Arc of Action

Learning arc of action.

Eccentric Actions

Here is some do's and dont's.

Head Turns

Head Turns
Displace the middle position to make it convincing. Also we tend to lower head on a turn.

Finger Pointing

After talking with some artists on this pointing finger, found that i was missing a crucial inbetween of the pointing.



Here is how I animated it.

Ball Bouncing With Perspective

Doing some practice with the ball bouncing, make sure I got perspective right.

Ball revolving around a Central Point

Ball revolving around a Central Point
Ball revolving around a Central Point with middle positions/cross points

The animation is on Twos;




The animation is on Ones;

More Spacing/Cross Points

More Spacing/Cross Points
More spacing/cross points, a disc going towards us.

Middle Position/Crosspoint & More Spacing

Middle Position/Crosspoint & More Spacing

Im getting a pretty good grasp on tradional hand drawing animating. Next here im doing more on spacing, learning how to find middle position and crosspoint.

Timing and Spacing

Timing and Spacing
(lessons from animation survival kit book)

First chart is spaced out evenly, that is spacing. Second one we changed the spacing to slow/ease out and slow/ease in.

Free Programs for Art & Animation

I myself use Adobe Flash 8. I will update one day. I will start to use for pencil tests one of the these programs, Plastic Animation Paper one day I might purchase full version. But its costly :(

Plastic Animation Paper (free version, good way to use this is for pencil tests)
Plastic Animation Paper Download
"Plastic Animation Paper (PAP) is a software package for doing 2D animation. It will allow traditional animators to utilize the powerful and timesaving advantages of computers. "


Pencil - Traditional Animation Software (100% Free)
Pencil - Traditional Animation Software Download
"Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source. "


MonkeyJam (100% Free)
Monkey Jam Download
MonkeyJam is a digital penciltest program. It is designed to let you capture images from a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames of an animation. You can also import images and sound files already on your computer. Although it is designed for pencil and paper, MonkeyJam can also be used for StopMotion animation and has several features just for that. Movies created in MonkeyJam can be exported as AVI files.


If you have any questions I can try to answer to the best of my knowledge.

Charts and Inbetweens

Charts and Inbetweens i did
(lessons from animation survival kit book)

My Animation Knowledge.

Is all wrong.

I come to realize I know nothing about animating, or animation. I have come up with my own style and its not the right style. So I'm going to learn from ground up. What I would usually do is create a character and just make the cartoon as I go. Usually I wouldn't even storyboard. I'm signing up for some 'life drawing' classes too. (UPDATE: none available until mid july, which i signed up for.)

Im hoping to do do every lesson in this book.

Animators Survival Kit!




I have been making internet cartoons since 2000, but drawing for longer than I can remember. Normally, I finish a new toon, and submit it to various venues. Usually the comments I get are it's to short, not enough animation, its choppy, and unnatural.

I cant afford to goto a top notch 2d animation school, so I must learn on my own. Most professional animators recommend books and the one I would hear mostly is "Animators Survival Kit" So I picked it up. I also bought some other books and even some dvds. Once I start working on them, I will update with my progress here.

I love cartoons, i love watching them, making them, and thinking about them. It is time that I stop how I animate now, and learn to animate the correct way. I will be updating this blog with each lesson that I do on the computer.