Animation Workout from Udemy

What's inside

Learning objectives

A solid understanding of the fundamentals of animation.
Create simple animations that use the core principles such as: squash & stretch and drag & overlap.

Hand draw animations frame by frame to fully understand movement.
Apply everything they learn to all future animation projects.

A solid understanding of the fundamentals of animation.
Create simple animations that use the core principles such as: squash & stretch and drag & overlap.
Hand draw animations frame by frame to fully understand movement.
Apply everything they learn to all future animation projects.

Syllabus

At the end of this course students will have a strong understanding and practical knowledge of the key principals of animation.

Welcome to the animation workout!

Starting with the most fundamental principal, you will learn how to time your animations.

Spacing

Easing makes animation come to life and adds real or exaggerated physics to your movement and sells it to the audience.

Easing part 2

Easing

Add precision to your animation with a technique that will teach you how to plan out your moves.

Make things fluid and appealing with a simple principal that can take your animation to the next level.

Drag and Overlap

Either subtle or insane this will inject a huge amount of appeal and fun into your animation.

Squash and Stretch

The most commonly missing element in a beginners animation, this technique makes all the difference.

Anticipation

Possibly the best exercise a novice animator or seasoned professional can do, the walk cycle will test what you'ved learned.

Refining and wrapping up the walk cycle.

Walk Cycle & Final Animation

Congratulations on completing the course! We hope you have enjoyed the exercises and now have a strong foundation to build on in the endlessly fascinating art form of animation.

Good to know

Know what's good

, what to watch for

, and possible dealbreakers

Provides a strong foundation in animation principles like spacing, easing, drag, overlap, squash, stretch, and anticipation, which are essential for creating believable movement

Focuses on hand-drawn animation techniques, which helps learners develop a deeper understanding of movement and timing, skills that are transferable to digital animation

Culminates in the creation of a walk cycle, a fundamental exercise for animators that reinforces learned principles and provides a practical application of skills

Uses Flash (now Animate CC), but the principles taught are adaptable to any 2D animation software, making the knowledge gained broadly applicable

Requires no prior drawing skills, making it accessible to beginners who want to learn animation without needing artistic expertise

Uses Animate CC, which may require a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, potentially posing a barrier to entry for some students

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Animation Workout with these activities:

Practice Line Drawing

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Improve your line drawing skills to prepare for the animation exercises, especially the walk cycle.

Browse courses on Line Drawing

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Practice drawing straight lines, curves, and circles.
Focus on control and consistency.
Experiment with different line weights.

Read 'The Animator's Survival Kit'

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Study the core principles of animation in detail to gain a deeper understanding of the course material.

View Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I... on Amazon

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Read the chapters on timing, spacing, and easing.
Study the examples provided in the book.
Take notes on key concepts and techniques.

Animate a Bouncing Ball

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Practice the principles of spacing, timing, squash, and stretch by animating a bouncing ball.

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Create a new animation project in your chosen software.
Animate a ball bouncing across the screen, paying attention to spacing and timing.
Incorporate squash and stretch to emphasize impact.
Refine the animation until it looks natural and appealing.

Four other activities

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Create a Short Animation Explaining Drag and Overlap

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Solidify your understanding of drag and overlap by creating a short animation that demonstrates the principle.

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Create the animation using your preferred software.
Plan a short animation that clearly illustrates drag and overlap.
Share your animation with others and get feedback.

Read 'Cartoon Animation'

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Study cartoon animation techniques to enhance your understanding of character animation.

View Animation on Amazon

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Read the chapters on character design and posing.
Study the examples of different animation techniques.
Practice applying the techniques to your own animations.

Animate a Walk Cycle with Exaggerated Features

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Apply your knowledge of animation principles to create a walk cycle with exaggerated features, pushing your skills to the next level.

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Design a character with exaggerated features.
Animate a walk cycle for the character, emphasizing the exaggerated features.
Refine the animation until it is polished and visually appealing.

Create a Portfolio of Your Animation Exercises

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Showcase your animation skills by creating a portfolio of your exercises from this course.

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Select your best animation exercises from the course.
Compile them into a portfolio, either online or offline.
Write a brief description of each exercise, highlighting the principles you applied.

Career center

Learners who complete Animation Workout will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Animator

An animator brings characters and objects to life through movement. This course helps build a foundation in the core principles of animation, like spacing, easing, drag, overlap, squash, stretch, and anticipation. These fundamental aspects are crucial for any aspiring animator, as are skills drawing animations frame by frame, as taught in the course. The skills learned can be applied to any 2D animation software, allowing for versatility in professional animation projects. The course is a great way to learn these skills, regardless of prior experience.

See salaries and explore the career path for Animator

Character Animator

A character animator specializes in bringing animated characters to life through their movements and expressions. This course helps build a strong foundation in the fundamentals of animation such as spacing, timing, and easing. Students learn to apply principles like drag, overlap, squash, and stretch to create believable character movement. Creating a walk cycle, which is a major focus of this course, provides essential practice for character animation. This course helps develop skills in frame by frame animation, which is vital for creating expressive characters.

See salaries and explore the career path for Character Animator

Motion Graphics Designer

Motion graphics designers create animated graphics for videos, websites, and other media. This course helps build a solid understanding of the core principles of animation, such as timing, spacing, and easing, that are essential for creating compelling motion graphics. The course provides a practical introduction to these animation concepts through hands-on exercises, including frame-by-frame animation. Learning the principles of drag and overlap, along with squash and stretch, which are taught in this course, helps a motion graphics designer create dynamic and captivating visuals.

See salaries and explore the career path for Motion Graphics Designer

Special Effects Artist

A special effects artist creates visual effects for movies, television, or video games. This course helps build a solid understanding of animation basics, such as timing and spacing, which can be applied to create special effects. The course teaches the principles of drag, overlap, squash, and stretch, which are essential for creating realistic and exaggerated motion. The ability to create frame by frame animation, a focus of this course, can help a special effects artist plan and execute more complex effects. This course helps a special effects artist understand the building blocks of animation.

See salaries and explore the career path for Special Effects Artist

Digital Artist

A digital artist creates artwork using digital tools. This course is useful because it helps build a strong foundation in the principles of animation, such as spacing and easing, which are useful for a digital artist who may want to create animated pieces, or still images that suggest motion. The course teaches how to apply principles like drag and overlap and squash and stretch which are valuable for creating more dynamic and visually appealing art. This course includes hand drawn frame by frame animations, which builds skills that help a digital artist in many different areas of their field.

See salaries and explore the career path for Digital Artist

Concept Artist

A concept artist creates early artwork for video games, movies, or animated series. This course is useful because a concept artist can learn the fundamental animation principles, such as timing, spacing, and easing, which may inform how they design characters or props with motion in mind. The principles of drag, overlap, squash, and stretch, are also taught in this course, which can contribute to creating more dynamic artwork. The class culminates in hand drawn frame by frame animation, giving the concept artist a way to understand motion at a fundamental level. This helps a concept artist design visuals with future animation in mind.

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Storyboard Artist

A storyboard artist visualizes scenes for animation, film, or television. While this course does not cover the specifics of visual storytelling, a storyboard artist may find it useful because it develops a strong understanding of movement principles such as timing, spacing, and easing, which help with planning the flow of a story in frames. The course includes the principles of drag, overlap, squash, and stretch that are all concepts used to create dynamic movement, a skill that contributes to good storyboarding. The ability to create frame by frame animation, which is a focus of this course, is similar to the work of a storyboard artist. This course helps a storyboard artist understand how animation can bring their visual ideas to life.

See salaries and explore the career path for Storyboard Artist

Technical Artist

A technical artist bridges the gap between art and technology, helping to implement art assets in projects. This course may be useful for a technical artist because the principles of timing, spacing, and easing can be important for implementing character or object animation in a game or animation project. The principles of drag, overlap, squash, and stretch are all animation principles a technical artist may find useful to understand. The frame by frame animation exercises are similar to what a technical artist must understand when implementing animation. This course helps a technical artist understand how animation elements are made, allowing them to better organize and implement them into a project.

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Game Designer

A game designer creates the concepts, rules and mechanics for video games. This course may be useful because understanding the principles of animation, such as timing, spacing, and easing, can inform the design of player movement and character interactions within a game. This course teaches the principles of drag, overlap, squash, and stretch, which are all useful for creating appealing movement in a game. The ability to create animations frame by frame, which is the final project in this course, can help a game designer understand what is required for good character motion and visual effects. Understanding these can help a game designer design a more immersive and engaging game experience.

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Video Editor

Video editors assemble raw footage into a polished video. This course may be useful for learning the principles of timing and movement that can contribute to engaging and dynamic video edits. While not directly focused on video editing, the animation principles taught, such as easing and drag, might influence the way a video editor approaches transitions and pacing. The use of animation principles, such as squash and stretch, can also be applied to certain aspects of visual effects work. This course helps a video editor appreciate how animation techniques can enhance storytelling in video.

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Instructional Designer

Instructional designers create learning materials, and this course may be useful due to its focus on fundamental principles. The understanding of timing, spacing, drag, and overlap, as taught in the course, may help create more engaging and digestible content. Animation principles like squash and stretch that are introduced in this course can be used by an instructional designer to enhance visual aids and explanations. The ability to create frame by frame animations can help an instructional designer understand how to create visuals that convey motion effectively. This course helps build a foundational understanding that can be applied to visual learning aids.

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User Interface Designer

User interface designers create the interactive elements that users encounter within software or applications. This course is useful because it helps develop a foundation in motion principles that can be applied to create seamless user experiences. Learning about animation principles such as easing and drag can help a user interface designer make interfaces that feel more fluid and natural. The application of squash and stretch may also be applied to create pleasing animation effects. The skills gained from creating frame by frame animations can also help develop intuition about motion and how it can be used in user interfaces. This course may enhance the skills of a user interface designer.

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Creative Director

A creative director is in charge of the overall vision of a project. This course may be useful because an understanding of animation principles, such as timing, spacing, and easing, can contribute to a creative director's ability to lead a creative team. The course teaches the principles of drag and overlap, along with squash and stretch, which may help a creative director direct the aesthetic of a project. Furthermore, the understanding of frame by frame animation will also enhance their ability to manage the creative process. This course may help a creative director communicate with their team by better understanding the elements of animation.

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Web Designer

A web designer creates the layout and visual elements of websites. This course may help them because understanding motion principles like easing and drag can improve transitions and user interactions on a webpage. By learning animation techniques such as squash and stretch, a web designer can learn to create more engaging user interface elements. The course teaches students how to implement frame by frame animations, a skill that can help a web designer create unique and delightful experiences for users. This course may add value to a web designer's skills by showing how animation enhances their products.

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Art Director

An art director oversees the visual style and images for a project. This course may be useful for an art director because it helps build an understanding of the concepts of animation that will help in managing animators. Learning about the principles of timing, spacing, and easing can inform the way an art director manages an animation team. Concepts such as drag, overlap, squash, and stretch might help an art director make informed decisions about the stylistic direction of a project. The core skill of frame by frame animation, taught in this course, will give an art director some insight into animation. This course may help an art director make better decisions by being more informed about the animation process.

See salaries and explore the career path for Art Director

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Animation Workout.

ADVENTURES IN ANIMATION

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Is considered the bible of animation. It covers all the fundamental principles in detail, with clear explanations and examples. It's a valuable resource for understanding the 'why' behind animation techniques. This book is commonly used as a textbook at academic institutions and by industry professionals.

Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I...

Hardcover

Animation

Save

Provides a comprehensive guide to cartoon animation techniques. It covers character design, posing, and movement in a clear and accessible way. It's a great resource for learning how to create appealing and expressive animations. This book is commonly used as a textbook at academic institutions and by industry professionals.

Animation Workout

What's inside

Learning objectives

Syllabus

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Activities

Career center

Reading list

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