I Haven't Purchased A HP Item In Close To A Decade - I Use The Books I Already Had As Doorstops Or To

i really like looking at google image searches for “firemen rescuing cats” or something because you get super cute pictures like

AND THEN THERE’S THIS ONE

What advice do you have for a 14 year old who's trying to learn how to animate?

There’s a LOT of things that go into animation and I definitely can’t cover everything all at once (im sure you dont want me to either) so I’ll try to keep it simple!

But for forewarning, I take animation very seriously and can’t help but info dump.

1. Your animation isnt going to work immediately. it’s going to be awful. accept that and move on.

2. Don’t give up when your animation doesn’t work!!! i swear ive seen people try to animate for their very first time with like a walk cycle and immediately after the first test shoot they played they just dropped it and i was like honey!! honey no you made half of a single step and didnt in-between it. You aren’t done, thats why it looks bad! You don’t say a drawing sucks and throw it out halfway through drawing a single eye, you draw the rest of the face and see how it looks in the end. that’s how you have to look at making animation.

3. It’s a lot more work than you think it’s going to be. animation runs at 24 frames per second, that’s 24 drawings a second. some people do it 12 drawings or even 8 drawings a second, but no matter what it’s a lot of dang drawings.

4. Rough drawing rough drawing ROUGH DRAWING! when you start animating things, don’t even THINK about detail! for example, if you want to animate someone walking, animate a circle for the head and a rectangle for their body, that’s all the detail you need to start with. once that is COMPLETELY and i mean completely entirely animated to a point where you are satisfied, THEN you can start to add detail.

5. References!!!! they’re everywhere! and you need to use them! if you want to animate a bird flying, you either look out your window, find a video on youtube, or get a diagram but don’t just try to guess or it won’t work, i promise you

6. Try as many different methods as you can! everyone animates differently. maybe my advice won’t apply to you at all, these things are just what works for me! I have friends who animate from the roughest of rough drawings and others who start every drawing completely detailed. some friends animate from major pose to major pose and others animate frame by frame.

7. HAVE FUN! if you aren’t having a fun time animating, then what are you doing? Ask yourself this question and then figure out what you need to do to MAKE it fun! It makes the work better for everyone in the end!

Now get ready for a link dump!

other animation advice from yours truly! which will be somewhat repetitive

tips for beginners

basic tips

12 principles of animation

living lines library: archive of old animation tests for many movies

really good animation books (links to amazon)

animators survival kit

the illusion of life: disney animation

cartoon animation

elemental magic: the art of special effects animation

animation programs

tv paint (indefinite free trial, does not allow saving or exports)

toon boom has 21 day free trials

pencil 2d is free to use

adobe photoshop and flash also work

if you have any other questions, feel free to ask! some things here might sound like nonsense to someone with no prior animation knowledge and I will GLADLY explain in better detail

Shout out to everyone who is just so tired So so exhausted So very very tired so very fatigued so sleepy and tired So

I couldn't find the original post so I redrew it from memory for myself and anyone who needs to hear this

Very important message for LGBTQIA+ Americans today:

We gonna get through the next 4 years out of spite if nothing else ❤️

friendly reminder for washingtonians, vote NO on all the initiatives! the seattle stranger has a good run down of them as well as thorough endorsements of the candidates.

Part 8 in my weekly poster series of 2025

hey I have some advice for people that wish they could do more to support artists but maybe can’t do as much financially!!!

leave really positive comments on things you like, and make them as specific as possible.

Literally, nothing makes my day more than a comment that’s really taken the time to analyze my art and describe WHAT about it they liked. this is really helpful for artists for a couple reasons:

many artists have adhd, anxiety, or some other flavor of Brain Stuff, and either respond VERY VERY STRONGLY to praise or (unfortunately) maybe just have a hard time believing their art deserves praise (IT DOES!!)

when comments are specific, that’s sooooooo much more helpful to grow! It’s a lot easier to figure out what you’re doing successfully when people tell you what their favorite part of your art is. But it can also help when you notice your joke doesn’t seem to be landing or if people are reacting a lot differently than you were expecting, and then you can better gauge how to course correct for next time. What stood out to you? Was it visual, aka lines, color, stylization, or composition? Or was it more emotional, aka dialogue, expressions, or poses? How did you feel looking at it?

it feels nice HDHSHJFJD but it does! Plus it works out your art analysis brain a little bit, and you’ll get more precise the more you do it. I love being a little cheerleader in the tags of my friends’ art. Gas em up and give em kisses on the cheek.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all comments. I love people who I can tell make an effort to comment something, even if it’s just a keysmash or incoherent wailing or a simple “I really like this op!” I also LOVE comments that are funny “op you are feeding me like a baby bird” (I have a little folder for screenshots of my favorites heehee).

But, again, it is really appreciated when people give specific, analytic comments. those are comments that turn me into a weeping little puddle. And this is not a “if you never ever comment you’re evil” post, it’s just saying if you do, we notice and thank you for it!