7 Tips for Animation: How to Make Excellent Animated Videos

The animated video needs to flow with a slice of charm, creativity, attention, and an innate understanding of animation principles. This set of seven is a power set of animation tips for beginners and pros to make beautiful animated videos that catch attention and resonate with audiences.

7 Essential Animation Tips for Creating Exceptional Animated Videos

1. Learn the 12 Principles of Animation

Learning and aligning with the 12 principles of animation is an essential element of a good animation, as delineated by Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their book, “The Illusion of Life“. These form the basis for applying life to animation so as to reasonably well realistically appeal to human emotions.

1. Squash and Stretch: Giving weight and flexibility to objects.
2. Anticipation: Preparing the audience for some action.
3. Staging: What is the point here? And how to emphasize it.
4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose: Two very different approaches to moving.
5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action: All parts of the body move together harmoniously.
6. Slow In and Slow Out: Gives an actual feel of weight and volume to the movement over time.
7. Arcs: Perceive natural movements.
8. Secondary Action: a parallel dimension.
9. Timing: Governs the speed of an action.
10. Exaggeration: To sustain the interest.
11. Solid Drawing: Extending the character to give weight and volume.
12. Appeal: Must keep the character interesting and appealing.

2. Plan Your Animation with a Good Studio Draft – Animation Tips

Before entering the animation, planning the entire video well is essential. A storyboard is a visual sketch of your animation, working out what happens in each scene and shot in great detail. The finer the storyboard, the smoother the animation process will run, and the better it will come out as conceived initially.

• Visualizing the Narrative: Helps in going through the story flow.
• Identifying Action Points: Highlights decisive action moments and transition stages.
• Choosing Camera Angles: Helps design perspective and composition.
• Setting Time Occurrences: Helps in planning the animation’s timing.

3. Timing and Spacing – Animation Tips

Timing and spacing are two major elements of animation that teach one how to see movements. Timing makes sure that actions occur at the proper rhythm and pace, while spacing defines the distance an object moves between two frame intervals.

• Maintain Timing: Keeps rhythm and flow.
• Vary Spacing: Makes movement more realistic by varying the distances travelled by objects.
• Ease In and Ease Out: Makes the movements smooth when beginning and ending.

4. Use Reference Material – Animation Tips

Reference material helps to see how objects and people move in the real world. One learns anatomy, physics, and timing by observing a real-life action. By using good reference material, an animator can thus improve the accuracy and believability of the animation.

• Live Action Videos: Film trouble actions or admire real-life movements.
• Photographs: Examine the pose as well as facial expressions.
• 3D Models: Digital models assist in viewing the form and structures.

5. Add Sound and Music with Care – Animation Tips

Soundworks play in animation to increase the emotional impact and help tell the story. Proper use of sound effects and music can lift the animation to the next level.

• Synchronize Sound with Action: Set the timing of sound effects to that of movements.
• Use Music to set the Mood: Choice matters the most when it comes to music.
• Add Ambient Sounds: Fit background noises along to serve as a full immersion.

6. Pay Attention to the Character Design – Animation Tips

Character design is sufficiently important to define the personality and appeal of the characters in an animation. Characters properly designed will be remembered and emotionally communicated. A strong character design makes the viewers feel connected to the characters and follow their journey.

• Simplify Shapes: Use simple shapes to create recognizable silhouettes.
• Expressive Features: Create faces and body language that express emotions.
• Consistent Style: A consistent style should be used throughout the animation.

7. Continuously Seek Feedback and Iterate – Animation Tips

Animation is an iterative process, and seeking feedback helps one to get better. Constructive criticism might point towards the areas that need improvement and put forth different perspectives. Constantly looking for feedback and revising helps to make the animation better and the animator an even better person.

• Share with Peers: Get the opinion of fellow animators or mentors.
• Test with Audiences: See how the audience reacts to the animation.
• Revise According to Comments: Make the appropriate changes.

Final Animation Tips

Imparting a beautiful animated video demands at least some basic technical knowledge, creativity, and a thorough understanding of the principles of animation. An animator or animation studio should know how to engage their audience with all that goes into good animation: mastery of the 12 principles of animation, storyboarding, timing and spacing, references, purposeful use of sound, character designs, and feedback. Remember that animation has a long road full of more learning and improvements. Patience, therefore, and practice will allow your creative expressions to take shape slowly.