Drawing Skills you NEED for animation

Whether you are pursuing or learning animation...

BASICALLY, the BASIC Truth is, you dont need to be a master - but BASICALLY have some decent and BASIC skills to keep up.

00:00 Intro
02:09 GESTURE DRAWING
04:25 FIGURE INVENTION
06:08 LINE CONFIDENCE - BOLD STROKES
07:52 SOLID CONSTRUCTION
10:19 BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF PERSPECTIVE
11:37 SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING + VALUE
13:06 COMPOSITION
14:44 THE FORGOTTEN SKILL
17:00 FINAL THOUGHTS

The Complete Introduction to 2D Animation
Buy the complete introduction to 2D animation tutorial/video package:

I'm teaching a live class at radhowtoschool

Equipment I use:

Software I use:
Animation - TVPAINT
Animation - Adobe Flash/Animate CC, ToonBoom
Compositing - After Effects
Painting and Illustration - Photoshop
Video Editing - Premiere
3D - BLENDER

[cemadiby]

I think it is also important to just start. I practice all this but still animate, because if you want to start "when you'll good enough", you'll never will

[dmodernharmonyart]

I did the animation course at Sheridan collage from 2015-2019 and you definitely need to be a rounded artist before you get in. They don’t really tech you how to draw they teach you to refine your style, how to use all the programs in the industry, understand film languages and how to animate. But you definitely need to know how to draw lol.

[drawesomejulia]

When you animate a lot of mythical creatures such as dragons and the closest thing you have to a reference is a bat so you just end up making up how they move and having to wing it

[blownupfishnchips]

A little tip for beginner animators like me. More on the mind actually, to make you not feel intimidated by the workload. Treat keyframes and start-end points, the breakdowns as check points and the in-betweens as follow ups that should be adjusted.

[artcatdraws]

this is mostly for me so i can remember what he says, but I figured id share my notes with you guys. maybe it'll be useful. i mostly wrote down important things, and stuff I need to learn how to do and what to practice. its divided into points with the video

1) fast gesture drawing that shows clarity and emotions that tell a story.
- do quick sessions for practice, for 15-30 secs. get the idea crossed. don't focus on tiny details.

2) figure invention. knowing how to construct things like anatomy proportions and be able to understand basic macanincs like the skeleton and muscles major shapes to be able to break down basic mechanics of movement. its important to help come up with a human figure quickly and is important in character designing.

3) line confidence- bold strokes. be bold and confined, don't me indecisive and be confident with your lines. less is more and its easier to cleas up if you don't do hairry lines.
-try practicing making one side of a drawing one single stroke and the move on to another line. make them more deliberate.

4) solid construction. too much to write down. i will go back and listen again later

5) basic understanding of perspective skills: ;earmomg how to utilise vanishing pintsand solid objects. learn to draw and brake down cubes in the perspective line.
` take a photo and break down where the vanishing points are and try to use what you learn to make your own scene.

6) BASIC SHADING SKILLS: cast shadows, crest of shadows, learning how to deal with values, how to do soft shading, how to indicate harsh shading, how to deal with convincing lighting on solid figures.
-just focus on a few tones and showcase believable lighting value. limit yourself to only three tones at first, white gray and black, to

lighting and tone can add a lot to the mood, setting and form of the character. its essential to visual development.

7) layout and composition. know how to use effective camera, effective layout, effective visual design than can emphasize the story elements in your work. use things like shape abstractly to help pull focus and attention to desired areas and to emphasize.

for animation its more about the shape language of the character animation. its all about design, and how the drawings look when animated. rather than just haveing stuff move, there also a sense of graphic design when it comes to you poses.

character design is more about shape language that define the character design.

for storyboarding and visual development and layout. its about how to use those shapes to strengthen the storytelling aspects of the piece/shot. animation is a medium that mostly deal with storytelling and visuals/art. having strong composition adds to that story telling aspect using layout and compositional skills to strengthen an emotion is a perk when it comes to animations. these are things to look for and when you study other pieces

8) forgotten skill. observation. good observation skills especially for a drawing is being able to see something and be able to break it down and be able to recreat it. its useful for adapting to different styles for projects.
you have to be able to adapt to different styles for what your working on.

when it comes to drawing and observation skills. practice: blind contour sketching. learn to avoid drawing bias.

[Loreage]

I’ve been 3D animating for 4 years. Never drawn but deciding to learn 2d. It’s such a different learning curve but i love it just as much as 2d. Learning 2d is taking a bit though. My best advice is that animation is not sacred, for those starting up PLEASE don’t develop a “when im good ill animate” mindset star animation the day you start drawing. It doesn’t have to be and wont be good. But it will help you climb that mountain.

[rodrigosandes]

I would be REALLY happy if you made a video about background design for animation. I find a lot of videos on youtube about backgrounds/environments for visual development and illustration but there's only a few especifically for animation.

[lilacfaun]

omg this is amazing. so often people just throw around "make sure you have the basics down" and i'm just like "what does that even that's so vague & big"-thank you so much for giving some direction! 💜

[BlueTheCartoonAddict]

Just gonna say, you're really basically my animation teacher. You're the person I listen and study from. One of the videos you have that really helped was the one on timing charts! You inspire me so much!

[evankam]

Thank you Toniko! It helps me to fine tune career pathway at Mt SAC while in Law School (or afterward)

[alittleofsomething]

This video made me remember my UK college days, where they prepared me for animation university... I was clearly showing talent, but then I've been given tasks that seemed completely pointless and I never finished the course in the end. Like trying to do something related to a certain theme, and then being told that my ideas are pretty much shit and that I should focus on stuff that I don't like at all and don't make me all happy. There were so many baffling things there, and the worst of all, they didn't make me properly focus on most of these useful things I needed to learn. Complete incompetence in that college. Good thing it was free and a big life experience.

[felusthefine]

Thank you, Toniko! You are a huge inspiration to me and I really do appreciate that you would take the time to make these kinds of videos explaining the how 2D animation works and what skills I should be building so I can eventually learn the basics. Thank you very much and good luck in your personal works and projects!

[nathalik]

thank you so much for making these videos!!! I was feeling really lost, but now im quite confident about actually doing animation! Hugs from Brazil <3

[harakrishn]

This is like a mind map for me and vanish confusions
1) where we start.
2) what thing we really need to practice first.

[creatingtailedstories]

10:51 I found that making 3d mockup with primitives (just drop planes, cubes...) works way better than trying to fit how perspective works into the head. At least found it much easier to get me going

[kaymakesthings]

I would love to see a video on draftsmanship as you mention, and how it's defined. It's one of the words that gets muddled in other jargon but thrown around a ton so I don't think the meaning is properly understood.

[ThomasSchannel]

When I was learning how arms moves, with drag and follow through it helped me understand arms better in posing for drawings so taking things from anim to draw does help.

[copagoy]

Thank you for this. For a while now I have been struggling what I truly need for Animation. I just felt lost. Thank you very much. I can't say that enough. You're videos are a huge reason I know how to animate.

[oneuser]

Man, you don't know how useful and real I find the stuff you say, it's like I already had some idea of what things are like but getting to hear them from an actual animator in the industry is quite valuable to me, so just wanted to say thank you for putting your words and reflections out there for us. Greetings and good luck on your next projects :)

[blownupfishnchips]

Perfect timing man, I needed this. Better overdue than not at all.