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What type of animation is easiest/most fun?

There's lots of different computer animating types and i don't know which one is best for me. i like to make flipbooks but there is also video editing/ green screening. I like to do both but don't know which one is more fun and better paying. So if anyone knows please tell me. #animate #animation #video-games #artist #film

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John’s Answer

I've done motion graphics, green screen, paper animation, Flash, Maya, and many flip books. These are all options for your career—well, maybe not flip books. It's hard to find work in 2-D animation now. 3-D, video editing, motion graphics are in demand. However, see below how I explain why the process of studying 2-D animation is fundamental to everything else—yes even video editing because you need to know how things move. It's as important as life drawing and anatomy and why these are taught in freshman art school courses.


After working as an animator for over 30 years, I can tell you that good animation, really good with plenty of feeling for volume and weight is not exactly "easy." What is really fun is studying how people and animals move, sitting by the walkway and watching the different way people walk, or how your cat or dog does something complicated with weight or balance, and then finding out how to exaggerate that frame by frame. The other thing that is fun is making people laugh, with a funny little walk cycle or a cute story. Then to make them laugh and cry at the same time, that's what it's all about. Suddenly you're telling a story and making it believable. (Like the way Simon's Cat picks his claws on the bed spread. That little action is hilarious and because it feels real).


For many years I animated on paper. Four legged critters are hard to do. Watch for little things, like how someone flips up their leading foot before setting it down when they are walking in a jaunty mood, or how they plant that same foot down flat when they are stalking determined or angry. These are the things you can exaggerate to make your work funny or forceful. I think I hated animating on paper because I used to erase all the time and throw things away. When I discovered Flash, it was a new world—vector smoothing while drawing with a tablet is kind of like finger painting with chocolate. In my own experience, 2-D animation in whatever program that is quickest and easiest is fun, like Flash or Harmony. Anything that gets in the way of spontaneous expression is not as much fun. Personally Maya didn't have the same feel. But Maya is an essential career option because there is more opportunity, even in video production and general motion graphics and can land you a job much more easily than someone who doesn't know it. But I would say that 2-D animation is the solid foundation necessary for great 3-D work, just as life drawing and anatomy is essential to understand human motion.

John recommends the following next steps:

My recommendation is to use a student version of Flash and a Wacom tablet (medium size is good) and just draw on the timeline frame by frame, studying how things move. Forget bones and tweens and try the basic technique of traditional animation. Flash is good for that because it has a simple timeline, and you can onion-skin layers as you work, and you can instantly see your work in motion. Try different kinds of walks, people and animals. Concentrate on lines of action and simple circles and shapes for volume. You don't need to spend a lot of time on detail, just action. Even if you go into motion graphics instead of animation, you will understand how things move, editing, pacing, timing so much better.
The essential part of a great action is to develop strong poses. Along with studying motion, it is fun and very important to study key poses, like the moment before a baseball pitcher throws the ball, and when his foot hits the ground after he pitches. Or that single image that best expresses someone running, or when someone is truly surprised, laughing, sad, slips on the ice. Comic books are built on these images. Try creating or copying a strong pose and making it move. Again, even if you never become an animator, studying action this way gives you a strong eye for camera angles and editing, composition, flow of action and perspective. Someday you might be sitting in an Avid bay with a director and that light bulb flashes over your head because of something you studied when you were a student, and you suggest the perfect shot. Or you're on the floor in a studio shooting a commercial and you just know that the camera needs to be a few feet to the left. And a lot of it is because of what you see and learn now.
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casandra’s Answer

from what i can say is the trinamatic is the funnest and easiest type of animation that you can do. in it you can do step by step like stop motion.
Thank you comment icon What is trinamatic? John Conning
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Sophie’s Answer

Hello!! So I did a little research and found five types of animation. Though, there's probably many more. Most animators start out by flip-books. Here are different types of animation:

Traditional Animation

2D Vector-based Animation

Motion Graphics

Stop Motion

3D Computer Animation

It depends on what you think could be easy, fun, boring, or hard. I wish you luck on your journey!!
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