Animation Tutorials
Everything you need to learn animation from the ground up — the fundamentals of how motion works, the classic principles that make it feel alive, and step-by-step exercises you can build yourself. Every guide is written to be practised directly in the FrameAnim editor.
Animation Fundamentals
The core ideas behind every animation — how a series of still frames becomes motion, and how timing and spacing shape the way that movement feels.
Frame-by-Frame Animation
Understand how a sequence of still drawings turns into believable movement, and the workflow behind every hand-drawn animation.
Read guideAnimation Timing and FPS
Learn what frame rate really means, how 12, 24 and 30 FPS differ, and how timing and spacing shape the feel of motion.
Read guideKeyframes and In-Between Frames
How key poses define an action and in-betweens carry the motion between them — including the breakdown drawing that decides how a movement feels.
Read guideTiming vs Spacing
Why two animations with the same number of frames can feel completely different, and how to diagnose motion that is technically correct but lifeless.
Read guideAnimation Principles
The classic principles that give movement weight, life and appeal, from squash and stretch through arcs, anticipation and exaggeration.
Squash and Stretch
The principle that gives objects weight, flexibility and life — and how to apply it without breaking believability.
Read guideAnticipation
The small movement in the opposite direction that makes an action readable, and how much of it to use for actions of different size.
Read guideFollow Through & Overlapping Action
How trailing parts keep moving after the main body stops, why nothing in a body starts and stops at once, and how to animate the settle.
Read guideArcs
Almost nothing in nature moves in a straight line. Learn to plan curved motion paths and spot the mechanical look that straight paths produce.
Read guideExaggeration
Why copying reference exactly looks flat on screen, which four dials you can actually push, and how to find the limit for your style deliberately.
Read guidePractical Tutorials
Hands-on exercises that turn theory into motion. Follow along frame by frame to build the animations every artist learns from.
Bouncing Ball
The classic first exercise. Plan the motion, place key poses, and use squash, stretch and spacing to sell the bounce.
Read guideWalk Cycle
Build a looping walk from four key poses — contact, down, passing and up — with timing and spacing that read as natural.
Read guideBlinking Animation
The cheapest unit of life in animation. Build a six-frame blink with a fast close and a slower open, then vary it to suggest mood.
Read guideSimple Jump Animation
A twelve-frame jump from crouch to landing, using anticipation, an arc through the air and a settle on impact to sell the weight.
Read guideFrameAnim Guides
Get the most out of FrameAnim's tools — onion skinning, layers, exporting and the features that speed up your workflow.
Using Onion Skinning
See your previous and next frames as ghosted references so every new drawing stays consistent and on-model.
Read guideWorking with Layers
Separate characters, backgrounds and effects onto their own layers to stay organised and animate faster.
Read guideExporting Your Animation
Choose the right format for the job. Compare GIF, WebM and MP4 on quality, file size and where each one belongs.
Read guideGetting Started with FrameAnim
A tour of the editor — projects, canvas size, tools, the timeline, playback, onion skinning and saving — then your first animation, step by step.
Read guideUsing the Lasso & Transform Tool
Select part of a drawing with a freehand loop, then move, scale and rotate it — the fastest way to animate limbs, props and repeated poses.
Read guideReady to start creating?
Reading is a great start, but animation clicks when you do it. Open the editor and turn what you've learned into real movement.