2D Character Animation Study Group

Every other Saturday, 2:00-4:00pm PST (5:00pm-7:00pm EST)

Located in Classroom #3 of Open Animation’s Server White
Led by Monty (verance#9470)

Description for the Server Schedule:

Bring your characters to life! Sessions will begin with a brief explanation of that week’s optional
exercise to follow along to, and the remainder of the time will be a free working period.

Hello y’all and welcome to the 2D Character Animation Study Group!

Q&A
Q: Who are you?
A: My name is Monty (they/them), and I am a third-year (junior) student of Computer Science
and Studio Art, concentrating in New Media (experimental video art & animation). I’ve designed
and animated character sprites and mentored middle school students in basic character
animation. I will be leading this study group! I am a student like y’all, so please be patient with
me.

Q: How will this study group be run?

A: Sessions will begin with a review on what we did last session and anyone who wants to get
critique on the last exercise is allowed to present their work. Then, we will continue with a quick
explanation of this week’s exercise. The remainder of the time will be spent like an open studio,
and you’re encouraged to share your WIP’s and give each other constructive feedback.

Q: What do I need?
A: All you need is something that you can draw and animate with - whether that’s Adobe
Photoshop, Toon Boom, FireAlpaca (free!), Microsoft Paint, or pencil and paper. Every session’s
exercise will be fairly open-ended and can be completed in different ways.

Q: Do I need to follow along the exercise?

A: Nope! However, please be working on something related to 2D Character Animation, whether
that’s making an animation meme, an assignment for another class, or whatever to help keep
everyone focused.

Q: This time doesn’t work out for me! / I have to miss a session! / etc.
A: You’re all good! If you wish to follow along our sessions asynchronously, exercises will be
listed on this google doc along with some recommended videos for further study. Feel free to dm
me (verance#9470) with any questions and concerns.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents

Fall 2020
Session 01: Character Turnaround (Oct. 17)
Exercise Explanation:
Example: (Dreamworks’ Road to Eldorado, turnaround model of Chel)
Videos for Further Study:
Session 02: Walk Cycle (Oct. 31)
Exercise Explanation:
Examples:
Videos for Further Study:
What else can I practice?
Session 03: Changing Expressions (Nov. 14)
Exercise Explanation:
Examples:
Videos for Further Study:

Spring 2021
Session 04: Modified Flour Sack Test (Feb. 13)

Glossary (In Progress)

Fall 2020

Session 01: Character Turnaround (Oct. 17)

Link to slides:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-eRlA_vMDkP9COPGM_t9qzpJQFHRygGN5TBep6Ind
JQ/edit?usp=sharing

Exercise Explanation:
Turnaround models of characters are very useful tools for character designers, animators, and
comic artists. They not only act as a reference for animating characters by hand, but also can
be rigged and animated themselves.
Today’s exercise will be to draw and animate a 8 point character turnaround. (Hint: That will be 5
unique drawings!) Create horizontal and vertical lines as guides for your character’s proportions,
and use onion skinning and different layers to your advantage.

Example: (Dreamworks’ Road to Eldorado, turnaround model of Chel)

Videos for Further Study:

Character Turns like a Pro! Photoshop Timeline, by BaM Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvUkaBhwAFY
Timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwckUKzRsrg

How To Make Character TURNAROUNDS and Sheets!, by Brookes Eggleston - Character

Design Forge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chTb_ic-oVI
Session 02: Walk Cycle (Oct. 31)
Link to Slides:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cbZZ1ZAoFSeB2YamOVCGkY_az-0hhCNp1cjt9if0OrU
/edit?usp=sharing

Exercise Explanation:
An important job of the character animator is to make sure that characters move
believably and feel alive. If you completed the turnaround model exercise from last session, you
probably noticed that your character felt more like a doll or frozen in time rather than a living,
breathing creature.
This session’s exercise will be to create a walk cycle for a character (side view). You will
probably want to create at least 8 frames. I recommend starting with keyframes, then moving on
to inbetweens, as opposed to animating straight ahead from one pose. Try creating arcs for the
movement of limbs, the body and the head.
While reusing drawings or parts of drawings to reduce workload still applies here - be
wary that it may make your character’s walk seem too stiff if you’re not careful. If you’re going
for a traditional animation feel, redrawing lines so that they slightly vary or jitter may be
desirable, as they make the character appear alive and breathing. On the other hand, if you
want a cleaner style or want to do rig/puppet animation, then you probably want to reuse parts
of your drawings.

Note: As you noticed from last session, there may be exceptions involving your character. For
example, you may have a character not intended to be viewed head on - and that’s okay! In
production, that would be a note added to the model sheet or the pitch bible. Rules may be
broken, but it’s important to learn them so that breaking them is an intentional choice on your
part rather than a mistake.
Examples:
Videos for Further Study:
Animating Walk Cycles, by Alan Becker (applicable to any program)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y6aVz0Acx0

Making a Walk Cycle in Adobe Animate, by BaM Animation

https://youtu.be/k25G83FqiEI

(if you’re looking to rig your character)

Tutorial: Building a Puppet Rig in Flash, by Zedrin

https://youtu.be/x7DmbiZkYPI

The ULTIMATE guide to Character Rigging in After Effects, by Keyframe Academy

https://youtu.be/AcEIT03Mrzk

What else can I practice?

● Gesture drawings (from videos as well as stills!)
○ Focus on the movement of the figure (i.e, the action lines) rather than the
anatomy or form. While anatomy is a great skill to learn to learn (and a good
understanding of form can lead to some impressive camerawork, like with James
Baxter’s work), an animator’s main job is to depict movement. Bodies are not stiff
- they will stretch and squish.
○ Challenge yourself by drawing from a video and not pausing it during the first try.
Experience and feel the movement before you attempt to analyze it and your
drawings.
○ Draw quickly! Make a bunch of shitty sketches as opposed to one detailed
sketch. Animation is a tedious process, so learning to draw fast and well will
benefit you.
○ Sycra’s Guide to Gesture Drawing: https://youtu.be/xmiwGm32dXU
● Brainstorm about how you may capture a character’s personality through their walk
cycle. Don’t be scared to exaggerate bodies and movements!
○ Kevin Parry’s 100 Ways to Walk: https://youtu.be/HEoUhlesN9E
○ Jo Dangerfield’s Character Walk Reference: https://youtu.be/HVS6wMY8uNM
○ Azrathar’s Walking animation reference: https://youtu.be/npuotif7zNM
● Look both at life and at other animators’ work (novice or professional - you can learn a
lot from both!).
Session 03: Changing Expressions (Nov. 14)

Exercise Explanation:
Another way that animators can make characters act believably and connect with an
audience is through emotions and expressions. Expressions do not have to be limited to the
face - they can include other body language and how the character interacts with objects or their
space.
For this exercise, you are tasked with animating your character shifting between three
different emotions (this animation does not have to loop, but it would be fun to do that!). If your
character is more complicated in design, you can just use their head, and if they’re simpler, you
may want to use their whole body. For your process, you will probably want to decide on three
emotions (anger, boredom, nervous, excited, content, sad, curious, hungry, tired…), in what
order you want them to be, and then create a keyframe for the three emotions you chose. Then,
create breakdown frames, then in between frames.
While you’re drawing inbetweens, you will want to be imagining how you would switch
between those emotions. It’s helpful to have a small mirror or webcam to observe your own
face. Just like you saw with the walk cycle exercise, sometimes you and your acting are your
best reference. You will also want to begin considering timing with the number of frames.
Examples:
17 Animators Take on the Facial Expressions Challenge, by Animator Guild Community
https://youtu.be/C6C9xBxX7vU

Girl- Facial expressions animation

https://youtu.be/IfeL0A_TBeI

Videos for Further Study:

General Tips About Drawing Facial Expressions:

Drawing Genuine Facial Expressions (Part 1), by Toniko Pantoja
https://youtu.be/BNUW_POtWEI

Drawing Simple Clear Facial Expressions, by the Art of Aaron Blaise

https://youtu.be/TYa-qmL6XUs

Analysis of Character Animation:

Japan's Greatest Character Animator - Sakuga Analysis of Hiroyuki Okiura, by Howard
Wimshurst
https://youtu.be/BvY76ETeGIE
Slice of Like: Milt Kahl's Character-Animation for Madame Medusa, by A Humble Professor
https://youtu.be/p-wwmBlH4YE
The Genius Animation Behind Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse | Analysis, by Howard
Wimshurst
https://youtu.be/N21oG99eF3A
Spring 2021

Session 04: Modified Flour Sack Test (Feb. 13)

If your character were a flour sack, how would you draw them? How is their “flour” (weight)
distributed - are they tall and thin, big and imposing, rounded and soft, heavier on the bottom?
How would you make this sack move and act like your character, without their facial expressions
or other defining features? Is your character shy - would their sack move with hesitation? Is your
character excited - would their sack be jumping around, perhaps a bit more than what would
seem physically possible?

After you’ve made your character’s sack, you’re gonna animate that sack. Ideas of actions
include:

Character Sack waving (looped)

Character Sack jumping or being tossed

Character Sack falling (looped or hitting ground)

Character Sack kicking a ball

Disney Animator Demos Character Animation Basics, by Aaron Blaise

https://youtu.be/7lNkdeQD0OE
Glossary (In Progress)
1. Bible (aka pitch bible) - a reference guide containing information for all levels of
production, mostly for the screenwriters but may contain important information for
animators like character design notes and character model sheets with different poses
and expressions
2. Pose-by-pose animation - method of animation where you draw out key poses at
significant points of action, then create in betweens for those poses, as opposed to
straight ahead animation. This method requires more planning and is typically used
when timing and accuracy is important.
3. Straight ahead animation - method of animation where you begin with one key pose for a
character and then draw each frame after it in consecutive order, as opposed to
pose-by-pose animation. This method requires less planning and is typically used to
create fluid & spontaneous action without tight timing.
4. Turnaround -