Learning the Basics of 2D Frame For Frame Character Animation: Animate Your First Character!

Animation is fun to watch and it’s also fun to make! But where do you start? And how is animation made? Are you curious about 2D hand-drawn animation and are you interested in learning how to animate yourself? Are you interested in animation as a professional or do you want to pick it up as a hobby? Then this is the class for you! This class is for beginners who like learn about animation and how to animate a character. We’ll start really easy so anyone can join the fun! The classes will get more advance as we go on.

In this course you’ll learn:

• Basics of 2D frame for frame animation
• Basics of character design for animation
• Some insight on the animation industry
• How to animate a your first character!

This class is for: beginners (No prior knowledge is required.)

Watch time: 49 minutes

Over-all assignment of this course: Animate a character. We’ll start really basic so anyone can participate!

There will be short assignments with each class as animation is something you'll learn better, by doing. The assignments are a step by step process towards creating your very first character animation! All the assignments will lead towards creating your very first character animation. I recommend participating in each assignment.

Tools: There are no tools or software supplied with this course. It’s recommended to download a demo/ purchase the animation software to your preference, or use the tools you have; paper, scanner and editing software. During the course I’ll use digital drawn-2D animation for my explanations. The basics theory of frame for frame animation are the same regardless of the tools. I will talk about the software at times for those who are interested!

Animation software examples you can purchase or download a demo of to participate in the class assignments: photoshop, tvpaint, toon boom harmoney, moho, celaction2D, synfig, opentoonz, flipbook.

• About this class / Nice to meet you!
• Introduction to Animation / The First step Holds and Inbetweens
• Timing / ASSIGNMENT: Start building your character! + Animation Software
• Rough Animation and Clean-up
• Character Design / How to decide on your character design for Personal & Commercial project
• Coloring / How to work with Layers
• Summary / Your first 2D character animation!