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Learning 2D Animation


Articles by 2d artist on how to best learn 2d animation

Featured 2d Animation Article
Acting and Animation

"An animator is an actor with a pencil", goes the oldest and truest animation cliché. Not "a draftsman that acts", but first and foremost - an actor. If you're trying to tell a story through a character, inevitably you're an actor. The only question is whether you are a good actor or a bad one...

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2D Animation
Sample Article The 28 Principles of animation

(by Mark Kennedy)

This article was given to me by Mark Kennedy (storyboard artist on Hercules and Tarzan). Thank you Mark for all those handouts!! Often times animators and storyboarders in the industry are able to get handouts from some of the artists who are great teachers. This is an example of such kind of handout that gets circulated among the artists gradually.

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Sample Article Becoming an animator

(by Shanna Smith)

What does it take to be a Disney animator? What spectrums of talent and elements of training are needed to produce these wonder-working "actors with pencils" called animators? We recently put these questions to Frank Gladstone, Manager of Animation Training for Disney, who works out of the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World.

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Sample Article Character Animation Books

(by Harold Whitaker and John Halas)

Acting for Animators covers a lot of ground that doesn't get addressed much in animation school. Sure, we're all told to make the character "live and breathe", but most of the info that follows that admonition is from an art perspective. Hooks draws on his acting training and experience to give a different set of tools animators can use to reach that goal. The information on psychological gestures alone is worth the cost of the book (there's something you don't hear about in your Maya classes).

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Sample Article Concept Artist

Aaron St. Goddard

I try to create a level of realism in my designs which will make people think that it really can exist and function in the real world. This is definitely the most challenging part of coming up with a design, since people are so accustomed to knowing what looks right or what looks wrong. Even if the design is outrageously strange, I'll try hard to make it based in some sort of working reality.

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2d Animation Articles
Bobby Boom Beck Choosing an 2D Animation School

If you interested in Animation, then don't go to a school that _doesn't_ offer a program in Animation, electives don't count. A lot of schools offer electives in using animation software, and that's not the same thing as being educated in Animation...

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Sample Article Acting and Animation

(by Doron A. Meir)

In the following article I have put on paper my thoughts considering acting in animation, which apply to any form of character animation - including 3D. The article is not meant to provide a "good acting in animation" formula - simply because such a formula does not exist. Every animator has his personal attitude, every film has needs of its own, and undoubtedly there are other ways of getting good acting.

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Sample Article Brokensaints.com Character Designer

Andrew West

I think I enjoyed drawing Raimi the computer hacker most. I had a lot of freedom with what I had him wear and look like a lot. It was very enjoyable dressing up. But I guess I liked them all the same. It's like parents like all their kids the same I think, it's too hard to choose one over another!

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