Animation Guide

Twelve guides to hand-drawn animation: animating a drawing, walk cycles, onion skinning, boiling lines, seamless loops and export formats.

• How to animate a drawingThe shortest path from one sketch to a moving image: draw the second frame. How many frames you need, where to start, and how to build a first loop.
• What is frame-by-frame animation?What frame-by-frame animation is, the order you should draw in, keys and in-betweens, holds, and how to finish a first project.
• What is boil in animation?Boil — the constant shimmer of hand-drawn lines — explained: where it comes from, why we like it, and how to produce it digitally.
• Animating on ones, twos and threesWhat animating on twos actually means, which movements want which rhythm, plus a frame-rate table and practical rules.
• What is onion skinning?What onion skin does, how many frames to show, what the ghost colours mean, and when you should turn it off.
• The 12 principles of animationAll twelve principles from the Disney animators, each in one line, plus what they mean in practice when you draw frame by frame.
• How to draw a walk cycleThe four key poses of a walk cycle, how many frames you need, how hips and arms behave, and how to close the loop cleanly.
• What is a tween?What a tween is, where automatic in-betweens help, where they fall short, and how easing curves change the character of a move.
• Shape morphing animationHow one shape flows into another, why point matching decides the quality, and what to do about shapes with different counts.
• How to make a seamless loopRules for loops that don't hitch: the duplicate last frame trap, motion that has to close, loop length and the usual mistakes.
• GIF, MP4 or WebM: which should you use?Exporting an animation: the real differences between GIF, MP4, WebM and APNG in file size, colour, transparency and where they play.
• Animating in the browser for freeAnimating in the browser with no download and no account: what to expect, what to check, and which features actually matter.