The Ultimate Animation Workflow for Beginners

Here’s a comprehensive guide to my adapted version of the pose to pose animation workflow.

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- Music -
Music: Evan King - SONG NAMES: Biscuits, 20XX, Thermal, Moon Base, Often @contextsensitive

Chapters -
00:00 - Intro
00:17 - The Secret Workflow
01:03 - Golden Poses
02:33 - Breakdown #1
05:45 - Breakdown #2
06:54 - MidPoint Pose
07:56 - Ease in + Ease out
10:25 - The Moving hold
10:56 - Bonus tips
12:02 - Final Tips

[TheAlphaTeamPlays]

You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for a comprehensive yet beginner-friendly animation guide that isn’t just “copy what I do frame-for-frame” or “download something off of Mixamo.” Fantastic video

[clonkex]

This is so very good. Not just the workflow, but also the fact that the presenter clearly has skill and real world experience. It's so hard to find animation videos that aren't just either "here's the simplest principles of a bouncing ball" or "here's a 45 minute time-lapse of me animating something really complex".

[TylerMcNamer]

What I have learned here is working on one key pose at a time. Each key pose is like a beginning and ending to animation. Then do the process all over again with the next key pose.

[CharacterDesignForge]

this absolutely rocks, good fundamentals all around! Good on you for making this

[dSensei]

I initially thought this was a clickbait title but I decided to give it a try and I'm blown away by the quality of information in this 13 min video. You've literally saved my ass. I've just transformed my robotic looking animation into a more intresting organic motion by following this beautiful treassure in just one hour. I knew there was some liquid gold out there that would make it all make sense and I kept looking. This is exactly what I've been looking for; Short, precise and something that finally makes everything snap and make sense. Thank you a lot for this. I'm curious if you have a patreon or something where we can support you and donate.

[merleawe_]

Thanks for this! As an animator with a Non-Verbal Learning disability... i'm incredibly literal minded and stuggle badly with very fast or subtle actions. I constantly make very even timed animations or animations that feel stiff(Sometimes I get lucky and get a very organic result, but luck isn't a good thing). When I ask for workflow, people normally give vague answers that lean into a 'figure it out' approach. Even teachers. Which is frustrating. It's ESPECIALLY frustrating when I ask people how they know to do 'Subtle movements' 9:56. No one really ever explains it properly- So it's great to see an example here!. Another confusing one I find is facial and head acting. ESPECIALLY when it concerns moving the neck around a lot. I never think to do that.... It would be awesome if you did a tutorial that went into some more extreme head and neck acting during line reads too!

[romamotion]

The most golden piece in 13 minutes you can ever find on the complete animation workflow/

[RustyCage]

dude ive been a modeler for like 15 years and havent really been able to get into animation until now and this is by far the most informative and helpful video ive ever seen for starting off. thank you so much!

[Ndy]

Chester i just wanted to say iv been watching you for a long time now and you have helped me more than you can possibly imagine. You are an excellent teacher and I hope your future endevers are bright. This video is exactly what I i've been needing for years.

[yusufbilalsaroglu]

While working at my animation job, I was trying to improve myself at the same time. But for a while I was stuck. This video has opened my mind again. I will watch the video again at the first opportunity by following every step carefully. Thank you Chester great video.

[YamanAldous]

Thanks for putting all of this information together ...
it is also fantastic that you mentioned the importance of this workflow for TV episodic animation

[ThomasAnimations]

Nice pack of useful information here. Well explained and entertaining to watch. Love your content, looking forward to more of these sir🎉❤

[BrianKouhi]

That was a great video Chester! loved the pacing and edit.

[LinRinku]

Idk if this can be helpful, but Blender has something called "Motion Paths" that might be useful for checking those "arcs"! You select a bone you want to observe in Pose Mode, in the Editor Type window, go to Object Data Properties tab, and there should be a dropdown/tab called "Motion Paths". There's a couple of settings you can choose from, like if you want to see how the "head or tail" of a bone is moving, and after clicking OK, a (not selectable) path should appear. If you have Auto Keying on, the path should update as you go (if you animate with the graph editor, you either need to Update the Path or move some other bone). I have it as a Quick Favorite so I can check, update, or clear them on the go.

Funky "tip" aside, thanks for sharing this video about your animation workflow! I think I'm kinda amateurish when it comes to animating in 3D, I somehow didn't quite realize the Golden Poses can also apply here too. Also made me understand what Blender's equivalent for the Tween Machine is, because I accidentally use the shortcut for it, get confused and just ignore it xD Might make some use of that now that I know better.

[MichaelHickmanD]

This is an amazing, high quality video! I'm 14, thank you for everything!! I hope to show measurable improvement in my animation!

[ZertoxD]

God sent of a video. Animation makes me rethink my decision of being self-taught but this just made it one step easier. Thank you 🙇

[VyouttarAnimations]

As an animator i really appreciate the effort in this video, thanks a lot for helping the animation community.

[barrenwanderers]

The most detailed guide I've ever come across, and one of the main reasons I want to learn Modelling and Animation; something to look forward to every day and you can go at it through your own pace! The ending video recom was quite something though, lol... But really, this really helped set in stone the process of animation for a ton of us, cheers, Chester.

[Kotesei]

I've been tryna get into animating on blender, 6:54 when talking about the Pose A to Pose B and the things between, I finally see how smooth the animation can be following this method. I just tried it and I want to come back to this video to say thank you for this.

[amsuherdi]

This is actually a good reminder for me. Lately I've been offtracked with the workflow.
Thank you!