Spark

This lesson introduces the 2.5D Character Animation module, where students will learn how to rig and animate characters inside After Effects. It previews upcoming topics like professional animation analysis, rigging tools, character controls, walk and run cycles, faux 3D techniques, facial animation, and a final character-based portfolio project.

This lesson teaches students how to create animal walk, run, and trot cycles by breaking quadruped movement into clear key poses, timing, interpolation, cleanup, and secondary action. Students then practice applying these workflows to provided animal rigs while learning how to use reference footage to understand different creature movements.

This lesson teaches students how the 12 animation principles apply specifically to 2.5D character animation, helping characters feel believable, expressive, and full of weight. Students then practice principles like squash and stretch, anticipation, staging, arcs, timing, secondary action, exaggeration, and appeal using a simple provided character rig.

This lesson teaches students how to create the illusion of 3D movement using 2D artwork, starting with simple objects like bottles, paper airplanes, and rockets before moving into character faces. Students then learn how tools like Joysticks n’ Sliders can make faux 3D face rigs easier to control, helping characters look around, blink, emote, and feel more dimensional.

This lesson introduces character rigging systems in After Effects, showing how tools like parenting, the Puppet Tool, DUIK, RubberHose, and DeeKay Tool can make complex character animation much easier to control. Students learn the strengths of each rigging workflow and practice building functional character rigs they can use in future animation projects.

This lesson teaches students how facial expressions work and how simple changes to eyebrows, eyes, mouth shapes, and body language can communicate clear emotions. Students then build on their faux 3D face rigging skills by creating facial controls and animating the eight major expressions on the provided Hugo character rig.

This lesson breaks down the full process of creating a believable walk cycle, from contact poses and transfer poses to timing, interpolation, cleanup, secondary action, 2.5D details, and forward translation. Students then practice building their own walk cycle using the provided rig and key pose references, with optional Duik rig challenges for extra practice.

This lesson wraps up the 2.5D Character Animation module by showing students how to connect face controls into a full-body character rig for easier animation. Students then create a 6–10 second portfolio piece featuring a walk or run, a clear emotional change, facial expressions, and simple story-driven action.

This lesson builds on walk cycles by teaching students how to create a believable run cycle using contact, transfer, kickoff, and up poses. Students learn how to adjust timing, curves, cleanup, secondary action, 2.5D details, and translation so their character feels fast, powerful, and full of momentum.

This lesson introduces the 2.5D Pipeline module, where students learn how to take an animation project from idea to final export using a professional production workflow. It previews each stage of the process, including briefs, scripts, storyboards, styleframes, sound, asset creation, character setup, animation, post-production, and final delivery.

This lesson teaches students how to turn their storyboard and styleframes into organized graphic assets that are ready for animation. It covers planning what needs to be built, designing assets in Photoshop or Illustrator, organizing scenes and layers, and preparing everything with the animation process in mind.

This lesson teaches students how to read and break down a creative brief so they can clearly understand deliverables, style references, timelines, output specs, and missing information before starting production. Students then choose a provided brief, extract the key details with a checklist, and set up an organized project structure for the rest of the pipeline.

This lesson teaches students how to create, prep, and organize character assets for 2.5D animation projects. It covers planning character needs, setting up body parts for rigging, using Photoshop or Illustrator, importing characters into After Effects, and deciding whether to design, reference, purchase, or hire out character artwork.

This lesson teaches students how to turn a creative brief into a clear 30 or 60-second animation script using structure, word count, and concise messaging. It walks through hooks, perspective shifts, pitches, proof, summaries, and calls-to-action so students can write scripts that are short, engaging, and animation-friendly.

This lesson guides students through the main animation phase of the 2.5D pipeline, where all previous skills—motion, transitions, typography, rigging, faux 3D, and facial animation—come together in a longer-form project. It also shows how to study real project examples, keep scenes moving, set up the After Effects template, import assets and audio, time everything to the voiceover, and begin building the full animated sequence.

This lesson teaches students how to turn their script into a clear storyboard that acts as the blueprint for the entire animation. It walks through using a storyboard template, adding voiceover, sketching thumbnails, describing action, cleaning up panels, and exporting the finished boards as a PDF.

This lesson walks students through the post-production process for finishing their 2.5D animation, including post-effects, pre-rendering, sound design, quality control, rendering, and export. It shows how to polish the final piece, catch mistakes, mix audio, choose the right format, and prepare the animation for delivery or portfolio use.

This lesson teaches students how to create styleframes that prove the visual look of an animation before full production begins. It covers choosing a style, finding inspiration, solving technical design challenges, and creating two polished frame options based on a storyboard panel.

This lesson gives students guidance on how to keep building their 2.5D animation portfolio after completing their first full pipeline project. It explores different portfolio directions like marketing videos, narrative shorts, show openers, title packages, maps, infographics, logo animations, and raw skill pieces so students can choose the path that fits their goals.

This lesson introduces Adobe Audition and shows students how to record, edit, mix, and export audio for their animation projects. It covers voiceover, dialogue, music, sound effects, basic audio settings, track editing, and exporting a clean WAV file to use in the production pipeline.

This lesson introduces the Advanced 2.5D Animation module, where students build on the full production pipeline with more complex freelance-focused skills and marketing strategy. It previews advanced topics like targeted scripts, stronger storyboards, concept development, sound design, complex scenery, expressive characters, acting, dialogue, facial animation, and final delivery.

This lesson takes students deeper into Adobe Audition by exploring more advanced tools for cleaning, shaping, mixing, and retiming audio. It covers dialogue editing, soundtrack cutting, sound effects, Essential Sound tags, noise reduction, EQ, pitch and tempo changes, and recording a polished scratch voiceover for the animation project.

This lesson introduces key marketing concepts that freelance animators should understand because much of their paid work supports a client’s larger business goals. It covers the marketing funnel, audience targeting, buyer personas, B2B vs. B2C messaging, video marketing, and how metrics, KPIs, and ROI help determine whether an animation is successful.

This lesson teaches students how to create more complex scene assets with depth, detail, and animation in mind. It covers planning scenery, using layered Photoshop assets, experimenting with 2.5D multiplane setups, studying real project examples, and preparing environments that feel more dynamic than simple flat backgrounds.

This lesson teaches students how to study a creative brief from a freelance animator’s perspective, focusing on what information is provided, what questions still need to be asked, and how the project fits the client’s goals. Students then choose or create a brief, use the freelancer brief analysis checklist to extract key details, and set up the foundation for their advanced 2.5D animation project.

This lesson teaches students how to build more capable 2.5D characters for advanced animation projects, especially when characters need multiple perspectives, stronger body controls, and more expressive facial movement. It covers preparing character assets in Photoshop or Illustrator, planning anchor points with structure rigs, importing layers into After Effects, using tools like DUIK, Joysticks n’ Sliders, and Overlord, and studying fully rigged character examples.

This lesson teaches students how to write a more targeted, audience-focused script that connects the creative brief to the marketing funnel. It builds on the previous scriptwriting structure by adding audience needs, messaging, tone, buyer journey awareness, and longer 90–120 second formats for more advanced freelance projects.

This lesson teaches students how to make 2.5D characters speak by using phonemes, visemes, Adobe Animate lip-sync tools, and manual mouth-shape timing. It also shows how to bring that lip sync back into After Effects and build a stronger character performance using facial animation, body motion, timing, and dialogue.

This lesson encourages students to push beyond familiar styles and use styleframes as a way to prove whether a visual idea or animation concept can actually work. It focuses on creative exploration, asking “what if,” finding inspiration, and experimenting with new approaches before committing to a full animated sequence.

This lesson walks students through the final post-production and output process for an advanced 2.5D animation project, with added context for freelance delivery. It covers post-effects, pre-rendering, sound design, quality control, export formats, client review stages, and planning final deliverables for different distribution platforms.

This lesson teaches students how to turn a finished script into a polished, client-ready storyboard that clearly communicates the visual plan for an animation. It covers thumbnail sketching, refining panels, adding action notes, exporting boards as a PDF, creating optional animatics, and developing styleframes to prove the final look before production begins.

This lesson guides students on how to keep building a strong freelance 2.5D animation portfolio after completing the advanced pipeline. It explores portfolio directions like marketing videos, title packages, maps, infographics, logos, raw skill pieces, and next steps like building a demo reel or moving into the Freelancer Toolkit.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the Fundamental Character Animation module, where they’ll shift from animating objects to bringing character rigs to life. They’ll learn rig controls, posing, blocking, walk cycles, run cycles, personality, and polish so they can build stronger character animation skills in Blender.

In this lesson, students learn how to build a lower body walk cycle by focusing on contact poses, transfer poses, timing, hip movement, foot placement, and clean looping mechanics. They’ll refine the walk in the Graph Editor with details like foot slap, leg swing, hip sway, and subtle offsets so the character’s movement feels more natural and believable.

In this lesson, students get reacquainted with character rigs and explore how different rigs are used throughout The Animation Society curriculum. They’ll review Blender Studio rigs, learn about the TAS character lineup, and begin working with the customizable Poly twins as their main rigs for posing, walk cycles, run cycles, and portfolio practice.

In this lesson, students build on the lower body walk cycle by animating the arms, torso, head, and full-body weight shifts to create a complete character walk. They’ll refine arcs, offsets, follow-through, looping, timing, and forward translation so the walk feels balanced, natural, and ready to use in more complex character animation.

In this lesson, students learn how strong character poses start with clear silhouettes that communicate action, balance, personality, and appeal from the camera’s point of view. They’ll create multiple poses with the Poly rigs, refine them through a silhouette view.

In this lesson, students learn how to create a run cycle by building the key poses that make running different from walking, including contact, kickoff, transfer, and up poses. They’ll refine the torso, hands, head, ponytail, looping, NLA setup, and forward translation so the run feels energetic, balanced, and believable.

In this lesson, students learn how blocking helps them plan character animation by laying out key poses, breakdowns, timing, and camera framing before refining the final motion. They’ll practice using stepped keyframes to rough out action scenes so they can experiment with ideas, solve timing issues early, and build a stronger animation foundation.

In this lesson, students learn how to add personality and polish to walk and run cycles so character movement feels more unique, expressive, and story-driven. They’ll explore reference, exaggeration, cycle reuse, animation copying, and NLA layering to turn basic locomotion into portfolio-worthy character performance.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the Advanced Body Mechanics module, where they’ll deepen their character animation skills by applying the animation principles to more complex body movement. They’ll work with new character rigs, explore reference, posing, timing, staging, secondary action, exaggeration, appeal, and dynamic camera movement, then apply those skills to a portfolio-focused body mechanics project.

In this lesson, students learn how timing can completely change the perceived scale and weight of a character’s movement. They’ll animate a Godzilla-style character moving through a city, using slower timing, keyframe adjustments, camera shake, and Graph Editor cleanup to make the character feel massive and powerful.

In this lesson, students learn why reference material is essential for creating believable and appealing character animation. They’ll explore how video references help with posing, timing, weight, arcs, secondary action, and personality, while also learning how to create their own timecoded reference footage for future animation work.

In this lesson, students learn how exaggeration can push character animation beyond realism to make emotions, reactions, and poses feel more entertaining and expressive. They’ll animate a full-body “eeek!” reaction using reference, strong key poses, timing, Graph Editor cleanup, and pushed rig poses to create a more cartoony and memorable performance.

In this lesson, students learn how arcs improve character animation by following the natural curved paths created by the body’s joints and range of motion. They’ll use the Quinn rig, reference footage, onion skinning, and the Graph Editor to animate a yoga sequence with smoother, more believable body movement.

In this lesson, students learn when to use pose-to-pose animation versus straight-ahead action for more complex character movement. They’ll animate a martial arts sequence with the Aldo rig, using blocking, speed ramps, slow motion, Graph Editor cleanup, and even faux motion blur to create a more dynamic action performance.

In this lesson, students learn how anticipation helps prepare the audience for a character’s next action by showing a build-up of energy before the movement happens. They’ll animate Bruno sitting, standing, stretching, and sitting back down while using reference, breakdown poses, and Graph Editor cleanup to make the performance feel more believable and expressive.

In this lesson, students learn how appeal helps make animation more interesting, expressive, and memorable, even when the scene itself is simple. They’ll animate a bus stop scenario using reference, creative character choices, blocking, breakdowns, and Graph Editor cleanup to turn an ordinary moment into a more engaging performance.

In this lesson, students learn how slow-in and slow-out helps character animation feel more realistic by showing acceleration, deceleration, and the buildup and release of momentum. They’ll animate a forward jump using reference, key poses, breakdowns, and Graph Editor cleanup so the character’s takeoff and landing feel believable and controlled.

In this lesson, students learn how staging guides the viewer’s attention by controlling where characters, objects, action, and cameras are placed within a scene. They’ll practice both framing scenes with camera shots and arranging characters or scenery inside existing shots so each moment is clear, readable, and visually engaging.

In this lesson, students learn how squash and stretch can make character animation feel more organic, flexible, and visually expressive. They’ll animate a sneaky burglar performance using the Manny rig, pushing poses and maintaining volume to create motion that feels dynamic, playful, and full of personality.

In this lesson, students learn how to treat the camera as part of the performance, using lens choices, framing, depth of field, shot types, and movement to strengthen their animation. They’ll revisit work from the module and rework the camera to improve staging, focus, and overall portfolio presentation.

In this lesson, students learn how follow-through and overlapping action help character movement feel heavier, more forceful, and more believable. They’ll animate a boxing performance with the Quinn rig, using reference, blocking, curve cleanup, and delayed body motion to show how different parts of the body lead, drag, and react during a punch.

In this final portfolio project, students bring together everything they’ve learned in Advanced Body Mechanics by animating a short parkour sequence through an obstacle course. They’ll use character rigs, reference, staging, camera choices, and key animation principles like arcs, anticipation, timing, squash and stretch, follow-through, and appeal to create a dynamic piece for their portfolio.

In this lesson, students learn how secondary action adds personality, detail, and emotional context to a character’s main movement. They’ll animate a heavy lift performance, focusing first on believable body mechanics and then adding supporting actions that reveal the character’s effort, attitude, and thought process.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the Character Acting module, where they’ll move beyond body mechanics and start bringing characters to life through emotion, facial animation, dialogue, lip sync, and interaction. They’ll also get set up with the advanced Mindy and Jack rigs, which will be used throughout the module to create stronger acting-focused portfolio pieces.

In this lesson, students learn how facial animation brings character performances to life by combining eyebrows, eyes, mouth shapes, eye darts, blinks, timing, and subtle expression changes. They’ll practice creating emotional facial poses with the Mindy rig, transitioning between expressions, and building their own pose presets for future acting scenes.

In this lesson, students learn how acting and subtext help characters feel like they are thinking, feeling, and communicating beyond just their physical movement. They’ll explore motivation, observation, body language, gestures, posture, personality traits, and facial expression so they can create more believable and emotionally engaging character performances.

In this lesson, students learn the fundamentals of dialogue and lip-sync by using phonemes, visemes, and mouth-shape timing to make a character appear to speak naturally. They’ll use the Mindy rig’s pose library, a short dialogue clip, and facial animation tools in Blender to create a 5–10 second lip-sync performance.

In this lesson, students learn how moving holds keep characters feeling alive during pauses, quiet moments, or poses that are held for several frames. They’ll explore simple techniques like blinking, breathing, eye darts, subtle facial movement, weight shifts, and small body details that add life without distracting from the scene.

In this lesson, students bring together body mechanics, acting, subtext, facial animation, dialogue, and lip-sync to create a complete character acting scene. They’ll use an audio clip, reference footage, blocking, facial expressions, Graph Editor cleanup, and either the Jack or Mindy rig to build a polished acting performance for their portfolio.

In this lesson, students learn how to create a dialogue-driven pantomime performance by using body language, gestures, and timing to communicate emotion without relying on mouth animation. They’ll choose or record an audio clip, film reference, import audio into Blender, and animate a performance that focuses on strong poses, expressive movement, and optional facial controls.

In this final portfolio project, students bring together everything they’ve learned in the Character Acting module by animating a two-character performance with dialogue, props, facial animation, and believable interaction. They’ll plan the scene, animate each character individually, refine timing and expressions, and create a polished acting piece that can serve as a strong portfolio showcase.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the Creature Animation module, where they’ll learn how to animate quadrupeds and winged creatures through research, reference, rig controls, walk cycles, run cycles, and flight mechanics. They’ll also download and customize the new creature rigs they’ll use to build a complex portfolio-ready creature animation.

In this lesson, students learn how to create a quadruped run cycle using the Milo rig by breaking fast four-legged motion into key poses, contact timing, midair movement, compression, and push-off. They’ll refine the loop with offsets, secondary details, Graph Editor cleanup, and forward translation so the creature feels like it is running with speed, weight, and believable momentum.

In this lesson, students learn how research and reference help bring creature animation to life by studying anatomy, behavior, instincts, intelligence, size, secondary motion, and movement patterns. They’ll begin shifting from human body mechanics to quadruped and creature performance, using observation to understand how different animals move, react, and express personality.

In this lesson, students study the fundamentals of flight so they can animate winged creatures with more believable movement, weight, and lift. They’ll explore aviation forces, wing shapes, flight cycles, wing motion, and the Chim rig before creating their own flying creature animation using blocking, timing, Graph Editor cleanup, body motion, and secondary details.

In this lesson, students get familiar with the Milo and Falkor quadruped rigs and learn how their controls differ from the humanoid rigs used earlier in the curriculum. They’ll explore posing, rig pickers, four-legged ground contact, and winged creature controls so they’re ready to begin animating quadruped movement in the next lesson.

In this final portfolio project, students bring together everything they’ve learned in Creature Animation by creating an 8–12 second creature performance using either the Milo or Falkor rig. They’ll plan a scene with strong reference, animal behavior, walk/run or flight mechanics, polishing, and rendering to create a final portfolio piece that showcases emotion, drama, appeal, and advanced creature animation skills.

In this lesson, students learn how to create a quadruped walk cycle using the Milo rig by breaking animal movement into predictable key poses, timing patterns, offsets, and details. They’ll build a looping walk, refine it in the Graph Editor, add secondary motion like head, ear, jaw, and tail movement, and optionally use the NLA Editor to combine it with other actions.