How to Succeed in Art & (2D) AnimationWithout Really TryingBy Trying Really Hard

A curated list of resources both free & paid that will help you on your journey of drawing & 2D animation.

I sort-of put them into categories, but a lot of these overlap in terms of what they teach you!By no means this is all there is out there, but I found these resources to be very helpful and there is a mix of

paid and free content (also if you’re tight on money look for discounts or buy second hand!)

@martanimate / www.martanimate.comApril 2019

2D Animation

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation – Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

The Animator’s Survival Kit (Extended Edition) – Richard Williams

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures Volume One – Walt Stanchfield

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures Volume Two – Walt Stanchfield

Timing for Animation – Harold Whitaker and John Halas

Timing for Animation – Harold Whitaker and John Halas

Sketching for Animation: Developing Ideas, Characters and Layouts in Your Sketchbook – Peter Barr

Animation (Walt Disney Animation Archives) – Disney

Elemental Magic, Volume 1: The Art of Special Effects Animation: The Classical Art of Special Effects Animation– Joseph Gilland

Elemental Magic, Volume 2: The Art of Special Effects Animation – Joseph Gilland

Animation Sketchbooks – Laura Heit

2D Animation

Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation – Wayne Gilbert

The Animator’s Eye: Adding Life to Animation with Timing, Layout, Design, Color and Sound – Francis Glebas

Animated Performance – Nancy Beiman

Cartoon Animation – Preston Blair

Acting for Animators – Ed Hooks

ADVANCED ANIMATION BY PRESTON BLAIR - http://www.traditionalanimation.com/2017/advanced-animation-by-preston-blair/

FAMOUS ARTISTS CARTOON COURSE (PUBLIC DOMAIN) https://randomnerds.com/learn-to-draw-cartoons-with-the-now-public-domain-famous-artist-cartoon-course-textbook/

2D Animation: Animate Flying Creatures – Dermot O’Connor (Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning Course)

Animating in 2D: Hair and Clothing – Dermot O’Connor (Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning Course)

Happy Harry’s HuHa 2 How-Tos! (Playlist) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjX9SJKrPnPROi_Bc3LOBWaXi0uz61Bom

21 Foundations of Animation – Dermot O’Connor - http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2018/04/23/21-foundations-of-anima-tion/

KDSketch Animation Tutorials https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-TbygL65GCTvKzmQC-a8Ng/videos

The Ultimate Guide to Character Design with Stephen Silver: Techniques, Tips, and Tutorials for Drawing Effective Characters – Stephen Silver

51 Great Animation Exercises - https://www.animatorisland.com/51-great-animation-exercises-to-mas-ter/?v=79cba1185463

Storyboarding

Story-boarding Essentials (SCAD Creative Essentials) – David Harland Rousseau & Benjamin Reid Phillips

The Art of the Storyboard: Storyboarding for Film, TV and Animation – John Hart

Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb – Sergio Paez, Anson JewFrom Word to Image: 2nd Edition: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process – Marcie Begleiter

The Art of the Storyboard with Lyndon Ruddy (Paid) https://creatureartteacher.com/product/story-board-course-with-lyndon-ruddy/

Pixar Storyboarding Mini Doc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKPVAIcDXY&list=PLX-2FVHpJipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIwWZI7I&index=16

The art of Storyboarding with Ridley Scott https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljjlXSGdSYs&list=PLX2FVHp-JipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIwWZI7I&index=14

Peter Paul Process of Storyboarding in TV Animation (Dream-works) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5nxMeUNiU&list=PLX-2FVHpJipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIwWZI7I&index=2&t=0s

Jim Mortensen’s Storyboard Tips (Pay what you want) -https://gumroad.com/l/JMMStoryboardTips

Backgrounds/Layout

Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation – Hans Bacher

Walt Disney Animation Studios the Archive Series: Layout & Background (Walt Disney Animation Archives) – John Lasseter

The Noble Approach – Tod Polson Layout and Composition for Animation – Ed Ghertner

Life Drawing

FORCE: Dynamic Life Drawing – Mike Mattesi

FORCE: Drawing Human Anatomy – Mike Matessi

FORCE: Animal Drawing: Animal locomotion and design concepts for animators (Force Drawing Series) – Mike Mattesi

Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists – Mark Simon

The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression – Garry Faigin

The Complete Book of Poses for Artists: A comprehensive photographic and illustrated reference book for learning to draw more than 500 poses – Ken Goldman, Stephanie Goldman

Figure Drawing for All it’s Worth – Andrew Loomis

An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists (Dover Anatomy for Artists) – W. EllenbergerSome of the images from here are in public domain!

Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist (Galaxy Books) – Stephen Rogers Peck

Muybridge: The Human and Animal Locomotion Photographs – Hans-Christian Adam

Life DrawingNoah Bradley Photo References (Free & Paid) Also has brushes for concept art https://gumroad.com/noahbradley

Scott Eaton’s Bodies in Motion (Free & Paid) https://www.bodiesinmotion.photo/

ArtModelTips – life drawing photos (Free) https://www.artmodeltips.com/poses/

SenshiStock – free life drawing photos http://www.senshistock.com/

Gesture /animal drawing resource - https://line-of-action.com/

Gesture drawing resource https://www.quickposes.com/en

Drawing Skills

Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers – Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Framed Perspective Vol 1: Technical Drawing for Visual Storytelling – Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Framed Perspective Vol 2: Technical Drawing for Shadows, Volume and Characters – Marcos Mateu-Mestre

How to See it, How to Draw it: The Perspective Workbook: Unique Exer-cises with More Than 100 Vanishing Points to Figure Out – Matthew Brehm

Simplifying Perspective: A Step-by-step Guide for Visual Artists – Robert Pastrana

Putting People in Perspective - https://twitter.com/batshaped/status/1110274758203990016

Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective and Depth – Gilles Beloeil, Andrei Riabovitchev

Drawing SkillsFZD Design Cinema -https://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL/videos

How to Think when you Draw (Can get books, but majority of tutorials are free on the website/their Instagram) http://theetheringtonbrothers.blogspot.com/

Drawing Tutorials - http://cedarseed.com/tutorials/

How to Draw Videos - https://www.proko.com/how-to-draw-videos/

Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytelling - http://www.floobynooby.com/comp1.html

Digital Drawing

Digital Painting in Photoshop: Industry Techniques for Beginners: A comprehensive introduction to techniques and approaches

Photoshop Animation Techniques – Alex Grigg http://www.alexgrigg.com/pages/photoshop-animation-techniques

Coloring Characters the Industry Way! Photoshop – BaM Animation (Actually look through all of their videos!)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4atFicBvhMM&list=PLX2FVHpJipRrlmpCzQm54xdItiIw-WZI7I&index=19&t=1s

Free digital painting videos - https://www.ctrlpaint.com/

Exercise based free resource - https://drawabox.com/

Skillshare – great tutorials for many things – https://www.skillshare.com/

ImagineFX magazinesAvailable digitally & physical copy

Character Design QuarterlyMagazine

Colour Theory

If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling – Patti Bellantoni

Vision: Color and Composition for Film – Santan Suryavanshi, Hans P. Bacher

The Secret Lives of Colour – Kassia St Clair

Colour Scheme Maker https://jamie-rollo.itch.io/gamut-maker

Colour Scheme Maker https://coolors.co/

Film & Animation Theory

Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Weise Productions) – Steve Katz

Animated Storytelling: Simple Steps for Creating Animation and Motion Graphics – Liz Blazer Blazer

Animation Writing and Development: From Script Development to Pitch (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation) – Jean Wright

Directing for Animation: Everything You Didn’t Learn in Art School – Tony Bancroft

The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media – Bruce Block

Film & Animation Theory & History

Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc: The Secret to Crafting Extraordinary Screenplays – Dara Marks

Shadow of a Mouse: Performance, Belief and World-Making in Animation – Donald Crafton

Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation – Francis Glebas

The Filmmaker’s Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition – Gustavo Mercado

Re-Imagining Animation: The Changing Face of the Moving Image – Paul Wells, Johnny Hardstaff

Ink & Paint The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation – Mindy Johnson

Before Ever After: The Lost Lectures of Walt Disney’s Animation Studio – Don Hahn, Tracey Miller-Zarneke

The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques and Inspiration from Disney’s Great Animators – Andreas Deja

The Freelance Manifesto: A Field Guide for the Modern Motion Designer – Joey Korenman

Living Lines Libraryhttp://livlily.blogspot.com/

Animation Art Jobs Basic Structure - https://twitter.com/americanninjax/sta-tus/1107761103109394432

Heroes of Animation with Bing (Playlist) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjX9SJKrPnPSm-5rBOniaaG734MxVYhbJb

Comics

Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist (Will Eisner Instructional Books) – Will Eisner

Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionising An Art Form – Scott McCloud

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art – Scott McCloud

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels – Scott McCloud

This is Everything I Know – C. Spike Trottmanhttps://ironcircus.com/product/this-is-everything-i-know/

Software/Plugins

StoryboarderStoryboarding Software (Free): https://wonderunit.com/story-boarder/

AnimDessin2 & AnimCouleur2Photoshop CS6 & above scripts/panels for 2D hand drawn animation and colouring within Photoshop (Free) https://github.com/sbaril/Photoshop-Animation

PureRefView and organise your ref-erence images easily (Free) - https://www.pureref.com/

RIOT – Image Optimisation Software. Great to create smaller web-ready files for posting online/your website. (Free) http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/

Kyle T Webster Brushes (Free via Creative Cloud CC) - https://theblog.adobe.com/get-the-goods-announcing-updates-to-photoshop-cc-dimension-cc-and-more-today/