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51 Great Animation Exercises to Master

Quickest way to improvement? Practice. It’s a simple bit of advice that rings with absolute truth. Articles, tips, mentors, and study will never get you as far as rolling up your sleeves and getting down to work, be it animation or any other skill. Today we’ve compiled a list of exercises, like animation push-ups, that will get your art skills buff and toned.

Maybe you still need convinced of how important the “Art of Doing” is? Look no further than the early days of animation, especially at the Disney studio. Here were a group of animators (before being an animator was even a thing) who HAD no books to read, or websites to visit, or even experienced animators to ask. They learned via the age old art of hands-on training, experimenting and discovering as they went. And some would argue they created some of the greatest animation to ever be seen. Masterpieces like the dwarfs dancing in Snow White or the terror of the Monstro scene in Pinocchio. So be like them! Get out there and do animation!

Some of these exercises you may have done or seen before; some maybe not. Consider doing each of them, even if you did once previously, because returning to an old exercise to see how much you’ve progressed is a very valuable experience.

Level 1 Exercises

(Do not discount their simplicity! Here you have the principals of animation, which all other animation is built on. They are worth your time and effort.)

1. Ball bouncing in place (loop)

Learn how to do this exercise step by step here!

2. Ball Bouncing across the screen

3. Brick falling from a shelf onto the ground

4. Simple Character Head Turn

In our big 2D animation class we share the most important moments of a headturn (but really any animation) in this video.

5. Character head turn with anticipation Preparing a motion by first going into the opposite direction to build up momentum is called anticipation. The anticipat... More

6. Character blinking

7. Character thinking [tougher than it sounds!]

8. Flour Sack waving (loop)

9. Flour Sack jumping

10. Flour Sack falling (loop or hitting the ground)

11. Flour Sack kicking a ball

Level 2 Exercises

12. Change in Character emotion (happy to sad, sad to angry, etc.)

13. Character jumping over a gap

14. Standing up (from a chair)

15. Walk Cycle [oldie but goodie!]

16. Character on a pogo stick (loop)

17. Laughing

18. Sneezing

19. Reaching for an object on a shelf overhead

20. Quick motion smear/blur

21. Taking a deep breath [also tougher than it sounds!]

22. A tree falling

23. Character being hit by something simple (ball, brick, book)

24. Run Cycle

Level 3 Exercises

25. Close up of open hand closing into fist

26. Close up of hand picking up a small object

27. Character lifting a heavy object (with purpose!)

28. Overlapping action Different elements of an object or body, come to a stop of different times. This usually happens because an attached, lo... More (puffy hair, floppy ears, tail)

29. Character painting

30. Hammering a nail

31. Stirring a soup pot and tasting from a spoon

32. Character blowing up a balloon

33. Character juggling (loop)

34. Scared character peering around a corner

35. Starting to say something but unsure of how

36. Zipping up a jacket

37. Licking and sealing an envelope

38. Standing up (from the ground)

39. Pressing an elevator button and waiting for it

Level 4 Exercises

40. Character eating a cupcake

41. Object falling into a body of water

42. Two characters playing tug-of-war

43. Character dealing a deck of cards out

44. The full process of brushing one’s teeth

45. A single piece of paper dropping through the air

46. Run across screen with change in direction

47. Sleeping character startled by alarm then returning to sleepy state

48. Opening a cupboard and removing something inside

49. Putting on a pair of pants

50. Opening the “world’s best gift” and reacting

51. Any of the above exercises using a very heavy character/object next to a very light character/object. Enhance the differences the weight change makes!

Things to keep in mind:

• Reading these exercises will do as much for you as reading about push-ups would do for your physical muscles: NOTHING. If you want the benefit, you must animate them. Take a deep breath and just do it.
• Do not forget the famous words of Ollie Johnston: “You’re not supposed to animate drawings [3D models]. You’re supposed to animate feelings.” If a character isn’t thinking, they aren’t alive, and the animation has failed.
• Keep it simple! There is no reason to over complicate any of these exercises. Going back to push-ups, would push-ups be harder if while doing them you also recited the Gettysburg Address? Yes. Would they be any more beneficial? No. Keep things nice and simple and clear.
• Do your best. There is no reason to do these exercises poorly. Give it your all. You don’t have to show anyone, these are for you. You owe it to yourself to try your very best. Something not quite right? Take the time to fix it.
• As always, have fun. Push ups are not fun. Animation is supposed to be. Be joyful in your work!

Have any questions about the exercises above? Leave a comment below and we’ll answer them the best we can! Someone else may be wondering the exact same thing, so you’ll help them too. Likewise if someone is looking for possible exercises, why not share a link to these and give them a hand?

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Amazing list…and tough too.. It’s well organized, i was hoping to find more words to put here but you’re danm right: I must start doing them instead.. [saved and printed]

Great list! And really great example for “not sure what to say”. You should do more of the animated examples like that.

Thinking about it! Stay tuned. 🙂

Nice list, lot of good ones on there. Did you get some from the 11 second club?

A few, yep! Plus a couple from other spots online as well as some that I was put through back in animation school a long time ago. Tried to make a nice blend.

There are a ton more on the 11 Second Club list you mentioned, which can be found here if anyone is interested: http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4773

(Just remember, you have to DO them, not just read them!) 🙂

thanks for the article. Really Cool.

Totally awesome, and totally gonna be done!!

This is just what i needed! Challenge accepted! i’ll try to complete the entire list, and post every exercise on this blog http://animacaco.tumblr.com/

Thank you ever so for your article. Really looking forward to reading more. Keep writing.

Just found your website and I’m obsessing over it. I love the articles you post!

THANK YOU FOR THIS LIST!!

I always have such a hard time starting on a new test. I end up making it too long and complicated. I am going to do every test on here and push my skills. I will post them on Youtube and send a link when I get started

MUCH APPRECIATED!

I truly have to ponder just how useful doing such simple things can be. If one wants to be a professional animator at the likes of Pixar or Dreamworks or Lucasfilm we will be doing much more complex items than just bouncing balls or brushing teeth (when was the last time anyone in a film brushed their teeth!)

Instead rather you should practice complex exercises copied directly from actual films so that you will be prepared for the real world. These are all silly school exercises and school is nothing like the industry I think. You never see a bouncing ball in the theater on the silver screen. X.X

They’re useful because you learn the basics and foundations of animation through varied and diverse forms of movement, not because you’re preparing because one day you *might* have to animate someone brushing their teeth.

And I can’t think of many bouncing balls in films, besides maybe Toy Story, but that’s not the point. The point is that the principles behind the bouncing ball are applied to many different forms of movement, such as walks. They are not in the same form, obviously, but the same principles (squash and stretch, timing, spacing) are all there.

Yep, Jonah hit the nail on the head! These exercises guide you through the principals that you can take to ANY scene you might work on. The bouncing ball tunes timing, spacing, and squash and stretch. The tooth brushing one you mentioned will take you through thumb nailing and a range of actions (all part of one larger action) that you will absolutely use when planning whatever story Pixar or Dreamworks throws your way. 🙂

Cool idea about trying your own version of a real movie scene, though, that sounds like a great concept for a future article!

That is the stupidest thing ever. Copy movies because that is what you will be animating? When will you ever animate the exact same thing again? If you animate like Stitch dressed up as Elvis playing guitar you will never use that again becauses every character is totally different! That is why like they are saying you need to know the principals not just only be able to animate a few scenes and nothing else!

How can they be useful? I will say something that is not to be taken as gloating but for credibilaty. As an animator i make sure to take all opportunities to make myself better at the craft. Ive taken a Pixar Masterclass taught by Andrew Gordon and Matthew Luhn. Ive gone to the Pixar benefit where me and a good friend got incredible advice from Mark Walsh and Ronnie Del Carmen. Currently I am taking animation workshops taught by the animators from disney such as Michael Woodside and Marlon Nowe. Guess what? they all said what is said right in this article. Their advice is always keep it short and simple, because you can have a complex leghthy shot and it may be rendered beautifully but it can completely lack in the principles. you have to be able to walk before you can run. In all of these conversations and classes they asked us to always practice the basics because something like a simple vanilla walk cycle can be the hardest thing to ever get right. bringing life to a character doing mundane tasks is always going to be more impressive then focusing on a elaborate scene where the characters are lacking something. Andrew showed us his demo reel that got him into pixar some odd 14 years ago. the piece that caught their attntion was a animated flour sack that was rough and just a pencil sketch. He was embarrassed by it now ( as all animators are after a certain point) but he was told that it was the way he showed the flour sacks thought process and overall timing. And bouncing balls are in everything not literally but figuratively. Most of my current teachers have said that if their assigned shot looks off they animate a quick bouncing ball next to it to see if whether the timing is off or if something is arcing the way its supposed too.

your forgetting that when you animate as a professional in a studio like Disney or Pixar or Dreamworks, you can spend weeks to months on a shot, but all you have to show is a 40 second clip from that work. Animating at that level is a team effort so learn your basics to keep your work cleaner for the next animator who has to work with your shot. Keep all of that in mind.

Wow, well said! 🙂

When I saw the link to this page I thought it was going to show me how to do it. How to animate a ball bouncing.

There are a bunch of great resources that can walk you through the basic bouncing ball. That might make for a good future article, though, so we’ll add it to the list! Thanks.

The whole community is thankful to you I’m sure! Good to see so many exercises in one spot. Look forward to seeing more.

It never fails to astound me just how lacking people are in practice so having this number of exercises is invaluable to all. As you said now we must simply complete them. Otherwise it will all be fornot.

great list, thanks

I’m really inspired along with your writing abilities and also with all the huge list of exercises. Keep up the nice high quality writing, it’s rare .

This should be in a published book!

Excellent list. Already passed on to my students.

Another one – a little complex, but involves timing, spacing, acting, thinking character, etc: A walk across screen where the pacing changes. For example: moderate walk pace, then a pause for a thought or glance at a text on a phone, slow walk as the thought is processed or the text is read, then a faster walk offscreen as the thought is completed or as a reaction to what the text message said. Three different walks, and transitions between for thinking time. Have at it! :0)

Brilliant thanks! I’ll get on these straight away! Looking forward to the challenges.

I appreciate you sharing this post. Really great.

An intriguing list is definitely worth comment. Time to get animating!

Woah this list is AWESOME! Time to get crackin! Thanks for the list! 😀

I love your blog.

Bookmarked!! I really like your website!

This is my first try… when you begin it you can’t stop… and when you finish you just want to retry… here is: https://vimeo.com/mhauss/videos

Thank you “anyway” Mr. J.K. Riki

TREMENDOUS! Nice work! Awesome to see all of them done in one place. 🙂

I’m amazed, I have to admit. I am very happy I stumbled across this in my hunt for animation excersizes!

Very good list, thank you for posting it.

Friend linked me to this. Fantastic set of exercises, many thanks.

This is awesome, I’m gonna try do every one of them.

Fantástico!

Great list, thanks a lot.

Thank you for posting this list! I found this through the ASIFA group on linkedin.com

I’m going to do every one of this exercises and hopefully I’ll improve.

Wonderful article! This is the kind of info that is meant to be shared around the web. Thanks =)

Wow wow WOW this is good stuff!!! THANKS!

This is great. I’ve been having fun playing with these. I started only ever attempting animation once or twice while at school so this is pretty new to me. But with the combination of this list and this video( http://vimeo.com/80851591 ) I think i’ve made some okay progress. Just about to start number 10/11(gonna try to combine them).

If anyone wants to have a look at what i’ve done so far you can check it out here:

http://www.aaronsfirststeps.tumblr.com

More than happy to receive any relevant feedback/criticism. 🙂

Thanks again for the list!

Hey, good job with the practice, Aaron! Looks like you’re really blazing through them.

A few thoughts, since you wanted some feedback:

The early exercises are really, really important ones. They are the basis for pretty much all the ones that follow, and the principals and foundations they build are essential if you want to improve in the long run. Because of that, it would be very helpful to you to stick with them until you get the just the way you want.

I see on the flour sack jump you mentioned your awareness of the timing issue. That’s great, when you can see there’s something not quite right, that’s the first and most important step. Now is a good time to go back and figure out what’s not working, and then fix it, before you move on to the next.

In that particular one, there are a few things to tweak. For starters, you’ve got a great anticipation before the jump. That’s something people often overlook, so nice job there! The issues begin when he launches himself into the air, I think. The lines in the middle, to indicate the stretch, are strobing (since they are only on screen for a frame or two) and that’s distracting from the movement. Also I don’t think he’s in the height of his jump long enough. Hold the topmost frame for 2-4 frames longer and see how that changes the timing. It may just be a case of “up-down” too quickly, which is why it seems off.

Another quick tip is to work more roughly than you are now. Animate the inside shapes and forms of the sack before you put the details and final lines on top. It’s much easier to keep track of two simple forms than all the details of the whole flour sack. One of my favorite things to repeat to myself is “Clear, not clean.” What that means is you want to draw clearly, but it can look like a mess so long as it’s CLEAR. Glen Keane is a good example of this method of rough working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKal8pS6Qwg

All in all if you keep playing with it, moving frames around and seeing how it changes the overall animation, it will come together and you’ll discover what is and isn’t working so in the next animation you’ll already know a few more things. Good luck with it, and keep at it! I look forward to checking back on your tumblr soon to see how it’s going. 🙂

These are fantastic! I am going to try to do some right nwo.

Hey, I just want to let you know that a few of my friends and me are going to start the 51 exercises and we are going to share it with everybody in this blog http://animationfiftyone.blogspot.com/ Thanks for Such an awesome List.

Amazing! I can’t wait to see how it goes. Looks like you guys have quite a tight schedule! Be careful not to rush things, remember the important thing is to do them right. 🙂

I tweeted out the link via the Animator Island twitter feed, hopefully you can get a few more folks on board as well. Keep us posted on the progress!

That’s super cool Ian! I wish I had time to join you!!

These are terrific. Definitely going to try them all.

This list is genius! I am going to try some of them straight away.

I think this is a really great list. I’ve done a lot of these as assignments in classes and I think they are really useful. The only thing is that I was interested in why in Level 1 you put the flour sack exercises after the character exercises. I would have thought the flour sack would have been better to start with as the inexperienced animator might choose a really complex character design to use and thus become overwhelmed by the exercise. The flour sack also has no face so that’s a few less things to think about when creating the performance. Just switching those exercises could make this list much stronger and even something I could recommend to a beginner animator without any hesitation.

Hi there! I just wanted to say thank you for the great list of exercises. I am going to try them all! It will probably take a long time I am just learning.

Its a great post indeed. I like the kind of information provided here.

there is no exercises for fire,water,smoke.why?

That’s a terrific question!

Mostly these exercises focus on either principals and foundation building or character animation specifically. The good news is with proper foundations and principals, effects animation is just a matter of putting it all together! Maybe we can do a top 10 exercises for effects animation in the future, if that would be of interest?

Thanks Vijayan for that question, I also had the same question in my mind. And Also thanks J.K.Riki. for the future plan – “top 10 exercises for effects.” That will be of great use for beginners like me.

yes please make top 10 exercise for fx 😀

I love what you guys are usually up too. This type of article exactly! Keep up the awesome works guys I’ve included you guys on our blogroll. 😉

I’m excited to get to work on this. And you chose good words of encouragement throughout! Might have to hang a few of these on the wall for later motivation (your name credited of course). Thank you for sharing this with all of us 😀

In the grand pattern of life it’s details like this that make all the difference! Thank you for an excellent list, I will recommend it to every animator I know! Too often we don’t practice we just “create” and that is no good for us!

How do I do these practices in Anime Studio Debut 10 software? And if I cant do it that way, is there a good way to do it on paper?

I’m personally not familiar with animating in Anime Studio, but generally speaking you are going to follow traditional animation workflow. Start by doing thumbnails, then figure out your timing. Do a pose-test (essentially your keyframes timed out) and then begin doing your inbetweens. Keep checking to make sure things are flowing from one frame to the next, and that it has an overall nice feel to it. If something is wrong, change it as soon as you notice!

Hopefully at some point we’ll do a few in-depth tutorials on these exercises in case anyone wants to follow through step by step!

My question is, how many times do you do each exercise? do you do one until you master it or do you do one and than the next regardless of how good it is?(I understand doing a whole level over and over again but should I do each individual exercise before moving on to the next?)

Great question! I don’t think there’s a “right” answer vs. a wrong one here, part of your journey will be learning to develop the intuition of when something is “good enough.” As humans, we’re never going to make something perfect. Animation thrives on getting things to look right vs. having them look perfect. Ask any professional animator and they’ll quickly point out the aspects of their masterful work that they wish was better (even if those of us who think they’re geniuses never notice the small flaws).

I would DEFINITELY recommend that at least in the early exercises you do several attempts until you feel you’ve really got a great grasp of the principals they’re teaching. So, for example, with the bouncing ball you want to make certain your “final result” is consistent, feels right, has proper timing and squash and stretch, and is really spot-on overall. The early going is not the time to take shortcuts, because everything builds on these first few exercises. Give them the time they deserve.

Later, as you progress through the list, you’ll have better foundations already built so you can get away with not staying on one until it’s really polished, should you decide to. You can also jump around and do them out of order at that point. Above all you just don’t want to rush the process early on, because that is where you will figure out the things that will take your future animations from average to good, and good to amazing.

Good luck with them, and if you ever need thoughts on any just post them online and leave a link! We’d be happy to check them out and give suggestions. 🙂

LOVE these. Thank you! Would also love to see more animated examples if anyone has done these!

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Over 150+ Character Animation Exercises To Boost Your Skills

Welcome to our mammoth, ever-growing library of Character Animation Exercises . No matter how many books you’ve read or videos you’ve seen, it’s practice that truly helps you become a better animator. Understanding the “ 12 principles of animation ” is key to making your character and creature animations feel real and believable.

Our collection of 2D and 3D character animation exercises is ready for you to jump in at any time. What’s more, is together we can keep adding new ones!

I’ve sorted these exercises into five easy-to-follow color – coded levels. Simply click on any level to start or use the table of contents to see everything we have to offer when learning animation:

Level 01 – Super Basic (inanimate objects) Level 02 – Beginner Animation Exercises Level 03 – Intermediate – Body mechanics Level 04 – Advanced Body Mechanics + Acting Level 05 – Expert Advanced Scenes

Our list can continue to grow, and we’d love to hear from you if you have an “animation exercise” to add whether for film or video games. So, start practising and bring your animations to life!

LEVEL 01 – SUPER BASIC – ANIMATING INANIMATE OBJECTS

Vibrating phone.

Animate a phone vibrating to a sound effect.  You can easily get a sfx online, and a phone 3d model asset.  You can even just use a plain cuboid, as we are just interested in the animation.  As well as getting it to vibrate which you will need a bunch of keyframes very close together, also get it to move sideways as it would on a table.

Falling Leaf

Animate a leaf falling from a tree, paying attention to how it moves side to side and spins as it falls. This can help you understand how to animate slow, subtle movements.

Car Speeding Off

A simple exercise in which we are looking to see a realistic increase in speed

Falling Block

This can be a simple cuboid or brick.  We are looking to get some reaction as it hits the ground plane

Swinging Pendulum

Improve your understanding of arcs and easing in and out by animating a pendulum swinging back and forth. Pay close attention to the natural slowing down and speeding up of the pendulum, and maintain a smooth, consistent arc to make the motion believable. (You can get a fantastic visual guide of the 12 principles of animation here : )

One hard ball knocks another

Have two spheres close to each other but with a small gap.  Get one to roll and lightly knock the other. Animate the reaction,  the ball that gets hit would roll a little away, then slightly roll back again as it settles.  But the ball the first ball would also react and roll back.  Think of two heavy and solid pool or bowling balls.

Floating balloon

Practice arcs, timing, and weightlessness by animating a floating balloon. Pay attention to the balloon’s subtle movements as it floats through the air. Experiment with different wind conditions and balloon shapes to challenge your skills and understanding of weightless motion.

Spinning Top

Animate a top spinning, wobbling, and eventually falling over. This exercise can help you understand how to convey balance and instability.

Animate 3 dominoes falling over.  The first knocks the second and so forth. Practice adding secondary motion

Jack in the Box

This is great for practising animating really sharp snappy movements followed by lots of overlap and settle.  Also animate the lid springing open and overlapping.

Arrow Hitting a Target

Animate an archery arrow hitting a target.  It’s extremely fast and snappy, then animate the bend and wobble in the arrow as it settles to a stop

“Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn.” Norman McLaren

Remember , these character animation exercises might seem simple, but they are extremely important in developing a strong foundation for more advanced animation. Don’t rush through them, and always try to understand and apply the underlying animation principles. Happy animating!

LEVEL 02 – Beginner Animation Exercises

Simple ball bounce.

I cannot recommend enough how this essential exercise will help introduce you to animation principles such as how to add weight, squash and stretch, timing and anticipation.  I recommend always trying this first.  I even created a FREE maya rig for everyone and two in-depth video lessons on how to animate bouncing.

Ball Bounce Along

Now that you’ve had an introduction, it’s time to add some forward movement and take it further. This takes more skill. Rotate the ball forward for each bounce then animate it rolling to a stop. Again visit the link in 1. Simple ball bounce to find your free rig and free tutorials on all of this.

Character Eye Blink

Your character’s eyes can close then open, yes this is technically a blink, but is it an appealing blink?Eyes tend to close then hold for a frame or two then open.  The close can be a different speed from the open.  I like to have the close quicker and snappier and the open slightly slower. Pixar is known for actually offsetting two eyes, so one eye is a frame behind the other one.  When played back at normal speed this really adds life to the character

Character Head Turn (With Anticipation)

This may sound very simple, you just turn the head right?  Wrong!  There are some other actions you need to consider to make this appealing.  Anticipation is first.  Try turning the head slightly in the opposite direction it’s going to turn first, this is anticipation, you are building momentum.

Arcs Arcs are another animation principle.  Instead of things moving in an A to B linear way, animate your limbs or objects in an arc formation.  Imagine an arm swinging from the shoulder.

So with our head, add a keyframe in the middle and get the nose to dip down slightly, then upwards into its destination.

Push past the end position slightly then return to your final destination.  This is called overlap.  Like the opposite of anticipation

Here is an excellent article with step-by-step help on animating a characters head turn

Character Thinking

This sounds simple, right?  Well, it’s not that easy to truly convey thought.  We can make a nice deep in thought pose, but you will also need some subtle actions like eye darts.  Is it a worried thinking or a relaxed kind of animated thought process?

Flour Sack Jumping

You can get a number of great flour sack rigs online like this one:  https://joedanimation.gumroad.com/l/floursackmaya   It is a great rig to start with as it’s not a full biped humanoid, but you need the skill to give it life and make it believable.  Or you maybe a traditional frame by frame hand drawn cell animator, in which case you just draw it.

Start with a jump loop.  Get it to jump up and down. First add your anticipation as he gathers energy for the release into a jump up, and make the impact back down overlap and feel he has weight.

Opening a Door

Practice animating a character opening a door to learn about interaction with the environment. Focus on the character’s hand placement, body mechanics, and anticipation. This exercise will help you understand the importance of weight and force when interacting with objects.

Character Nodding in Agreement

Animate a character from the shulders up nodding in agreement.  You can make this with different emotions, for example, very happy and excited that they are being asked if they want something they really like.

Head Shake – Saying No

This time with no speaking, animate a character saying now, just swinging his head, left to right, but get the arc dip in the middle, and make their expression really sell the idea they are not impressed

Stretching Character

Animate a character stretching after a long day. This will give you insight into conveying the release of tension through body movements.  Just stick with the waist up for now, they can be sat down

Animate a character shrugging. This exercise will allow you to practice articulating the shoulders and upper body.

Expressive Eyebrows

Animate a character’s eyebrows to show different emotions. This can help you understand how even small changes can dramatically affect a character’s expression.

Character Clapping Animation

Animate a character clapping their hands. This will help you practice coordinating both arms and showing impact without sound.

Animate a character yawning. This is a good exercise for understanding how a simple action can involve the entire body, not just the mouth and face.  But you can still do this exercise from the waist up only, sat down.

Falling Asleep

Animate a character sleeping and then waking up. This will allow you to practice subtle movements and transitions from a state of rest to alertness.

NOTE : If you feel confident, why not animate all the above three in a sequence!

Summary So Far

As you work through these beginner and intermediate animation exercises, remember that practice makes perfect. Be patient with yourself, and don’t be afraid to seek feedback from others. With persistence and dedication, you’ll see improvement in your character animation skills and be ready to tackle more advanced exercises in no time. Happy animating and let’s move on!

LEVEL 03 – INTERMEDIATE – BODY MECHANICS

Simple weight shift.

A good one to start with a biped, get your character to shift weight.  Good with a female character with her hand on hip, then swap all her weight and pose to the other side

Character Turn

Create a 180-degree character turn to practice weight shift, balance, and smooth transitions. Break down the turn into key poses and study references to create a believable and natural turn. Try adding personality and emotion to make the animation more engaging.

Character Getting Up From A Chair

I encourage you to look at video references or even film yourself going from a seated position to standing.  To make this believable, you will need to shift the weight multiple time forward and back and also sideways.  Push up from the hand on the legs and rotate the clavicle to show weight.

Slump In Chair

Super tired or exhausted slump into a chair from a standing position.  You can add lots of overlap and settling motion at the end like the arms swing to a slow stop.

Walk Cycle With Character

The staple of any animator is to create walk cycles.  Try and push further with expression, mood and emotion, for example walking proud, sad and slow, super cheerful character poses etc.

Run Cycle With Character

Now try a run cycle.  The weight shift is much less and pacing very different to walk cycle.  Again, try a standard run cycle, then try adding cartoonish style animation poses.

Jump On The Spot

From a standing position, get your character to jump up and down.  Create a lot of anticipation before take-off.  Another good tip is to always try and offset timings of your limbs.  For example on landing get one foot to impact a frame or two before the other.

Answering The Phone

Character grabbing a ringing phone, is he angry, in a rush, slow and happy? Also a good opportunity to learn about animating constraints.

Walking Up Or Down Stairs

Lots of nice weight shifts needed.  If you’re feeling adventurous, get one hand to use a handrail and the other free.  You will need the arm on the rail in ik (inverse kinematics) so you can place the hand freely and have it locked in place without moving with the body.  But the other arm on FK (forward kinematics so you get nice arcs)  Again, delay the wrist elbow and shoulder one frame from each other.

Character Sneaking

Create a sneaky character animation to explore the subtleties of body mechanics and timing. Focus on the character’s body posture, foot placement, and overall movement to convey a sense of stealth and suspense.

In my early days whilst studying at iAnimate I created an animation mixing sneaking and stair walk animation

Jump Over an Obstacle from Standing

Animate a character jumping from a standing position over an obstacle to help understand anticipation and timing. Consider the character’s physical abilities and the obstacle’s size when animating the jump. Focus on the weight shift, landing impact, and follow-through.

Basic Idle Stance

Create a simple idle stance to convey a character’s mood or emotion through subtle movements. Observe the small body shifts, breathing, and eye movements that make a character appear alive even when standing still. This exercise helps you develop a sense of nuance and attention to detail.

The ball and socket chain – tails, ropes etc

Animate a ball and socket chain, like a tail or a rope, to practice overlapping action and follow-through. Focus on how the motion of the first ball affects the others in the chain. This exercise will help you create fluid, believable motion in more complex character animations.

Balancing on a Single Object

Animate a character balancing an object, such as a book or a ball, on their hand or head. Focus on the character’s body mechanics as they try to maintain balance and the object’s motion as it reacts to the character’s movements. This exercise will help you understand weight perception and balance in character animation.

Basic Character Emotion

Practice animating a character expressing a basic emotion, such as happiness, sadness, or anger. Focus on the character’s facial expressions and body language to convey the emotion convincingly. This exercise will help you develop your character acting skills and add depth to your animations.

Basic Character Reaction

Create a simple reaction to an off-screen event to develop character acting skills. Animate a character reacting to a sound, a surprise, or an impact. Focus on the character’s facial expressions and body language to make the reaction believable and engaging.

Simple Object Push

Practice animating a character pushing an object to understand weight distribution and force. Observe how the character’s body mechanics change depending on the object’s weight and size. Focus on showing the struggle, anticipation, and follow-through in the animation.

Character Gesture

Animate a character performing a simple gesture, like pointing, waving, or shaking their head. Focus on the character’s body mechanics, emotion, and intent. This exercise will help you understand how to convey meaning and emotion through simple actions.

The Excited Character

Animate a character who has just received good news. This can help you understand how to animate joy and enthusiasm.

Pancake Flip

Get some movement into the frying pan as well as the body.

Bursting Through a Door

Up to you to make this a comedy animation or realistic, is the character happy and excited or panicked?

Walking With a Crutch

it might be tricky to animate an injured leg and a limp

Tasting Something Disgusting

Have fun with pushing those facial expressions, tasting something horrible would be a different facial expression to something sharp like a lemon.

Baseball Throw

Make sure you gather some video reference as always is very important! wind that body up, lots of anticipation then let rip!

Baseball Or Cricket Hit

Whether you’re in usa or the uk, lots of follow through and impact needed n animating hitting a ball with a bat.

Tennis Serve

Really push that peak pose before the character swipes.  Give that ball some real hang time for more drama

Electric Shock Game

Get a character to play that game where you carefully move a small electric metal hoop along a twisty metal bar, and if they touch it they get a shock!  Show concentration on their face, then suddenly changed to shocked followed by relief of frustration.

Can you animate a character laughing? Try a giggle to a laugh out loud, Video reference of real world and animated laughs will be needed. Here is a lecture on animating a laugh by Kenny Roy

Brushing teeth

You’ll need a good facial rig for this one.

Opening a Window

animate a happy scene of a character opening a window and appreciating the start of a beautiful day.  Best to have the camera outside, so they open the window towards the camera.

A character slaps his own face as if someone said something really stupid.  Get a disappointed feeling into your animaton.

Animate a character sneezing. This helps with timing and showing how a sudden action can affect the whole body. You can make this really comical, have fun with it!

Character on a Swing

This will give you insights into how momentum works.  The posing of the character leaning back and kicking out their legs is important to make this believable.  Find some video references.

Intermediate Summary So Far

As you progress through these intermediate animation exercises, you’ll notice your skills and understanding of animation principles improving. Don’t forget to seek feedback from peers and mentors to help you grow even more. Keep practicing, and soon you’ll be ready to tackle advanced animation exercises. Good luck and have fun animating!

LEVEL 04 – ADVANCED- BODY MECHANICS + ACTING

Walk cycle variations.

Create different walk cycles to convey a character’s personality, mood, or physical condition. Experiment with confident, shy, tired, or exaggerated walks. Study references and focus on body mechanics, weight shifts, and arm swings to create unique and engaging walk cycles. Check out this amazing video reference by Kevin Parry

Run Cycle Variations

Create different run cycles to portray a character’s personality, mood, or physical condition. Experiment with confident, tired, panicked, or exaggerated runs. Study references and focus on body mechanics, weight shifts, and arm swings to create unique and engaging run cycles.

I encourage you to look at video references or even film yourself going from a seated position to standing.  To make this believable, you will need to shift the weight multiple time forward and back and also sideways.  Push up from the hand on the legs and rotate the clavicle, shoulders

Jump With a Twist

Animate a character jumping and twisting in the air to understand complex body mechanics and weight distribution. Focus on the character’s anticipation, take-off, rotation, and landing. Experiment with different jump heights and twist speeds to challenge your skills.  Could it be a dancer jumping to a ta-dah! Or a presenter of a show even?

Lifting a Heavy Object

Animate a character lifting a heavy object to practice weight perception and body mechanics. This animation exercise can be difficult to make fully believable. Focus on the character’s struggle, anticipation, and follow-through. Experiment with different object weights and sizes to see how the character’s body mechanics and reactions change.

Carrying a Heavy Weight

Animate a character carrying a heavy object, such as a suitcase or a box. Focus on the character’s body mechanics, weight distribution, and the object’s impact on their movement. This exercise will help you understand how to convey weight and effort in your animations. Note :  ‘lifting a heavy object’ and ‘carrying a heavy weight’ can be combined into one animation if you are feeling confident!

Complex Skateboarding Trick(s)

Animate a character performing a complex skateboarding trick or sequence of tricks. A skateboarders balance changes and shifts rapidly and often, as they shift their weight to counterbalance landings, and movements. You will need to watch a lot of reference

Here is a fantastic lecture on balance covering a lot of how a skater’s balance changes

Pushing a Heavy Weight

Animate a character pushing an object, such as a door or a cart, to practice weight distribution, force, and balance. Focus on the character’s body mechanics, expressions, and reactions as they exert effort on the object. This exercise will help you understand how to convey force and interaction in your animations.

Emotions and Expressions

Animate a character expressing a variety of emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise. Focus on facial expressions and body language to create a believable performance. Experiment with subtle differences in expression to improve your acting skills.

Quadruped Walk Cycle

Animate a four-legged walk cycle to understand quadruped body mechanics and timing. Study real-life animals like cats, dogs, or horses to create a convincing walk cycle. Pay attention to weight shifts, foot placement, and body movement.

Character Leap

Animate a character leaping forward to practice anticipation, weight, and balance. Focus on the character’s take-off, airborne motion, and landing. Study references and experiment with different leap styles and distances to challenge your skills.

Interact With an Object

Animate a character interacting with an object, such as picking up a glass or opening a book. Focus on hand placement, weight, and the character’s reaction to the object. Study real-life references and experiment with different objects and interactions to enhance your skills.  If you need help with parenting, you can watch my free tutorial on how to pick up an object here    

The Staggered Step

Create a character animation with staggered steps, as if the character is walking on uneven terrain or moving through a crowd. Pay attention to weight shifts, foot placement, and balance. This exercise will help you develop an understanding of complex body mechanics.

Character Driven by Music

Create a character animation that is influenced by music or a beat. Focus on the character’s movement, timing, and rhythm to match the music. This exercise will help you develop a sense of timing and create more dynamic animations. ( reference: https://www.animatorisland.com/animating-to-music/   )

The Object Transformation Morph

This one is mainly for 2d hand drawn animators, because you will need some clever rigging to set this up for 3d.  Animate an object transforming into another object, like a bouncing ball turning into a cube. Practice using the principles of squash and stretch, anticipation, and timing to create a smooth and believable transformation.

The Trip and Fall

Animate a character tripping and falling to understand body mechanics, weight distribution, and balance. Focus on the character’s anticipation, stumble, and recovery or impact. Experiment with different trip scenarios and fall outcomes to challenge your skills.

Tightrope Character Balance

Animate a character balancing on a narrow surface, such as a tightrope or a beam. Focus on the character’s body mechanics, weight shifts, and balance as they struggle to maintain their position. This exercise will help you understand how to create tension and suspense in your animations.

The Slow Motion Animation

Create a slow-motion animation to develop your understanding of timing, spacing, and body mechanics. Animate a character performing an action, such as jumping, running, or throwing, in slow motion. Focus on the gradual progression of the character’s movement and the nuances of their body mechanics.

Character in Strong Wind

Animate a character reacting to strong wind forces to practice body mechanics, weight distribution, and anticipation. Focus on the character’s struggle to maintain balance and the impact of the wind on their movements.  You can try a realistic or a more exaggerated cartoony animation. Check out this awesome student character animator Martin Fischer

Dancing Character

Create a single character dance sequence to develop your understanding of rhythm, timing, and body mechanics. Study real-life dance references and focus on the character’s weight shifts, foot placement, and overall movement to create a smooth and engaging dance animation. Reference:  Top 10 dance numbers in animated movies :   

Dialogue Between Two Characters

Finally, if you’re feeling brave try and animate a conversation between two characters to practice lip-sync, facial animation, and character interaction. Focus on the characters’ mouth shapes, emotions, and body language, as well as their reactions to each other’s dialogue.  Probably best to keep them seated or minimal body movement for now.

In an athletic long jump you have a range of complex motions to animate.  The starting rock back and anticipation, the run, the big air time jump with nice arm movements, followed by the impact, and possibly the get up and walk.

Desperate to Pee

Animate a male character in a cartoony expressionate manner stood outside an engaged public toilet, but he is bursting for a pee!  Exaggerate his body poses and facial expressions, we want to feel his panic and desperation, can you make this animation believable?

The Classic Western Duel

Animate a classic Western duel scene. Pay attention to the build-up of tension, quick movements, and reactions. This exercise will test your skills in animating quick and precise actions, as well as creating suspense.

Magic Spell

Create a scene where your character is casting a magic spell. Pay attention to how the character uses their body to channel the spell and their reaction to the spell’s effects. This is a great exercise to experiment with exaggerated actions and reactions. Abracadabra!

Animate a single character performing martial arts moves.  Gather a range of references from different martial arts styles.  Perhaps you want to animate a ninja or a shaolin monk.  Push the poses to the extreme, always push further than your real life reference. If confident add a weapon like a sword or staff! There is a nice and free ninja character rig here:  https://builtbycolossus.com/store

And here is a nice kung fu animation by Michał Wojciechowski

The Surprise Party

Animate a character walking into a surprise party. Capture their initial shock, followed by a variety of emotions. This exercise is a perfect opportunity to play with anticipation and surprise in a fun setting.

The Juggler

Have your character juggle multiple objects. Juggling is a rhythmic action and can help you improve your timing and spacing. It’s also an excuse to make your character do something cool. Who doesn’t love a good juggling act?

The Alien Encounter

Animate your character encountering an alien for the first time. This is a great chance to animate a variety of reactions – surprise, fear, curiosity. Let your imagination run wild with this one.

The Sudden Weight

Your character tries to pick up what looks like a lightweight box but turns out to be extremely heavy. Play with timing and anticipation to create a comedic moment.

The Robot Dance

Make your character do a robot dance! This exercise can be a lot of fun and is a great way to practice stiff, mechanical movements as well as smooth, flowing ones.

The Ghost Scare

Animate your character getting spooked by a ghost. This exercise helps you focus on quick, exaggerated movements. Be as silly or as scary as you want!

The Grand Entrance

Your character enters a room thinking they’re late to a meeting, but they’re actually early. Animate the contrast between their rushed entrance and their slow, awkward realization.

The Balancing Act

Your character is trying to balance on a tightrope or a slippery surface like ice. This can help you improve your understanding of weight and balance.

The Pantomime

Create a scene where your character is trying to communicate something without using words. This can be a fun way to really push your character’s facial expressions and body language.

LEVEL 05 – EXPERT- ADVANCED ANIMATION SCENES

Parkour animated sequence.

Create a dynamic parkour sequence with a character running, jumping, and climbing over obstacles. Focus on body mechanics, weight distribution, and momentum. Use references and study real-life parkour athletes to create an exciting and believable animation.  I remember some time ago when I was learning with the awesome online school https://ianimate.net I created this parkour animation: 

A Complex Animal Behaviour

Animate an animal performing a complex behaviour, like a bird taking off, a dog catching a frisbee, or a horse rearing. Study real-life animal references to understand the unique body mechanics, weight distribution, and timing.

The Emotional Monologue

Create a character animation of an emotional monologue to develop your acting skills and emotional storytelling. Focus on facial expressions, body language, and timing to convey the character’s emotions and create a powerful performance.

Two Character Fight Scene

Create a character fight scene to practice timing, body mechanics, and staging. Focus on the character’s anticipation, impact, and reactions to each attack. Experiment with different fighting styles and camera angles to create a thrilling and dynamic scene.

Physics Based Animation

Animate a character interacting with a complex physics-based object, like a swinging rope or a trampoline. Focus on the character’s weight distribution, force, and the object’s reaction to their movements. This exercise will help you understand how to convey realistic physics in your animations.

Multiple Characters Dance Sequence

Create a choreographed shot or set of shots with multiple dancing animated characters.  This could consist of two characters as a dancing couple, or a full dance sequence of multiple characters choreographed similar to a scene from a musical or disney film. 

You will need to find some suitable music and a lot of reference followed by doing a lot of planning.  Start with basic pre-vis and layout, just to position and set a few key poses of all your characters.  Try and make a few camera cuts for drama, look at cinematic filming techniques. Reference:  Top 10 dance numbers in animated movies:    

Animate a group of characters performing different actions simultaneously to understand crowd simulation and character interaction. Pay attention to each character’s individual movement and how they interact with one another. This exercise will challenge your skills in timing, staging, and multitasking.

Group of Characters Singing

Animate a group of characters singing together to practice lip-sync, facial animation, and character interaction. Focus on the characters’ mouth shapes, emotions, and body language, as well as their reactions to each other’s singing.

Swimming and Diving

Animate a character swimming to practice complex body mechanics and fluid dynamics. Study real-life swimming references and focus on the character’s weight shifts, body rotations, and interaction with the water.  Try starting with diving into the water, even play with high dives!

Character Acting with Multiple Props

Create a character animation in which the character interacts with multiple props, such as juggling or assembling a complex device. Focus on the character’s hand placement, weight, and reactions to the props, as well as the props’ motion and interaction with each other.

The Creature Transformation

Create a character transforming into a creature, such as a werewolf or a dragon.  This one is probably easier to try in traditional hand drawn animation, as in 3d you will need complex rigs, or perhaps you can play with blendshapes in maya! 

Practice using the principles of anticipation, timing, and staging to create a believable and engaging transformation sequence. Focus on the character’s facial expressions and body language as they undergo the change.

The Musical Instrument Performance

Animate a character playing a musical instrument, such as a piano, guitar, or violin. Study real-life musicians to capture the nuances of the character’s hand movements, body posture, and emotional connection to the music. This exercise will help you develop your skills in animating characters performing intricate tasks.

Two Characters Playing Professional Table Tennis

Create a fast-paced, high-energy animation of two characters playing table tennis.  Have you seen how crazy games can get in professional ping pong?  Some players end up meters away from the table, diving around and smashing what looks like impossible returns, and the rallies can go on for ages. Again, gather many references, and either make it realistic or go cartoony. You can go ultra comedy and have super stretchy limbs

Bonus points for using creature characters. How would an Octopus play against a squirrel!?

Advanced Dialogue Scene

Create a complex dialogue scene with multiple characters and emotional beats. Focus on lip-sync, facial animation, and character interaction. This exercise will challenge your acting skills, timing, and staging to create a compelling and engaging performance.

Fed Up Father Pushes Child into a Ball Pit

Animate a comedic scene, a father and mother are at a children’s play center near a ball pit. The child is throwing a tantrum and screaming while the mother walks away, leaving the father to handle the situation.

With a mischievous expression, the father pushes the child into the ball pit, causing the screaming to stop abruptly and a relieved cheeky smile appears on his face. This character animation exercise should help practise comedy timing.

The Sitcom Scene

Animate a scene from a sitcom with at least two characters interacting, focusing on comedic timing, exaggerated expressions, and physical comedy. This exercise will challenge your ability to convey humor and light-heartedness through animation.

The Shakespearean Drama

To be or not to be! Create a dramatic scene inspired by a Shakespearean play. Focus on the emotional depth, body language, and facial expressions of your characters. This exercise will help you explore the nuances of dramatic acting in animation.

Film Noir Scene

Create a scene inspired by the Film Noir genre, emphasizing on high contrast lighting, dramatic poses, and complex character interaction. This exercise will challenge your skills in lighting, staging, and mood setting.

The Romantic Comedy Meet-Cute

Animate a ‘meet-cute’ scene from a romantic comedy. Focus on the body language, facial expressions, and subtle awkwardness between the characters. This exercise will help you convey complex emotions and romantic tension through animation.

The High Speed Car Chase

Create a high-speed car chase scene with characters reacting to the fast-paced action. Consider the character’s body mechanics and reactions inside the moving vehicles. This exercise will test your ability to manage dynamic and fast-paced action scenes.

The Emotional Goodbye Scene

Animate an emotional goodbye scene between two characters. Emphasize the subtle facial expressions, eye movement, and the overall emotional atmosphere. This exercise will challenge your skills in conveying deep emotion through animation.

The Heist Scene

Create a heist scene where characters are planning or executing a complex robbery. Focus on the character’s body mechanics, interaction, and the tension of the scene.

Perhaps they are trying to navigate through laser security or silently taking down guards. Think Mission Impossible, Oceans 11. This exercise will test your skills in animating suspenseful and strategic scenarios.

The Supernatural Encounter

Animate a scene where a character encounters a supernatural entity. Focus on the character’s reactions, the supernatural entity’s movement, and the overall mood of the scene. This exercise will challenge your skills in animating supernatural movements and creating eerie atmospheres.

The Intense Debate

Animate a scene where two or more characters are engaged in an intense debate or argument. Focus on facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language to convey the escalating tension. This exercise will help improve your skills in animating dialogue-driven scenes with high emotional stakes.

The Horror Scene

Create a scene from a horror movie, focusing on suspenseful timing, exaggerated expressions, and sudden movements. This exercise will challenge your ability to create a sense of fear and suspense through animation.

The Emotional Reunion

Create a scene where two characters are reunited after a long time apart. Focus on the emotions, body language, and the slow build-up of the reunion moment. This exercise will help you develop your skills in portraying heartfelt emotions and subtleties in animation.

The Slapstick Comedy Scene

Animate a slapstick comedy scene, with characters performing exaggerated physical comedy. This exercise will challenge your ability to create a sense of comic timing and physicality in animation.

The Surreal Dream Sequence

Create a surreal dream sequence. Focus on the fluidity, exaggeration, and the abstract elements of the dream. This exercise will challenge your creativity and your skills in animating abstract scenarios.

The Heroic Rescue Scene

Animate a heroic rescue scene, where a character saves another from a dangerous situation. Focus on the timing, the dynamics of the action, and the emotional payoff. This exercise will help you develop your skills in animating action and heroism.

The Dramatic Death Scene

Create a dramatic death scene. Pay close attention to the emotion, the body language, and the overall dramatic atmosphere. This exercise will challenge your skills in conveying deep and intense emotions through animation. 

Don’t just have the character dying but other characters emotionally distraught.  Imagine a loved one dying in their arms, begging them to hold on. 

A Heated Argument

Animate an intense scene of two characters arguing.  Up to you in you want to make this comedy, slapstick or realistic and emotional animation.  Set the scene, perhaps an employee and their boss, Boyfriend and girlfriend, or someone ina store trying to return their goods but not allowed.

Focus on their facial expressions, gestures, and body language to show their emotions. This is a good exercise to understand how to portray tension and conflict. Check out drama films and series for reference.

The daring Rescue

Animate a scene where one character must rescue another from a dangerous situation. Perhaps it’s a firefighter saving someone from a burning building or a superhero saving a civilian from a falling object.

This will challenge you to animate action-packed sequences, reactions, and the interaction between multiple characters. Consider studying action sequences from films for inspiration.

On Foot Chase Scene

Animate a high-energy scene where one character is pursuing another. This will allow you to practice creating speed and tension in your animation. Does the character chasing have a weapon, is the runner being shot at?

Many action films, such as those from the “Mission Impossible” franchise, have excellent chase scenes that you can learn from.

The High-Stakes Poker Game

Animate a tense poker game scene where characters communicate mainly through subtle facial expressions and gestures. This scene tests your ability to convey a lot of information with subtle movements and reactions. Movies like “Casino Royale” could offer inspiration.

The Cooking Catastrophe

Create a humorous scene where characters try to cook together but everything goes wrong. This will allow you to exercise your ability to animate chaos and fast-paced, unexpected events. Animation films like “ Ratatouille ” can be great references for such scenes.

The Heartbreaking Goodbye

Animate a touching scene where two characters must say goodbye, perhaps at an airport or train station. This will challenge you to convey strong emotions through body language and facial expressions. Check out movies like “Toy Story 3” for reference.

The Thrilling Sports Match

Animate a scene of a high-energy sports match, like football or basketball. This will give you a chance to animate dynamic, fast movements and the interaction between several characters. Sports-themed movies like “ Space Jam ” can offer some inspiration.

Public Speech

Create a scene where a character is giving an important speech to a crowd. This is a good exercise to understand how to portray nervousness, confidence, and public speaking mannerisms. Movies like “The King’s Speech ” can be excellent references.

The Romantic Confession

Animate a scene where a character confesses their feelings to another. This will challenge you to convey the nuances of love and vulnerability through animation. Romantic films and series are good sources for reference.

The Mystical Ritual

Design a scene where characters perform a mystical ritual or a spell. This will allow you to experiment with special effects and elaborate, synchronized movements. Movies like “ Harry Potter ” or “ The Last Airbender ” could provide inspiration.

The Epic Battle

Design an epic confrontation scene. This could be a sword fight, a magical duel, or a superhero showdown. This exercise will challenge you to create dynamic, exciting, and fast-paced sequences. Epic animated movies like those in the “Kung Fu Panda” or “Avengers” series can be good references.

The Underwater Exploration

Create a scene where characters are exploring underwater, encountering various sea creatures, dealing with buoyancy, or perhaps finding a sunken treasure. This allows for animating in a different set of physics, with floating movements and light diffraction. Films like “Finding Nemo” can be excellent references.

The Wilderness Survival

Animate a scene where characters are trying to survive in the wild, like building a shelter, hunting, or navigating through dense forest. This will give you a chance to animate interaction with nature and survival instincts. Refer to survival-themed films like “The Croods” for inspiration.

The Grand Celebration

Design a scene of a grand celebration like a carnival, a grand feast, or a royal ball. This is a good exercise to animate crowd scenes, merriment, and detailed, extravagant movements. Movies like “Beauty and the Beast” or “Cinderella” can serve as excellent references.

The Space Adventure

Animate a scene set in space, with characters dealing with zero gravity, exploring alien planets, or in a spaceship battle. This will challenge you to animate under a completely different set of physics. Space-themed films like “Wall-E” or “Star Wars” could be great for inspiration.

Time Travel

Create a scene where characters time travel, reacting to a completely different era or rapidly changing surroundings. This exercise can help practice transition and reaction animations. Films like “Back to the Future” can be a great reference.

The Heroic Sacrifice

Animate a dramatic scene where a character makes a heroic sacrifice for others, focusing on the intensity of the moment and emotional reactions of other characters. For references, dramatic superhero movies like “The Avengers: Endgame” might be useful.

The Silent Conversation

Design a scene where characters have an entire conversation without words, relying only on their facial expressions, body language, and gestures. This can be a challenging exercise to show how much can be conveyed without dialogue. The short film “The Present” is a beautiful example of this concept.

The Miniature Adventure

Inspired by “ Honey, I Shrunk the Kids “, animate characters navigating an everyday environment at an ant’s scale. Blades of grass are trees, droplets of water are giant orbs, and common insects become huge threats. This exercise challenges your understanding of scale, perspective, and physics while promoting creativity in the design of miniature adventures.

Remember, these exercises are not just about animating movements; they’re about telling a story through those movements. So put your creativity to the test and bring these scenarios to life. Happy animating!

FINAL THOUGHTS

And there you have it – a comprehensive library of animation exercises whether 2D or 3D animation, Character and Creature animation, designed to take you from beginner to expert! We’ve journeyed from the basics of animating inanimate objects and simple movements, all the way to complex character animations and highly emotive, action-packed scenes.

Remember, each exercise in this guide isn’t just a task to be checked off; it’s an opportunity to learn, grow, and hone your craft. Animation is a field that values constant learning and exploration. It’s about storytelling, making inanimate objects and characters come to life, and most importantly, having fun in the process.

The variety of exercises provided here ensures there’s always something new to challenge you, whether you’re just starting out or you’re an experienced animator looking to step up your game. We’ve covered a lot, but there’s still so much more to explore.

So keep these exercises handy, revisit them, and see how you progress over time. You’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come with consistent practice and dedication. Always remember: every master animator started with the simple action of making a ball bounce.

No matter where you are in your learning animation journey, keep pushing your boundaries, making mistakes, and learning from them. The world of animation is waiting for you to make your mark!

I can’t wait to see the incredible animations you’re going to create. Until then, keep those creative juices flowing, and happy animating!

Would you like to try AI-assisted character animation? check out this review on a game-changing new tool called Cascaduer

Learn how important Human Anatomy knowledge is for character animation in this in depth guide here

See all my free tutorials

https://youtube.com/animatorartistlife

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Lecture and Class Activities

The following post include lecture notes for explaining concepts and active learning activities to do in class. Feel free to use and modify these ideas to fit your class structure!

This content is provided as an open educational resource under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

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ANIMATION EXERCISES

BEFORE YOU START - READ THIS...

These are things you should be thinking about and implementing into all of your exercises.

• WEIGHT – show weight by squashing the feet and in the quads of the upper legs (on the front side) and in the hips/butt area.  In 3D – use a lattice when structuring your character. WHEN IN DOUBT EXAGGERATE THE WEIGHT.
• POSING with exaggeration
• ACTIONS – LEADING AND FOLLOWING actions are easy – example: when a character land one foot makes contact and then the other…or if you lift the arms – one arm goes up and then the other.
• OVERLAPPING ACTIONS – For example, the character comes to a halt and her hair and dress continue to flow and settle into place. To be effective the overlapping has to use “S” curves to change direction.
• DRAG ACTION – is where you show a drag on a form as it moves through space. This usually occurs at the ends of the form. If a rubber raft is falling, the middle edge will be intact – the other edges will bend or drag back.
• MOTIVATIONAL FORCES – what makes the thing move – 80% or more of all actions happen because of the hips and legs. If a character throws a ball the action starts with the extension (unfolding) of the front leg which rotates the hips and creates torque with the torso and allows the unwinding of the torso to lead the shoulder and the rest of the arm through a throwing motion.  Another example: a character can’t turn unless he pushes off on the outside foot – then he can change direction.
• THINKING time (a character ALWAYS thinks before it does anything). Disney said, “the mind is the pilot.”
• PRIMARY AND SECONDARY ACTIONS – easy example in a walk – the legs are the primary action – then arms are the secondary action.
• ANTICIPATION – (or ANTIC) In a grab, the hand comes up and backward before it goes forward.
• COMPENSATION – If a character is running and stops – you have to compensate for the forward momentum (usually by driving the forces up – or down and then up.)
• REVERSALS – try to work as many reversals into the spine as possible (as long as it makes sense to the action). The spine is curved forward – then curves back during an antic and then curves forward when the character picks up a stone. HINT: My next lesson at the Toon Institute will have this information.
• A CUSHION OR SETTLE is where you move passed a keyframe into an extreme/extreme and then cushion back into the original keyframe.
• A MOVING HOLD is a very, very slow slow-out of action – to where the movement is coming to a creeping halt.
• STAGING (how the action is composed within the frame)
• APPEAL – Character Design – the ability to caricature a person utilizing good design skills and have appeal

VIDEO EXAMPLES

BEGINNER LEVEL EXERCISE – EXAMPLES

These exercises are designed to learn how to animate.  They should not be on your reel.

4 Levels of “51 great animation exercises to master” from mhauss on Vimeo .

51 Great Animation Exercises To Master – Level 1 from Juba Polati on Vimeo .

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL EXERCISE – EXAMPLES

Slide Over Animation exercise. from Jp Self on Vimeo .

ADVANCED EXERCISE – EXAMPLES

INANIMATE OBJECTS

Simple Tests – Inanimate Objects

• Ball bouncing/Rolling
• Balls of different weights(basketball, tennis ball, bowling ball, beach ball, etc)
• Balls in an obstacle course
• The flour sack. A great test that forces an understanding of the principles in its most basic form. Make a four-sack move and react to show emotions and character. Be sure to remember the volume of the sack and how it would move between contact with the ground and being airborne. This test is a favorite among animators since there are very little character design and development and you really have to pay attention to what you are trying to communicate.
• Egg dropping/rolling
• Brick dropping
• Pendulum swing (using arcs)
• Flour sack walk cycle
• Flour sack falling off a ledge
• A tree falling.
• A car speeding off.
• A plane crashing.
• A bag of microwave popcorn (being heated)
• A grenade landing and exploding.
• A phone ringing.

BEGINNER LEVEL

Try these first if you have never animated before:

• Overlap/Follow through (hair, tails, etc)
• Weight shift

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

• A character lifts something heavy. This is hard enough to show shifts in weight throughout the body to get leverage, but if you wanted to make the test even more complicated you can make the character do something else while continuing to hold the heavy object. A great example of weight and timing. Chapter 3 in The Illusion of Life covers this concept thoroughly.
• Jumping and landing(straight up and down, across a gap, etc)
• Walk, run, jump ( realistic, cartoon, quad)
• A two-legged character walk on all fours
• An old man kneeling down to pray, then rising
• Simple head turn (using arcs)
• Climbing a wall (different heights)
• Back/front flip
• Wall run/flip
• Sword Lunge/Swing
• A character using weighted objects (hammer, axe, etc)
• Baseball Throw
• Baseball Hit
• Discus/Javelin/Shotput Throw (or any number of other Olympic events)
• Sports (basketball, skateboarding, boxing, etc)
• A character showing off on a diving board (does he fail or succeed? See Monsters vs Aliens for a fail)
• Changing from one emotion to another
• Being hit by a ball
• Throwing a heavy object
• Slumping into a chair
• Standing up (on the ground, in a chair, etc)
• Sitting down (on the ground, in a chair, etc)
• Diving for cover
• Answering the phone
• A giant falling over
• Bursting out through a door
• A character clutching its head in despair
• Waiting for the results of a job interview or tryout
• A character slapping its head as if it just said something stupid
• Tasting something delicious or disgusting
• Watching a scary movie
• Trying to take operate a complicated DVD player
• Falling out of a chair
• Leaning on something only to find that it gives way and falls over
• Trying to carefully remove a painting from the wall
• Tuck and roll
• Trying to remember where they put something
• Trying to move against the wind, such as from a giant fan, trying to reach a goal
• Catching a heavy object, such as a boulder
• A tightrope walker
• Trapeze artist
• Weightlessness/underwater
• Running through/avoiding obstacles such as an obstacle course
• Having fun on a trampoline
• A character climbing a pipe such as on the side of a building
• Two characters of different strengths/sizes sawing a log
• Quadrupeds/Creatures
• Winged Creatures(dragons, birds, etc)
• Dropping something off at the mailbox
• The character tries to access a bank machine and it misbehaves
• The character tries to use a restroom and can’t
• The character thinks they’re going to sneeze, then not sneeze and then finally sneezing
• A character trying to swat a fly or catch a bug
• Kneeling down
• Rubbing your hands
• Checking the time
• Answering a phone
• Ducking under a swinging object
• Reaching into a cupboard
• Pulling out your keys
• Buttoning your shirt
• Brushing your teeth
• Flipping a pancake
• Turning on a light
• Opening a window
• Putting on a Shoe
• Putting on a Hat
• Putting on a Belt
• Putting on a Pants
• Putting on a Glove
• Putting on a Shirt
• Opening a Soda (variation: it’s been shaken)
• Opening a box of chocolate
• Opening a Car Door (variation: for a date)
• Opening a Jar (variation: it’s stuck)
• Opening a Bag (variation: it’s a mystery what’s inside)
• A character climbing a ladder but has to jump and pull himself up to reach the first few rungs.
• Dropping onto a soft surface, such as a giant pillow

INTERMEDIATE ACTING LEVEL

Advanced Acting Exercises… if done well, these should go on your reel.

• Waiting for a late bus or late for a bus that’s on time. Show the emotions a character might go through while waiting for a bus that’s late. Pay close attention to facial expressions, body language, and detail.
• A witch trying to mount a broom that doesn’t want to be mounted.
• Character opens something (i.e. box, a present) that refuses to open. The character can only use body parts for the first beat… but, may resort to other measures (i.e. tools and explosives) after trying with their own weight and extremities. Note, the character will be affected by the tools used (i.e. blast of an explosion).

ADVANCED ACTING EXERCISES

• A witch attempt to ride a broom that keeps bucking her off. Andreas Deja (animated–Jafar in Aladdin, Scar in Lion King, Gaston in B & B, etc.) spoke of this test at a talk I attended in LA. He referred to it as what Disney asked him to do before he was officially brought into the animation department.
•  The character encounters something that he wants to open. Perhaps it has difficulty opening it. Perhaps it reacts to whatever it opens (but you don’t see what is in it). The character can only use body parts for the first 30 seconds but may pursue some other means (i.e. tools and explosives) thereafter. This one is really open-ended and can test your ability to show many storytelling ideas in the body language and facial expressions, without one line of dialogue.
• Dialogue/monolog where the character starts off feeling one emotion and changes into another. Close up shot, one camera, usually better if it is dramatic.
• Two character dialogue – introduces staging and interaction, possibly a sequence with cuts? Standing or sitting, the character doing nothing, body language should suggest a thought process without any interaction with an object. It can be drama or comedy.
• The character on the phone, but not talking, listening to a person on the other end talk about something: important, sad, happy and/or “fill in the blank”. Choose the subject matter to really express how the receiver of that information reacts. The exercise is designed to help people develop a character’s thinking through eye movement, subtle facial expression, and pantomime with body language.
• Display the feelings a character would experience while waiting for something or someone. Gender-specific reactions can be really revealing here. How would a man react vs. a woman? This is a good exercise because it demands pure acting outside of dialogue. Much like Tom Hanks for most of Castaway, your character will need to show lots of emotion through psychological gesture.
• A character is doing something and needs to get someone’s attention. Lots of eye movement and subtle mouth stuff, as well as body language on an exercise like this.

ADVANCED BODY MECHANICS EXERCISES

Advanced Body Mechanic Exercises… if done well, these should go on your reel.

• Animate someone riding a pogo stick or some other ‘fun’ object (i.e. using a hula hoop).
• Personality walk cycle with biped or quad using power centers/leads to show attitude. Start with a vanilla walk cycle. Now make 4 variations on the same character to illustrate an emotion. For example Angry Stomp, Happy Run, Sad Shuffle, Cocky Strut, Questioning Tiptoe, etc. Be sure to refer to the bouncing ball for your arcs and paths on this one.
• Animate two characters sawing a log. The first character is a big, macho man. Animate him pose-to-pose first holding one side of the saw and cycle his animation. The second character is a scrawny little guy who gets yanked around, grabbing onto the saw for dear life. This idea would be even better if there was some kind of big finish where the little guy gets the best of the big guy.
• Put a short character in a tall room with one window, one door, one light (and switch) and a hanging ceiling fan (with hanging switch). The room contains 3 boxes, a ball, and a board. Imagine the different ways your character could figure out how to reach the hanging switch and then animate the most outrageous. Next, subtract two boxes and add a skateboard and try again.
• A character walks to a mailbox, deposits an envelope, and walks away. Now, how is that action different if the envelope contains (1) a heartfelt love letter, sent without knowing whether the recipient feels the same way about the sender, or (2) this year’s tax return, which includes a big fat check made payable to Uncle Sam, or (3) the last mortgage payment on a house, or the last alimony check to an ex? The basic goals are the same (approach mailbox, etc), but the motivation behind them and the mood expressed will be dramatically different for each one.
• The character takes on a profession as a mover and has to move an awkward object
• The character enters a dark corridor/cave with a weapon drawn awaiting a surprise from the dark
• The character meeting death from an attack
• A character trying to stay awake finally falls asleep (maybe something really loud wakes him up at the end it is up to you)
• Character sneaking up on another character to scare them
• Character leaning against the wall, chewing gum or a toothpick, hands in his pockets or maybe flipping a coin, waiting for something to happen

ADVANCED CREATURE EXERCISES

Advanced Creature Exercises… these go on your reel if executed well.

• Create a walk cycle with a four-legged character with personality.
• Do the same thing as above, but now illustrate your ability to translate it into four legs or even an insect and go to six or eight legs. Always refer to real life and then translate that into your own work. It is great when you can create a connection between an animal and human nature, but if you keep the integrity of the animal’s basic essence, then the animation will be much richer. Of course, a dog would not have the emotional range of a human, but you still know when a dog is happy. Think to yourself, not only how a human might react to the situation, but also how “insert animal/creature here” would react to it also.
• Four-legged character (cat, dog, etc.) walking, jumping, climbing, stretching, yawning, scratching, etc. Move—>Stop—>Move or Stop—>Move—>Stop over uneven terrain.
• 3 legged character – two legs cannot move in unison.

ADVANCED GAME EXERCISES

Advanced Game Level Exercises… these go on your reel if executed well.

• A confrontation between two characters. One is losing but makes a spectacular comeback, just when you thought all hope was lost.  This is that huge fight between the Boss and the Hero or the dramatic clash that has led up to your dramatic quest Hero/villain attempts to execute their strange and unfamiliar powers. Suddenly something goes horribly wrong and their power backfires
• Swinging through an environment holding onto a rope and landing in front of a Boss character or creature proceeding into a struggle using contact and props.

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• Education , Inspiration

15 creative video project ideas for students (and their teachers)

Fall is here. The leaves are starting to change color and teachers everywhere are asking the same question: How do I come up with video project ideas for my students?

Video has been a staple learning tool for decades. But having students create, design, and edit video projects themselves is becoming a much more common classroom activity. Video projects are a great way to help students of all ages  actively engage with subject matter  and learn from one another.

Online apps like  Biteable  make it easy for students to turn video ideas for school into a reality. Templates and easy-to-use editing tools keep the process simple and offer plenty of inspiration for student video projects.

To help teachers and students alike leverage video as an  educational tool , we’ve gathered our favorite creative video project ideas for students. Each idea comes with a ready-to-edit video template so you and your students can get started right away.

Create videos that drive action

Activate your audience with impactful, on-brand videos. Create them simply and collaboratively with Biteable.

Elementary student video project ideas

It can be tricky to keep young students interested and engaged all day long. Creating videos gives elementary students a fun, creative way to learn about anything. And student-created videos are an amazing classroom learning supplement. If a video is produced by their peers, interest will skyrocket.

1. Create a book trailer

Instead of a traditional book report, have students design a movie-style trailer that drums up excitement about a novel or a non-fiction book. Creating a book trailer gives students the opportunity to think creatively, share a story with their classmates, and reinforce their learning in a new way.

2. Give a video tour

To supplement social studies curriculum, students can create a video showing off a significant location or their favorite part of the school. If you have a field trip planned, ask students to share their experience by recording videos throughout the day and adding voice over narration.

A video tour of the school is also a great way to share the campus with new students and visitors. As a way to pass the torch before they leave for middle school, how about asking your fifth graders to collaborate on an orientation video for incoming kindergarteners?

3. Celebrate the holidays

There’s always something to celebrate, no matter what time of year it is. Have students film letters to Santa, make video Valentines for parents or grandparents, or make short educational videos about lesser known holidays. Students can even create simple, digital thank-you notes for classroom visitors or parent volunteers.

4. Recreate a moment in history

Learning about historical people and events? Have your students research and recreate major moments in history, like the story of Rosa Parks or the Oregon Trail.

Videos help students visualize and remember these important moments. It also gives students the opportunity to experiment with digital storytelling. And students will be challenged to bring each scene to life accurately.

5. Try stop-motion video

Video learning isn’t limited to literary or historical topics. Encourage students to use stop-motion or create their own slides to explain science experiments or other STEM projects. With the right footage, like Biteable’s extensive collection of clay animation footage, students won’t even need to build stop motion models. They can just focus on the presentation and storytelling in their video.

Video project ideas for middle and high school students

Video projects for high schoolers can be a little more advanced, as students should be practicing editing and narrative skills in addition to learning about new topics.

6. Create a news channel

To supplement learning in a current events class, have your students film a news broadcast covering both local and international events.

Ask students to take on certain roles in the newsroom: anchor, sports reporter, weather reporter, or entertainment correspondent. Doing a news segment helps everyone get involved and promotes teamwork.

7. Start a portfolio

Many high school students are thinking about college applications. Give them the chance to  jumpstart their applications with a portfolio video project  and showcase what makes them unique.

Art students can show off their best work and design skills. Students applying to traditional schools can answer an application question or create a video showcasing their community service and extracurriculars.

8. Promote a good cause

Rather than writing a traditional essay or report, have students create a video advocating for a cause that’s important to them. This helps students build their identity and develop persuasive skills. And students can share their  promotional video  with everyone, not just their teacher and classmates.

9. Questions for your future self

Think ahead with a video full of inspiring questions. This project is great for incoming freshmen. At the beginning of the year, have students create videos with questions for their future self or with goals for their life and career. At graduation, send the videos back to them. It’s a fun, positive way to celebrate their success throughout high school.

Higher ed video project ideas

Higher education might not seem like the place for student-made videos. But in the real world, businesses use video for all sorts of things. Video projects build plenty of resume-worthy skills that college students can take with them to the workforce.

10. Create a university promotion video

It’s easy to forget that colleges and universities are businesses, too. And they need help with promotion. A solid college or university promotion video could open opportunities for internships or college employment. Promoting something that they’re already familiar with is a great way for students to build video persuasion skills.

11. Record and edit interviews

Being able to conduct a good interview and edit it in a way that’s appropriate for the purpose of the interview is a valuable skill in multiple industries. And interviewing experts in the field is appropriate for just about any class.

12. Make a video self-assessment

Grades are important. But being able to self-assess is also an incredibly valuable way for students to incrementally improve at any skill.

Making video self-assessments gives students a more active role in the grading process and offers them a creative way to highlight the work they’ve put into a course. It also gives them a chance to make an argument for the grade they feel they deserve — a skill that easily correlates to performance reviews in their future workplace.

13. Film a job interview guide

For most people, the interview is the most nerve-wracking part of getting a job. Practicing interview questions is a great way to prepare. But most students don’t know how to prepare for a job interview.

Creating a job interview  how-to guide  is a perfect way for students to learn how to prepare for a job interview and help other students prepare at the same time.

14. Create a video presentation based on a written assignment

Written assignments are the backbone of a university education (in most disciplines, at least). However, the audience for most written assignments is limited to the professor and assistants. Creating presentation videos for their assignments gives students the opportunity to share their hard work with their fellow students, while also learning valuable video editing skills.

15. Build a video resume

For most students, the job search starts even before graduation. A video resume helps students highlight the skills they acquired and the experience they gained during college. And, given the global workforce, a  video resume is a great supplement to a paper resume, especially when applying for remote or distant positions where an in-person interview may not be an option.

Take your video project from idea to reality with Biteable

Ready to get started  making an education video project ?

Biteable has a huge  library of video templates that help students get going fast rather than struggling to start from a blank screen. Drag-and-drop editing and easy to use tools let students focus on what’s important: the project assignment and delivering a thoughtful message.

Make stunning videos with ease.

Take the struggle out of team communication.

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• No complicated design decisions
• No experience necessary

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