How to Succeed in Art & (2D) Animation Without Really Trying By Trying Really Hard A curated list of resources both free & paid that will help you on your journey of drawing & 2D animation.
I sort-of put them into categories, but a lot of these overlap in terms of what they teach you! By no means this is all there is out there, but I found these resources to be very helpful and there is a mix of paid and free content (also if you’re tight on money look for discounts or buy second hand!)
April 2019 @martanimate / www.martanimate.com 2D Animation
The Illusion of Life: The Animator’s Survival Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Timing for Animation – Timing for Animation – Disney Animation – Kit (Extended Edition) – Years of Disney Master Years of Disney Master Harold Whitaker and John Harold Whitaker and John Frank Thomas and Ollie Richard Williams Classes: The Walt Classes: The Walt Halas Halas Johnston Stanchfield Lectures Stanchfield Lectures Volume One – Walt Volume Two – Walt Stanchfield Stanchfield
Animation (Walt Disney Elemental Magic, Volume Elemental Magic, Volume Animation Sketchbooks – Sketching for Animation: Animation Archives) – 1: The Art of Special Effects 2: The Art of Special Effects Laura Heit Developing Ideas, Disney Animation: The Classical Art Animation – Joseph Gilland Characters and Layouts in of Special Effects Animation– Your Sketchbook – Peter Joseph Gilland Barr 2D Animation
Simplified Drawing for The Animator’s Eye: Animated Performance – Cartoon Animation – Acting for Animators – Ed Planning Animation – Adding Life to Animation Nancy Beiman Preston Blair Hooks Wayne Gilbert with Timing, Layout, Design, Color and Sound – Francis Glebas
The Ultimate Guide to Character ADVANCED ANIMATION BY PRESTON BLAIR - Design with Stephen Silver: http://www.traditionalanimation.com/2017/advanced-animation-by-preston-blair/ Techniques, Tips, and Tutorials for Drawing Effective Characters – Stephen Silver FAMOUS ARTISTS CARTOON COURSE (PUBLIC DOMAIN) https://randomnerds. com/learn-to-draw-cartoons-with-the-now-public-domain-famous-artist-cartoon- course-textbook/
2D Animation: Animate Flying Creatures – Dermot O’Connor (Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning Course) 21 Foundations of Animation – Dermot O’Connor - http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2018/04/23/21-foundations-of-anima- Animating in 2D: Hair and Clothing – Dermot O’Connor (Lynda.com/LinkedIn tion/ Learning Course) KDSketch Animation Tutorials https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-TbygL65GCTvKzmQC-a8Ng/videos Happy Harry’s HuHa 2 How-Tos! (Playlist) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjX9SJKrPnPROi_Bc3LOBWaXi0uz61Bom 51 Great Animation Exercises - https://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-mas- ter/?v=79cba1185463 Storyboarding
The Art of the Storyboard with Lyndon Ruddy (Paid) https://creatureartteacher.com/product/story- board-course-with-lyndon-ruddy/
Pixar Storyboarding Mini Doc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKPVAIcDXY&list=PLX- 2FVHpJipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIwWZI7I&index=16
The art of Storyboarding with Ridley Scott https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljjlXSGdSYs&list=PLX2FVHp- JipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIwWZI7I&index=14
Story-boarding Essentials The Art of the Storyboard: Professional Storyboarding: Peter Paul Process of Storyboarding in TV Animation (Dream- (SCAD Creative Essentials) Storyboarding for Film, TV Rules of Thumb – Sergio Paez, works) – David Harland Rousseau and Animation – John Hart Anson Jew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5nxMeUNiU&list=PLX- & Benjamin Reid Phillips From Word to Image: 2nd 2FVHpJipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIwWZI7I&index=2&t=0s Edition: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process – Marcie Begleiter Jim Mortensen’s Storyboard Tips (Pay what you want) - https://gumroad.com/l/JMMStoryboardTips Backgrounds/Layout
Dream Worlds: Production Walt Disney Animation Studios The Noble Approach – Tod Polson Layout and Composition for Design for Animation – Hans the Archive Series: Layout Animation – Ed Ghertner Bacher & Background (Walt Disney Animation Archives) – John Lasseter Life Drawing
FORCE: Dynamic Life FORCE: Drawing Human FORCE: Animal Drawing: Facial Expressions: A Visual The Artist’s Complete Guide Drawing – Mike Mattesi Anatomy – Mike Matessi Animal locomotion and Reference for Artists – Mark to Facial Expression – Garry design concepts for Simon Faigin animators (Force Drawing Series) – Mike Mattesi
The Complete Book of Poses Figure Drawing for All it’s for Artists: A comprehensive Worth – Andrew Loomis An Atlas of Animal Anatomy Atlas of Human Anatomy for Muybridge: The Human photographic and illustrated for Artists (Dover Anatomy for the Artist (Galaxy Books) – and Animal Locomotion reference book for learning Artists) – W. Ellenberger Stephen Rogers Peck Photographs – Hans-Christian to draw more than 500 poses Some of the images from here Adam – Ken Goldman, Stephanie are in public domain! Goldman Life Drawing
Noah Bradley Photo References (Free & Paid) Also has brushes for concept art SenshiStock – free life drawing photos https://gumroad.com/noahbradley http://www.senshistock.com/
Scott Eaton’s Bodies in Motion (Free & Paid) Gesture /animal drawing resource - https://www.bodiesinmotion.photo/ https://line-of-action.com/ ArtModelTips – life drawing photos (Free) Gesture drawing resource https://www.artmodeltips.com/poses/ https://www.quickposes.com/en
Drawing Skills
Framed Ink: Drawing and Framed Perspective Vol 1: Framed Perspective Vol How to See it, How to Simplifying Perspective: Composition for Visual Technical Drawing for Visual 2: Technical Drawing for Draw it: The Perspective A Step-by-step Guide for Storytellers – Marcos Mateu- Storytelling – Marcos Mateu- Shadows, Volume and Workbook: Unique Exer- Visual Artists – Robert Mestre Mestre Characters – Marcos Mateu- cises with More Than 100 Pastrana Mestre Vanishing Points to Figure Out – Matthew Brehm
Putting People in Perspective - https://twitter.com/batshaped/status/1110274758203990016 Drawing Skills FZD Design Cinema - Character Design Quarterly https://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL/videos Magazine How to Think when you Draw (Can get books, but majority of tutorials are free on the website/their Instagram) http://theetheringtonbrothers.blogspot.com/
Drawing Tutorials - http://cedarseed.com/tutorials/
How to Draw Videos - https://www.proko.com/how-to-draw-videos/ Art Fundamentals: Color, Exercise based free resource - https://drawabox.com/ Light, Composition, Anatomy, Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytelling - Perspective and Depth – Gilles http://www.floobynooby.com/comp1.html Beloeil, Andrei Riabovitchev Skillshare – great tutorials for many things – https://www.skillshare.com/ Digital Drawing Photoshop Animation Techniques – Alex Grigg http://www.alexgrigg.com/pages/photoshop-animation-techniques
Coloring Characters the Industry Way! Photoshop – BaM Animation (Actually look through all of their videos!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4atFicBvhMM&list=PLX2FVHpJipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIw- WZI7I&index=19&t=1s
Free digital painting videos - https://www.ctrlpaint.com/
Digital Painting in Photoshop: ImagineFX magazines Industry Techniques for Available digitally & physical copy Beginners: A comprehensive introduction to techniques and approaches Colour Theory
Colour Scheme Maker https://jamie-rollo.itch.io/gamut-maker
Colour Scheme Maker https://coolors.co/
If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Vision: Color and Composition for The Secret Lives of Colour – Die: The Power of Color in Visual Film – Santan Suryavanshi, Hans Kassia St Clair Storytelling – Patti Bellantoni P. Bacher Film & Animation Theory
Film Directing Shot by Shot: Animated Storytelling: Animation Writing and Directing for Animation: The Visual Story: Creating Visualizing from Concept Simple Steps for Creating Development: From Script Everything You Didn’t Learn in the Visual Structure of Film, to Screen (Michael Weise Animation and Motion Development to Pitch (Focal Art School – Tony Bancroft TV and Digital Media – Bruce Productions) – Steve Katz Graphics – Liz Blazer Blazer Press Visual Effects and Block Animation) – Jean Wright Film & Animation Theory & History
Inside Story: The Power Shadow of a Mouse: Directing the Story: Professional The Filmmaker’s Eye: Learning Re-Imagining Animation: The of the Transformational Performance, Belief and Storytelling and Storyboarding (and Breaking) the Rules of Changing Face of the Moving Arc: The Secret to Crafting World-Making in Animation – Techniques for Live Action and Cinematic Composition – Image – Paul Wells, Johnny Extraordinary Screenplays – Donald Crafton Animation – Francis Glebas Gustavo Mercado Hardstaff Dara Marks
Living Lines Library http://livlily.blogspot.com/
Animation Art Jobs Basic Structure - https://twitter.com/ americanninjax/sta- tus/1107761103109394432
Heroes of Animation with Bing (Playlist) Ink & Paint The Women of Before Ever After: The Lost The Nine Old Men: Lessons, The Freelance Manifesto: A https://www.youtube.com/ Walt Disney’s Animation – Lectures of Walt Disney’s Techniques and Inspiration from Field Guide for the Modern playlist?list=PLjX9SJKrPnPSm- Mindy Johnson Animation Studio – Don Hahn, Disney’s Great Animators – Motion Designer – Joey 5rBOniaaG734MxVYhbJb Tracey Miller-Zarneke Andreas Deja Korenman Comics
Comics and Sequential Art: Reinventing Comics: How Understanding Comics: The Making Comics: Storytelling This is Everything I Know – C. Principles and Practices from Imagination and Technology Invisible Art – Scott McCloud Secrets of Comics, Manga Spike Trottman the Legendary Cartoonist (Will Are Revolutionising An Art and Graphic Novels – Scott https://ironcircus.com/ Eisner Instructional Books) – Form – Scott McCloud McCloud product/this-is-everything-i- Will Eisner know/ Software/Plugins
RIOT – Image Optimisation Software. Great to create smaller web-ready files for posting online/your website. (Free) Storyboarder AnimDessin2 & AnimCouleur2 http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/ Storyboarding Software (Free): Photoshop CS6 & above scripts/panels https://wonderunit.com/story- for 2D hand drawn animation and PureRef View and organise your ref- boarder/ colouring within Photoshop (Free) Kyle T Webster Brushes (Free erence images easily (Free) - https://github.com/sbaril/Photoshop- via Creative Cloud CC) - https://www.pureref.com/ Animation https://theblog.adobe.com/get- the-goods-announcing-updates- to-photoshop-cc-dimension-cc- and-more-today/