2D Animation for
Beginners
Pro Animators Mentor You to Be Successful
This workshop allows you to learn, grow and get 1:1 feedback as you create traditional animation, frame by frame. Through in-class examples and homework assignments, they'll present 20 workflows and techniques that are useful to every animator. You'll have the chance to learn from our mentors in the conversations as they share insights about what studios are working on and what success they look for in an animator.
Why Take 2D Animation for Beginners at Animation Mentor
Personalized Mentorship
Learn from a working studio animator who shares weekly feedback to help you grow your craft frame by frame.
Live Weekly Q&As
Join weekly 1-hour live Q&A sessions with your mentor, on top of in-class examples and homework assignments.
Modern Digital Tools
Train the way professionals work today, using digital tools to create traditional, hand-drawn 2D animation.
Studio-Ready Workflows
Walk away with 20 workflows and techniques that are useful to every animator, grounded in the fundamentals.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Explore the principles of traditional 2D animation using modern tools
- Understand the fundamentals of expressive and dynamic 2D animation
- Animate a simple, straightforward walk cycle as a strong foundation
- Use the 12 Principles of Animation to bring breathing characters to life
- Block out and refine your shots with an efficient, studio-style workflow
- Draw with emotion to create characters audiences connect with
- Pose to convey emotion before a character ever speaks
- Build a stronger sense of weight, timing, and spacing in your animation
Skills You'll Gain
What You'll Build
This beginner-friendly workshop is built around hands-on exercises, each one a step toward a polished, expressive piece of traditional 2D animation, drawn frame by frame.
A Fundamentals Study
Hands-on exercises that ground you in the founding principles of expressive, dynamic 2D animation.
The Walk Cycle
A simple, straightforward walk cycle, the exercise that proves your grasp of the fundamentals.
An Emotion-Driven Shot
Pose-to-pose work that draws with emotion, so your characters connect with an audience before they ever speak.
The 2D Animation for Beginners Curriculum
Fundamentals of 2D Animation
Get introduced to the expressive and dynamic foundations of traditional 2D animation.
2D animation can be an incredibly expressive and dynamic form of entertainment and artistic creation. It's important to start with a strong foundation of the tone, principles, and an understanding of how they relate to 2D animation.
- The expressive, dynamic foundations of 2D animation
- Tone, principles, and core concepts
- Working with modern digital tools
The Mechanics of Weight
Showing weight is always important in animation. Build a stronger sense of weight in your shots.
Showing weight is always important in animation. It grounds your work so that it still feels believable to the viewer, even when exaggerated. We'll explore how to ensure your animation has proper weight and which drawings are most critical to getting that idea and feeling across.
- Why weight grounds believable animation
- The critical drawings for weight
- Conveying weight even in exaggerated work
Fundamental Concepts of Animation
Use the constant tools and techniques from the previous two sessions to start animating a walk cycle.
Using the constant tools and techniques from the previous two sessions, you'll start animating a walk cycle as a strong, beginner-friendly foundation.
- Applying the tools and techniques you've learned
- Blocking out a walk cycle
- A strong foundation for every animator
Drawing with Emotion
One of the things that really counts when studying 2D animation is this: every drawing is critical.
One of the things that really counts when studying 2D animation is this: every drawing is critical. This concept carries over to 3D character animation as well, and using the principles and getting the equivalent in this session will explore the importance of showing emotion and clarity of ideas in a single drawing, so that final flows into an animated shot.
- Why every drawing is critical
- Showing emotion and clarity in a single drawing
- How fundamentals carry into 3D character animation
Pose-to-Pose Animation
Focus on pose-to-pose animation and the workflows that make remaining shots manageable.
In this session we'll focus on animating transitions and dive deeper into breakdowns and inbetweens. There's so much more to think about than just getting from Point A to Point B, so from one storytelling drawing to another. Each transition drawing (inbetween) must serve a purpose and reflect all the animation principles at play. We'll look at how to plan out these transitions and develop your workflow to keep things manageable.
- Animating transitions, breakdowns, and inbetweens
- Giving every inbetween a purpose
- Planning transitions and refining your workflow
Ready to Start Animating?
2D Animation for Beginners is a 6-week workshop. Enroll at Animation Mentor.
- 6-week workshop
- $899 USD
- Weekly live Q&As + feedback
- Beginner-friendly, all levels
Frequently Asked Questions
2D animation is the art of creating movement in a two-dimensional space: traditional, hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation. This workshop teaches it using the modern digital tools animators use today.
2D animation is drawn frame by frame in a two-dimensional space, while 3D character animation uses rigged characters posed in three-dimensional software. Many of the same founding principles (weight, timing, spacing, and the 12 Principles of Animation) carry over from 2D into 3D.
Traditional animation techniques are hand-drawn, frame-by-frame approaches like blocking, breakdowns, inbetweens, and pose-to-pose animation. This workshop explores these traditional techniques using modern digital tools.
The 12 Principles of Animation are the core fundamentals, including weight, timing, spacing, and appeal, that bring drawings to life. You'll use them throughout this workshop to create expressive, believable 2D animation.
No. This is a beginner-friendly workshop designed so you can learn at your own pace. We'll start with the fundamentals and you'll come away with a strong foundation, even if you're new to animation. The workshop is taught in English and is open to students 18 and older.
Plan for a weekly 1-hour live Q&A session with your mentor, plus time to complete in-class examples and homework assignments at your own pace across the 6 weeks.
