Any animators here? Advice you would give to complete beginners?

[Verdante]

So I want to start animating chibis or cute little animals enough for tiktok videos/youtube shorts. Any advice on how to learn simple animation? What programs do you use? Thank you!!

 

[Generic.Archdemon]

3D?
2D?
3D pretending to be 2D?
Pixelart?

 

[Verdante]

3D?
2D?
3D pretending to be 2D?
Pixelart?

2D! Pixelart works also

 

[Generic.Archdemon]

2D! Pixelart works also

Do you art already?
or starting with nothing?

 

[Verdante]

Do you art already?
or starting with nothing?

I draw anime & chibis in my sketchbook, but I haven't drawn digital art. I'm planning on buying a tablet soon though, and thought I should probably learn animation too

 

[Lloyd]

It's very time consuming. My advice, don't do it.

 

[Generic.Archdemon]

Any advice on how to learn simple animation?

Start by doing a keyframe exercise.
Things might have changed since the 00s
but everyone started off by doing a bouncing ball

Typically animation runs at 12 frames per sec
Depending on how fast you want to bounce your ball, see what happens when you draw 4 keyframes, and place them in the sequence.

Or just play around with it

it's good to feel what... elasticity is and use keyframes

I think Photoshop lets you load images and output animation from it.

So I imagine GIMP can do it too?

That is the basics.

I imagine there are many tutorials online...

actually, that picture is from a sampler

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9eQrlv

 

[Verdante]

Start by doing a keyframe exercise.
Things might have changed since the 00s
but everyone started off by doing a bouncing ball

Typically animation runs at 12 frames per sec
Depending on how fast you want to bounce your ball, see what happens when you draw 4 keyframes, and place them in the sequence.

Or just play around with it

it's good to feel what... elasticity is and use keyframes

I think Photoshop lets you load images and output animation from it.

So I imagine GIMP can do it too?

That is the basics.

I imagine there are many tutorials online...

actually, that picture is from a sampler

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9eQrlv

Thank you so much!!

 

[BlackKnightX]

Adobe Flash. Absolute classic.

 

[TsumiHokiro]

Adobe Flash. Absolute classic.

I feel the age here... along with mine.

 

[Akaichi]

Try using blender, although it is mainly for 3d and using it 2D is a little finicky, it can do some crazy 2d animation and learning it is worth it as it will soon become a new standard, and it's FREE!
Flash(Adobe Animate nowadays) is very pricey and although it is a classic(Many animation companies still use it) it is a little old at the moment.
Photoshop is cool, but yet again, pricey.

 

[ManwX]

Are you doing it for fun? if yes then reconsider as even basic fluid 2d animation takes time and effort.
not worth it as you wont last a month as it saps your enjoyment and reminds you how incompetent you are in the face of true talent bruh....

if you are doing it for content and later career, start learning the 12 animation principles..

1. Squash and stretch
2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Straight-ahead action and pose-to-pose
5. Follow-through and overlapping action
6. Slow in and slow out
7. Arc
8. Secondary action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
11. Solid drawing
12. Appeal

watch others and what they do on social media platforms like Meatcannon or Falshkitz etc just to get an idea of what the content creators are doing. learn the keyframes body postures and dynamics. you need tons of grounds to cover. try learning blender a grease pencil. would take a month to reallyget it in a professional level... I am a 3d artist so I like 3d but 2d is really cool. you could also fake 2d with 3d styles but you would need time.. like 6 to 8 months to grasp and make really good animation if you dedicate yourself to learning it..

 

[Sininenblue]

google how to animate in krita (or whichever software you choose) and just do it.

find stuff that you like and copy them. Then ask questions like "why did they squish the character here, why did they blur that there, why did they not make a new frame."

And you should study the principles and theories at some point. But unless you need to get a career in animation ASAP, you have time to just chill and enjoy animating.

Fuck it, draw a bunch of chibis on paper and take pictures, make little paper dolls and move them stop-motion style, then mash that together in whatever png to gif converter you can find online and viola, you have an animation. Do it to find out if you actually like doing it, and if you do, do it more to get good at it.

Again, slightly more aggressively this time, just START

 

[Verdante]

Are you doing it for fun? if yes then reconsider as even basic fluid 2d animation takes time and effort.
not worth it as you wont last a month as it saps your enjoyment and reminds you how incompetent you are in the face of true talent bruh....

if you are doing it for content and later career, start learning the 12 animation principles..

1. Squash and stretch
2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Straight-ahead action and pose-to-pose
5. Follow-through and overlapping action
6. Slow in and slow out
7. Arc
8. Secondary action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
11. Solid drawing
12. Appeal

watch others and what they do on social media platforms like Meatcannon or Falshkitz etc just to get an idea of what the content creators are doing. learn the keyframes body postures and dynamics. you need tons of grounds to cover. try learning blender a grease pencil. would take a month to reallyget it in a professional level... I am a 3d artist so I like 3d but 2d is really cool. you could also fake 2d with 3d styles but you would need time.. like 6 to 8 months to grasp and make really good animation if you dedicate yourself to learning it..

I’m thinking about doing the simplest animation I can haha. Thank you for the detailed advice!

google how to animate in krita (or whichever software you choose) and just do it.

find stuff that you like and copy them. Then ask questions like "why did they squish the character here, why did they blur that there, why did they not make a new frame."

And you should study the principles and theories at some point. But unless you need to get a career in animation ASAP, you have time to just chill and enjoy animating.

Fuck it, draw a bunch of chibis on paper and take pictures, make little paper dolls and move them stop-motion style, then mash that together in whatever png to gif converter you can find online and viola, you have an animation. Do it to find out if you actually like doing it, and if you do, do it more to get good at it.

Again, slightly more aggressively this time, just START

LMAO thank you!!

 

[Redadam04]

So I want to start animating chibis or cute little animals enough for tiktok videos/youtube shorts. Any advice on how to learn simple animation? What programs do you use? Thank you!!

I wanna know too.

 

[Notadate]

Draw