark green so we can see the line against the grey.

Keep cleaning up your animation frames. Make sure those feet still look grounded!

Keep going—we’re almost done! Looks great!

Awesome Work, You’re Now Done!

Looking great! Congrats! You animated a great walk! Remember, practice makes perfect. Keep animating!

How To Draw Anime: 50+ Free Step-By-Step Tutorials On The Anime & Manga Art Style

If you love anime & manga then of course you’d wanna draw it.

Naruto’s storyline was terrific; One Piece has incredible fight scenes and Studio Ghibli tugs at your heartstrings harder than Hollywood’s ‘The Notebook’.

Don’t get confused by the terminology though.

Simply put, manga is the comic book and anime is the actual animated content(learn more about the differences here). For artists looking to learn the style there is no major difference.

Manga characters have very unique features unlike any other cartoon.

The eyes and head are enlarged, the facial features are simplified, and the backgrounds are often highly detailed. If you’ve watched enough anime or read enough manga the style should be ingrained into your memory.

In the past we covered a series of tutorials on chibi drawing but this comprehensive list of videos will teach you how to draw in the manga art style from beginning to end—even if you have zero drawing experience.

To get the most out of each video I suggest watching it through once(I watch at 1.5x speed) and then going back to the start and drawing along.

When it comes to drawing practice really does make perfect. So bookmark this page because you are going to need it later! It takes anywhere from a few days to a few years to master the anime art style so just keep practicing and never give up!

Draw Manga: Where to Start

Welcome to drawing manga and welcome to drawing in general!

This is the beginning of a YouTube series where the artist takes you through the basics of drawing anime.

Starting at the very beginning, this is a quick ‘where to start’ walkthrough that will cover the basics of learning to draw this unique Japanese art style. It sets a good foundation for the rest of your learning so be sure to give it a quick watch.

6 Tips to Get Started With Manga

Are you wondering how to start sharing your stories with the world?

This video will quickly clear up all your questions and get you excited to start your own manga!

The artist takes you on her personal journey and shows you how to publish a manga of your own. Throughout the video she creates a single manga page from start to finish, clearing up some of your more complicated ‘how’ questions.

I think this could pair really well with some of our recommended manga books—especially for beginners.

Common Mistakes Young Anime Artists Make

When you start out drawing manga there are a few pitfalls and lazy ‘tricks’ that almost everyone is guilty of doing.

If you’re starting out then learn what they are and how to avoid them. These mistakes are so common then nearly every great anime artist was guilty of doing at least one of them when they were learning!

Remember: You’re still gaining knowledge and growing. It’s not about the end product you create, but rather what you learned in the process.

Manga Anatomy Quick Tips

Get your pencils out because this video is perfect to draw along with and practice your anatomy skills.

The artist teaches some neat tricks to keep the anatomy of manga characters looking proportional.

Quick and easy to follow, drawing out each lesson will help solidify the theory in your mind and train your hand to make the right strokes.

And if you’re struggling with human anatomy definitely take a peek at these online courses touching on all the bones, muscle groups, and structures that artists need to know.

How To Draw A Manga Girl

Nice and slow with easy instructions, you can comfortably watch this tutorial while you draw your own version.

With no voice-over it’s easy to concentrate on getting the features of the female anime characters face right. But it may be harder to follow if you’re used to instruction.

If you’d prefer to watch the video with a voiceover you can view a similar version by the same artist here.

Male Anime Face

The male head is similar in many ways to the female one, but there are a few fundamental differences that set it apart(hint: it’s not just the hair length).

This 24-minute tutorial teaches you the basic proportional differences step-by-step in real time.

With a guiding voiceover you’ll end up with a basic male anime head that can fit with all of your work.

Male Manga Characters From Basic Shapes

The cheerful tea-loving narrator makes this tutorial easy to follow and fun to watch. You’ll learn how to draw both a muscular man and a skinny teenage boy standing at different angles.

Even though the video is comprehensive and detailed it only takes 22-minutes to watch.

If you want to cram in a little extra practice, the artist shows how to dress the characters and shade them accurately.

Draw Lips for Manga & Anime

Do anime characters even have lips?

Of course they do!

Lips are often simplified down to a line, but some styles or characters are blessed with a little more shape.

This 40-minute video takes you through a detailed lesson on the anatomy of anime lips and how to draw them. From pouts to smiles, this artist covers it all.

How I Draw Anime Characters

Instead of a voiceover with this video you’ll find loads of useful text on screen.

You’ll learn how the artist develops a unique manga character from start to finish and how they make various styling decisions.

By drawing the same character from many different angles you’ll find the secret behind keeping your character’s features and personalities consistent.

How To Start in Manga with Cheap Tools

Prepare to be taught by a real manga artist with professional experience in drawing and selling manga.

He shares all his tips and tricks on a wide array of topics, from which ink you might use to how to avoid crinkled pages.

Short and to the point, this video is loaded with useful information that’ll hook you up with the right supplies to create your own original manga pages.

We covered some recommended supplies before but I think this video does a better job explaining how they work in the anime style.

4 Ways to Draw Manga Female Poses

Get your sketchbook out because this artist wants you to draw along with her!

With a chatty and friendly voice she explains how she comes up with poses and reiterates the age-old lesson of ‘practice, practice, practice.’

Each of these 4 tips is bound to improve your female gestures.

Mapping A Face for Anime & Manga

Learning the proportions of the face is a difficult task.

This tutorial helps you lock down your facial constructions with a series of easily repeatable steps. If you follow along you’ll end up with three perfectly constructed female faces looking at different angles on your page.

We suggest you take it a step further and draw another three on your own to solidify your new found knowledge.

Manga Eyes for the Absolute Beginner

Have you ever heard the saying “the eyes are the window to the soul”?

Manga artists rely on the eyes of their characters to communicate unspoken feelings and stories. Eyes are expressive features that help viewers tell the difference between characters, convey emotion, and suggest personality.

This video takes you through some of the many ways to draw manga eyes in a helpful step-by-step fashion.

Manga Girl Eyes(3 Ways)

Here’s a similar video to the one above just covering slightly different topics.

Learn how to draw the eyes of three different characters in this quick video that takes you from start to finish, discussing the various shapes and what they mean.

Draw A Manga Mouth

From smiling to screaming, a simplified manga mouth is both simple and incredibly tricky.

Pick up some tips in this video like “when the mouth is open, always show at least one row of teeth” to take your manga art to the next level.

Draw Manga Hair(6 Ways)

This artist covers curly hair, straight hair, long hair, and hair tied up in various fashions.

With no narration you can get your pencils out and get some practice in. But you’ll have to be a self-starter because it’s not that easy to follow without advice.

By the end you’ll know how anime hair reacts to styling and the most common ways it is stylized. And keep coming back to this even if you struggle on the first run through. It gets easier with practice.

How to Draw 3/4 Views

By now you should be familiar with using guidelines and sticking to general rules when constructing a face.

This tutorial builds on your previous knowledge and gives you a bit more freedom, encouraging fewer guidelines and more creativity.

Follow along and you’ll have one female and one male head in a ¾ view in just 20 minutes.

Manga: Clothing Folds

Clothes are affected by many forces causing folds that make them difficult to draw.

Gravity, cloth weight, and body position are a few of the lessons you’ll learn in this video covering the basics.

20 Ways Drawing Manga Eyes

If you are struggling to understand how different styles of eyes match different characters, this video will clear up all your questions.

Over a time-lapse video the artist narrates what makes each eye unique while drawing the eyes of 20 characters from popular anime. Yes, twenty!

If you are following along be prepared to pause often. This 11-minute video is fast-paced and packed to the brim with useful knowledge.

Male Manga Character Tutorial

Art anatomy is hard. No denying that.

Luckily manga art has a set of tips and tricks to get you going. Starting with the head and ending at the bottom of the torso, this tutorial gives you smart shortcuts to help you accurately construct a make manga character.

If you’ve never heard of the thunderbolt technique then you’ll really enjoy picking that up and adding it to your repertoire.

Manga Body for Beginners

Learn how to draw a classic manga girl body in this basic tutorial for beginners.

With no voiceover the artist gently takes you through her process, clearly highlighting the critical construction lines she makes.

If you follow along you’ll end up with a cute manga schoolgirl and a lot more knowledge about quickly constructing the body in a simple anime style.

Manga Studio 5 Tutorial(Multipart)

Have you ever heard of the Manga Studio software(now Clip Studio)?

It’s software like Photoshop but dedicated to manga & anime drawing.

Using manga studio in this guide you will learn which tools to use and how to ink a pencil drawing digitally. If you want to learn how to add color then watch part 2 of the video.

Comics In Clip Studio Paint

This video is a must-watch if you want to make your own manga or anime comic.

It’s an in-depth, information-packed webinar that’s almost an hour long. Don’t let the length scare you away though. After watching the video you’ll know exactly how to use Manga Studio to create your own manga pages from scratch.

The artist takes you through the full process of creating a comic book page from start to finish.

By the end you’ll know how to import your pencil sketches, set up the right sized document, make panels and ink your rough sketches.

Corel Painter Anime Tutorial Part 1

Drawing is complicated but it’s only the first step in learning.

The other is understanding how to translate ideas, fill in color, and work with software if you’re going digital.

In this video you’ll learn to create a full-color anime scene in Corel Painter. Over a time-lapse the artist talks you through his process, revealing how he paints backgrounds and introduces shading into his artwork.

Although the final image is complicated, this tutorial is packed well and spread out over two parts. By the end you should have a basic idea of how to use color when painting anime-style art.

How to Draw Manga Noses

In the manga style everything is simplified.

Unexpressive features like the nose are often stylized into a simple line or dot. This tutorial goes through the various ways to draw a nose from the simplest line to a more complicated nasal shape.

Draw along for practice and by the end of the tutorial you’ll understand how to draw a manga-style nose from both the front view and a ¾ view.

Color Anime Skin in Photoshop

When coloring an anime character it’s essential to get the skin right.

Choose uncomplimentary colors or place the shadows in the wrong place and your character will look waxy and out of place.

This tutorial goes over how to choose your skin tone and shows you a few traditional techniques to use when shading.

Coloring, Shading & Highlighting Manga

Continuing with learning how to shade skin, this short and sweet tutorial builds on what you already know.

The artist teaches you how to think about shadow placement and shows a simple but effective way to pick better shadows and highlights for your base skin tone.

Digital Lineart Tutorial

Photoshop is an industry standard when it comes to digital art.

You can use it for digital paintings in the anime style, or in your own style, and it’s versatile enough to give manga/anime artists everything they need.

This tutorial will teach you a new outlining technique for Photoshop that leaves thick, solid lines on top of your artwork.

Anime Boy Fighting Pose

Pick up a gesture photo set and break out your drawing pad ‘cause it’s time for some pose practice!

The most popular animes in the world are fighting shows and it makes sense to learn to draw dynamic action poses to match.

Draw along with the artist and you’ll learn how to conceptualize fighting poses while keeping your characters in proportion.

Long Hair for Anime

Drawing crazy long hair with a mind of its own is always fun.

Using this video you can unleash your love for long flowing lines and learn how to supercharge your hair drawing skills.

The artist draws two characters from start to finish explaining in detail how he constructs the hair and what outside factors he considers.

Bangs, Fringe & Curly Hair

Getting hair to fall naturally is no easy feat. When drawing manga it’s standard practice to simplify the hair into large clumps called ‘bangs.’

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to form the curve of the bangs accurately and how to add extra detail.

The artist takes it a step further by discussing how pigtails influence the shape of the hair and the best way to construct them. Lots of info here for anime hair lovers.

Foreshorten Hands, Arms & Legs

By adding dramatic perspective to your drawings you can create dynamic action poses full of energy.

Once you know how to construct the basic human body(with foreshortening) that knowledge will take your manga art to the next level.

Covering four different poses, you’ll finish this tutorial with a solid understanding of how to use foreshortening to your advantage.

How to Draw Arms for Anime

Did you know that the arm is the same length as the torso?

What about other tidbits of advice like “the forearm is the same length as the upper arm” and “the elbow is always at the belly button”?

This tutorial is packed full of memorable information teaching you how to draw the arm—muscles and all—in many different poses while sticking to the anime style.

How to Draw Anime Neck & Shoulders

Skipping out on the shoulder muscles is one of the biggest beginner mistakes you can make.

These frame the torso and make a big impact on the final design.

This tutorial teaches you all about the muscles in the neck and how they connect to the shoulders. Once finished, you’ll understand how to connect the head to the body in any pose or angle you desire.

Choosing Your Anime Drawing Style

Not all anime is in the same style.

Some anime is super detailed while others simplify things down for comic effect.

Many different decades even have a significant impact on the style of anime.

From the realism of Ghost in the Shell to the hyper-simplified faces of Dragon Ball Z, this video shows you the options available and how to choose the right style to suit your preferences.

Manga Sitting Poses

If you’ve been working your way through this list you will have a solid understanding of how to construct a standing human body. Or at least you’re well on your way.

But this tutorial takes it a step further teaching you how to construct a sitting body in a specific style.

All of the proportions stay the same—you just need to learn is how to manipulate them.

Anime Girl Step-by-Step

Drawing anime doesn’t have to be complicated.

Pull out your sketchbook, grab a pencil, and follow along with this simple tutorial on how to draw a cute anime girl!

This quick tutorial is an excellent warm-up for your hand teaching you to make broad, loose pencil movements.

One Character, Six Manga Styles

Have you been planning to create your own manga but just feel discouraged?

You’ll need to pick a style to work in, organize a story, and master the art style. It takes a while but this video can help.

A good way to solidify your style is to draw your character in multiple other manga styles. Follow along with this tutorial and try to adapt your character to all six different styles.

How to Draw Anime Head & Face

Are you still struggling to get you anime faces right even though you’ve been practicing for a while?

Get back to basics with this clear step-by-step tutorial that teaches you every construction trick in the book.

If you practice the techniques in this video your anime faces are guaranteed to improve.

Teenager to Kid Body Proportions

Body proportions change with age. A toddler’s head tend to be almost as big as their bodies while fully grown adults are about eight heads tall.

This tutorial quickly teaches you how to draw age groups accurately and which proportions to change.

How to Draw Relaxed Hands(5 Ways)

Natural looking hands are notoriously tricky to get right.

The proportions are difficult to remember and the placement of the fingers feels almost impossible to get. You could study other examples but the best way to learn is through practice.

This comprehensive tutorial shows you how to draw relaxed hands using a clear set of construction tips and guidelines.

Follow along with each drawing and then apply the lessons you learned to your own drawings after the tutorial.

Draw Simple Manga Hands

Hands are the most difficult human body part to draw(relatively).

Learn the foolproof way to get them looking right with the handy ‘french fry’ visualization trick this artist teaches in their video.

If you follow along you’ll learn how to draw a hand from the top, from the bottom, and in a closed fist.

Did you know you can apply similar rules to drawing feet too? You’ll also learn a basic trick that helps you use what you learned about hands when you draw feet. An excellent video for getting anime appendages just right.

Draw Simple Manga Feet

Anatomy is any manga artist’s bread and butter.

This comprehensive tutorial distills the complicated anatomy of a foot and teaches you simple construction techniques to keep your drawings accurate.

Practice makes perfect so follow along in your sketchbook and take down any important details that jump out. You could even do this digitally and follow along with the video in another window.

Manga Girl “Sketchy” Style

You’ve learned how to create clean, stylized manga artwork. You may not have mastered anything but you’ve got some ideas.

But did you know that manga can be sketchy too?

Grab some watercolors or colored pencils and get ready to paint outside the lines!

This video teaches valuable lessons about style and how to go about creating that classic “romance manga” look.

Draw a Manga Witch

Consolidate all the knowledge you’ve gained so far and learn to draw a full-body manga witch in this handy video.

Undeniably cute, you’ll have a chance to practice your proportions, poses, hands, feet, and even get into the nitty-gritty of drawing patterned clothes.

As usual, following along on paper(or a tablet) is highly recommended.

Simple Manga Female Body

You can build on your knowledge of proportions all day long.

But when tackling difficult concepts like foreshortening you should take a step back and focus on the fundamentals.

This tutorial is a perfect refresher on the proportions of the human body and how to draw using clear measurements.

As you follow along you can even take it a step further by adding clothes and coloring with Copic Markers.

Tips for Drawing A Manga Face

Drawing a manga face correctly takes time and practice. But these few tips can help speed up your learning timeline.

Learn about the importance of line weight, where to put eyes, and exactly how thick to make the neck along with many other great tips.

Paint Realistic Manga Portraits

Just because anime and manga have simplified color and bold linework doesn’t mean you can’t change the style. Plenty of anime styles use more realistic designs.

This tutorial shows you how to start a loose sketch and move into adding swathes of color, all the while blending and keeping color harmony.

When trying to paint realistic versions of anime characters it’s best to use a picture as a reference. Maybe even grab a sleek anime art book of your favorite series and use that concept art as a reference.

Just pick out a character and get painting!

How To Draw Manga Backgrounds

Backgrounds can be simple or crazy complicated, but all of them require some knowledge of perspective.

In this walkthrough the manga artist shows you what to consider and introduces you to the art of backgrounds.

While sharing his knowledge he inks the background of an interior scene explaining the complex perspective calculations and adding final detailed touches.

Let’s Paint: Anime Evening Scene

This video is a silent time-lapse where the artist reveals their brushes, color techniques, and general blocking out strategies to paint a background.

Anime backgrounds are very technical so this can be a huge benefit to anyone just getting into this style.

Learn how to integrate clouds into a dusk-type setting and discover a quick yet effective way to paint the silhouette of trees.

Two Faces(Speedpaint)

It’s where an artist paints fast to create a finished piece in the least amount of time possible. Little planning, all creativity.

In this speedpaint we get an inside look at the artist’s process creating two anime characters in a unique setting. It’s a lengthy video detailing the early concepts all the way to the finishing touches.

If you can keep up with the video you’ll take away some valuable lessons about workflow and how to quickly conceptualize, ink, and color your own anime art.

Catching Smiles(Speedpaint)

This video comes from the same artist as above, yet here she uses a significantly different method to conceptualize the pose.

Using the popular art program Paint Tool SAI the artist creates lineart drawn freehand and adjusts everything on the fly.

Learn how to apply this into your own work with techniques you can gather along the way. The coloring of the lineart is very detailed and clearly enhances the overall feel of the finished piece.

If you can keep up with speedpaints these two videos are worth bookmarking.

Author: Claire Heginbotham

Claire is a traveling creative living in Osaka, Japan. She spends her days writing things, learning things and eating ungodly amounts of sushi. Read about her adventures here or secretly stalk her on Instagram and Twitter.