Where can I learn how to do simple 2d animation well? Or is it really just literally drawing every single frame of something in photoshop? Is there tips or tricks? Tutorials to help get started?
Also, what software options are there (preferably open source or even just free)?
Answer
Right now, I can think of a few ways you can do a 2-D animation:
- Moving an object's x,y coordinates around (e.g. to slide a rectangular menu - you change the y-coordinates every few ms)
- Drawing every single frame out in an image editor and choosing the right frame to draw at the right moment (e.g. drawing a flame animation)
- combining the two above (e.g. having a sprite walk across a screen)
It's all about giving the illusion of movement.
How to do it well?
- It has to be timed properly to make it appear smooth (be aware of hardware constraints)
- The more frames you have, the more details you can show, and the better it will look (however you end up having to draw more frames)
Tips and tricks?
Software options?
- I would say it depends on what you are trying to animate. If you want to animate sprites or simple objects, then MS Paint will probably suffice
- GIMP is an open source alternative to Photoshop
- Photoscape is another free photo editor. It also allows you to make animated GIFs - good for testing the timing in your animations
- Synfig Is the libre alternative to ToonBoom for doing animations without taking care about the tweening and then export them to video, gif, or maybe saving some frames as images for the sprites
- InkScape Is a vector vector graphics editor that is the libre alternative to Adobe Illustrator
As for tutorials, I think this depends a lot on your goal. If you are doing a flash game, then search flash tutorials. Drawing is one thing, but you also need to time (and possibly move) the images to animate it properly - and so you might as well learn how to do it in the platform you are going for.
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