How does 2D animation work?

2D animation is a colourful, vibrant and fun style of video with two dimensional graphics and text to tell your story in an engaging and appealing way. But in comparison to other forms of video, there is a lot more work and detail that goes into making a one of these 2D animated videos, and we thought we’d let you in on the production process.

Creating a storyboard is a key aspect of 2D animation, this details how the story and message will come together. A graphic designer can then design the images required and the animator uses their skillset to bring these graphics to life by creating movements and transitions. From then, it’s time to develop the animation.

There are a whole range of programs that can be used to develop a 2D animated video, the one most commonly used is Adobe After Effects, which can be used for a variety of videos types, not even just animation. You can use other, basic tools from other programmes such as Premiere Pro to create simple moving items. This wouldn’t be recommended for a high end animation though. Creating models can be done from inside After Effects, but some may like to create each of their models in Photoshop or Illustrator.

Now it’s time to look into how exactly the 2D animation works. The illusion of the models movement is created when singular drawings are sequenced together over time. One second of time is commonly divided into exactly 24 frames. Depending on the style of animation there can be as many as 24 unique drawings in one second of animation, or as it is known, 24fps, or as little as two. Usually, 2D animation is done on “2s” meaning there is a drawing every 2 frames, which would be 12fps.. This allows artists to save on production time and costs, which gives your  2D animation its unique visual style.

The pre-production process includes planning, storyboarding and scripting. The production and post-production is mixed into one stage, where the development and editing of the animation is all in one. Animation is a complicated method of filmmaking and very time consuming. However the results are worth every minute, which is why it is as prevalent today as it ever has been. Good animations are created by experienced motion graphics designers and 2D artists.