Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 9 hours ago

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You want to learn 2D animation? This exercise gets you started experiencing spacing, animation timing, arcs and more in a playful way using OpenToonz.

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Premium class - Fun with morphs: animatorisland.com/courses/2d-animation/lessons/learn-animation-basics-creating-a-fun-morph

Learn of the basics how to animate in this beginner lesson of our 2D animation class.

0:00 Intro
00:51 Setting up OpenToonz
1:41 Plan the motion path with a lot of pleasing arcs.
2:40 Using the Control Point Editor
5:00 Changing the opacity of a layer
5:25 The biggest beginner mistakes in animation
6:40 The key to smooth animation
7:09 Timing charts
8:55 The halfing method for planning spacings
10:30 Onion skin
11:14 Creating the animation frames
12:22 Stretching to create motion blur
13:10 Keeping the volumes
14:24 Copying frames to stay on model
15:11 Copying on the timeline in OpenToonz
16:50 Making layer invisible
17:16 First playback
17:42 Get our cool mug!
18:31 Switching from Ones to Twos
20:11 The challenge of slower motions
20:54 Improvising straight ahead
22:53 Holding a constant speed
23:05 Fast motion in the spiral
23:57 Adding anticipation after a hold
25:29 Playing the loop
25:39 Tweaking the animation
26:41 Duplicating and offsetting the second ball
30:03 Coloring
31:03 Closing gaps
31:50 Adding different colors to the different layers