2D Animation: Tips and Tricks

Learn the tricks professional animators use to save time and create more compelling characters.

Introduction

• Welcome

Previous Tips

• Loosen the joints
• Loosen the body
• To twin or not to twin
• Head articulation
• Physics: Falling
• Creating staggers
• Cartoony male mouth shapes
• Realistic male mouth shapes
• Pose-to-pose wipes
• Zipping off screen
• Cartoony female mouth shapes
• Realistic female mouth shapes
• Bird beaks
• Stylized mouth shapes
• Elderly mouth shapes
• Breakdown basics turns
• Breakdown basics reactions
• Breakdown intermediate
• Breakdown advanced
• Thumbnail basics
• Thumbnail intermediate
• Thumbnail advanced
• Fabric creases
• Drag basics
• Capes: Basics
• Capes: Intermediate
• Capes: Advanced
• Flags
• Dresses
• Flour sack
• Pantomime
• Pantomime advanced
• Object design
• Objects Moving
• Hair Basics
• Hair Intermediate
• Hair Advanced
• Ball bounce
• Fast Bite
• Wipes Blurs
• Morphs
• Change expression
• Timing basic
• Timing intermediate
• Timing Advanced
• Texture Basic
advanced
• Texture
• Technical
• Traditional animation process
• Torque
• Realistic construction
• Cartoony construction
cartoony
• Eyeballs
• Eyebrows
• Eyeblinks
• Pupils
realistic
• Eyes
• Center mass
• Crowds
• Overcoming fear
• Overcoming mental blocks
• Breakthroughs
• Avoiding burnout
• The mystery of appeal
• The wheel of fortune
• Relationships matter
• Interpreting dreams
• Animating tails
• Cheating transforms
• Model sheets
• Moving Hold
• Moving Hold Advanced
• Jumping with a push
• Push objects
• Coughing
• Snoring
• Reaching
• Old styles: 1920s rubber hose intro
• Old styles: 1920s rubber hose scene
• Old styles: 1920s rubber hose post
• Loosen with a reversal
• Opposing actions
• Overlap
• Follow through
• Leading actions
• Overlapping large characters
• Drawings, frames, and exposures
• From rough drawings to cleanup
• Cell painting to DIP
• Color model
• Tremor
• Shaky walk
• Camera shots
• Strobing
• Aspect ratios
• Looney Toons: Intro
• Looney Toons: Technical
• Looney Toons: Animation style
• Looney Toons: Walks and runs
• Looney Toons: Scene
• Looney Toons: FX explosion
• Bouncing ball
• Opposing action: Basic
• Opposing action: Intermediate
• Opposing action: Advanced
• Counterpose: Basic
• Counterpose: Advanced
• Overlap: Introduction
• Overlap: Advanced
• Perspective: Introduction
• Perspective: Intermediate
• Plotting arcs
• Figure 8s
• Types of shots
• Camera moves
• Shot transitions
• Staging: Introduction
• Staging: Advanced
• Line of action
• Breaking a single joint
• Breaking joints in a walk cycle
• Plotting arcs and timing in a walk
• Exaggerating the face
• Exaggerating the body
• Exaggerating acting
• Anticipate and overshoot the head
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary actions
• Create personality with leading actions
• Squashing the face for chewiness
• Squashing bodies for animal runs
• Reversing the line of action
• A stretchy jump
• Introduction to anticipation
• Plotting character arcs
• Leading actions on walks
• Fast transitions
• Breaking down a turn
• Introduction to accents
• Advanced stagger
• Squash and stretch
• Examples of counterpose
• Straight-ahead animation
• Pose-to-pose animation
• Different accents
• Correcting arcs and spacing
• Frame rates and logistics
• Wheeled robot
• Animating walks on beats
• Animating candles
• Giant robot
• Tails and reversed curves
• Animating hair and clothing
• Fixing hair and clothing
• Plussing hair and clothing
• Tripod walk
• Dividing in thirds and fifths
• Lighting a scene
• The mushroom cloud
• Ocean waves
• Ocean waves: Advanced
• Drawing budget
• Sweatbox notes
• Layout poses
• Concise naming conventions
• Cheating camera orbits
• When to start a pan
• Sixties TV intro and style
• Sixties TV Structure
• Sixties TV assembly
• Sixties TV post-production
• Cheating depth with color and tone
• Cheating depth of field with blurs
• Cheating depth with motion
• Extreme walks
• Acting with clothing and hair
• Basic smoke poof
• Advanced smoke poof
• Animating a splash
• Constructing animal snouts
• Animating a dress
• Fixing a dress animation
• Animating puppet dialog
• Planning side-scroller game animation
• Creating the artwork and designs
• Zero poses and idle animations
• Walks and hookups
• Jogs, runs, and hookups
• Picking up objects
• Jumping and crouching
• Firing a weapon
• Breaking an animation into pieces
• Hit reacts
• Dies
• Flipping horizontally
• Wins and levels up
• Construction
• Hands
• Advanced hands
• Texture in design
• Straights and curves
• Designing feet
• Dimensional forms
• Using color for story
• Styles
• Simple run
• Weight and mass
• Weight and mass in motion
• The foundations of animation
• Easy vs. hard scenes
• ABC scenes
• Puppets and gestures
• Puppets and arcs
• Boiling a line
• Odd timing on twos
• AA cycles
• ABA cycles
• Don't pop 1: Line and color
• Don't pop 2: Lighting
• Don't pop 3: Camera angle
• Don't pop 4: Composition
• Dos and don'ts
• Making poses read
• Making expressions read
• Timing charts vs. tweening
• Capes basic
• Capes intermediate
• Capes advanced
• Hair basic
• Hair intermediate
• Hair advanced
• Flags
• Fine-tuning flags
• Punchy dialog
• 1980s TV animation history
• 1980s TV animation techniques
• 1980s TV animation scene
• 1980s TV animation post production
• Color vs. pencil test
• Popping on and off screen
• Foreshortening scene
• Isometric game intro
• Isometric game acting and dialog
• Isometric game turning around
• Isometric game walking
• Bluth-style intro
• Bluth-style design