SQUASH AND STRETCH.

First off, thanks for the compliment and thanks for following me!

I don’t really think there’s any one way, but…

As far as books go, I’d say Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation is probably the best place to start. The name’s pretty misleading- It atcually starts form the very basics. It’s where I started when I started getting more serious about animation, and I’d say it has probably been my biggest help. Learning good construction skills has helped me tremendously with my animation and art. You may have a lot of awesome ideas in your mind, but that won’t help much if you can’t translate them to paper (or tablet, or whatever you may use).  Learn about construction, how lines and features wrap around forms, clear and distinct poses, perspective, etc. Don’t trace the examples, but make your own copies of them step by step and compare them to the images given. Your copies don’t have to be perfect- what’s most important is that you’re learning how and why something looks the way it does.

When I first started copying I made the mistake of trying to make my drawings look exactly the same as in the book, causing frequent frustation. I’d spend forever on one drawing, not really absorbing and understanding what the goal was. Now, that doesn’t mean you should be careless about it… You do want them to look close. Just make sure to go step by step, checking your progress along the way. You’ll get better the farther you go.

You might have taken a look at those pages and thought “Well, that’s interesting and all, but I don’t exactly plan on drawing these old ‘40s Disney-style characters any time soon…”

That’s totally understandable and perfect because the next step is to use the tools you learned from copying those drawings and apply them to your own drawings. After all, what’s the point in copying and learning all those principles if you aren’t going to use 'em? I’d also recommend some life drawing every once in a while. Draw people and objects and learn what things actually do look like and not just what you think they look like. Once again, apply these principles to your own drawings.

Like I said before, though, there’s no one way. That’s just the way I happened to learn. Some people can pull off amazing drawings and animation without a bit of construction!

As for learning actual animation… Watch and study the best! Take influence from both classic and modern animation. I love watching old Warner Brothers cartoons- especially those by Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Chuck Jones- and seeing how skillfully they move their characters. I also love anime, too. There are TONS of talented Japanese animators with unique styles and techniques. I have so many favorites I can’t even list them all, but SakugaBooru (occasional 18+ content there so beware) has a huge selection of awesome animation gifs and webms from just about everybody. Whenever you get a chance, browse around the site. Watch and analyze different animators’ works and study the underlying principles. Learn to recognize what’s great and what isn’t. Go frame by frame and see how things move, then try it out for yourself. If possible, check out rough animation too. Preston Blair also goes a little bit into animation (walk cycles, squash and stretch, etc.) later on in his book. I’ve also heard a lot of people recommend The Animator’s Survival Kit, but I haven’t really taken a look at it.

So, yeah, this is a big post coming from somebody who hasn’t had any type of formal training. Please don’t take my advice as the end-all be-all (…is that right?) Everything I’ve learned about animation so far has come from the internet, and I’m still just scratching the surface. There are still tons of things that I need learn and get better at (walk cycles still scare the heck out of me), but I’m going for it. Just look around and explore, both here on Tumblr and the rest of the internet. There’s quite a bit of treasure out there.

Some random tips and stuff:

-When animating, start with the basic forms first. Animating something that has a lot of details can be tricky and I find it easy to lose myself. Starting with the simple parts helps a bunch.

-This is probably just me, but I seem to have some sort of issue when it comes to erasing parts of a drawing. I tend to just draw over it, and over time that gets messy. Soo…. er, don’t be afraid to erase.

-If you’re making a project that’s a bit longer or more complicated than the usual gif or something, have a plan. Srsly. Storyboards help. I’ve learned that the hard way.

Miscellaneous recommendations:

-John K Stuff. Say what you will about him, but he gives solid drawing advice. Tons of information here that has also been a huge help in my learning. Also has some great animation lessons. I’d recommend it for those 16+, though.

-Animation Resources. They have the whole Preston Blair book uploaded.