Animation is an extremely versatile tool entrepreneurs , business owners and video marketing agencies may often use to get a perfect outcome.

Animations may help someone to communicate the brand message clearly no matter how complex the product or service an animated video explainer is or a whiteboard animation clip may help to convey your unique selling proposition to potential clients.

Not many companies genuinely leverage animations in their campaigns and this is  majorly due to the lack of knowledge and misconception about the animations process.

Animation takes too long to produce. Animations are too expensive and getting animation right is difficult but I don’t have a  knowledge of reality.

Before one begins to animation one needs to research and understand some key pieces of information about one is working in.

What’s the purpose of animation? Are there any basic requirements?

A good animation company  will use this stage to familiarize ourselves with clients’ animations projects, may ask key questions and one might make sure that one is on the same page.

If the animation is an in-house project one’s job is going to be easier but one needs to ask these questions and one might make sure one answers them properly.

Use Squash & stretch to avoid stiff movement.

Squashing and stretching an object as it moves on creates an illusion of reality.

It also creates the illusion of flexibility and life .

It also gives the viewer information about how hard or soft the object is.

If animation is looking too rigid one must try to make the squash and stretch to the movement and observe how it improves things.

1. Add anticipation to the movement –

An object rarely just starts moving forward  there is usually some preparatory movement in the opposite direction.

IF one is thinking of throwing a ball in the opposite direction one might pull the arm back thus thrusting it forward.

Adding anticipation gives the viewer a hint of what to come and prevents the movement from appearing like it’s coming from nowhere.

2. Make Sure All movement has follow through –

Anticipation is about how one might start the movement.

When an object stops it doesn’t usually stop all at once so adding small movement after the main action might create a more realistic look.

3. Add Arc to create natural movement –

Pretty much nothing in this world moves in a straight line while trying to waving our hand or just moving the arm we might notice there is an arc in the movement even if it is subtle movement.

If one feels like your animation is looking off, one might try the path of the movement with some arcs.

4. Ease in and out of your movement-

When an object moves it doesn’t immediately start at a high speed or stay at the same speed the whole time but a lot of bad animations will do just that .

According to the animations principle of slow in slow out all one wants to make sure that all of the movement has a natural acceleration and deceleration .

One might incorporate into the animation by adding more frames at the very beginning of the movement fewer in the middle and more at the end.

5. Use your frame to create intentional timing –

If one is wondering how to animate smoothly pay close attention to the animation principle of timing.

Timing relates to how many frames the action takes and how  intimately those frames are placed together.

By editing the number  of frames one might try to guess the perceived speed, weight and smoothness of an animation.

Generally if one wants to mix timing in an animation to make it feel more interesting and realistic.

6. Make use of secondary action –

Secondary actions are any movement that aren’t essential to the scene , but which is essential to the scene but that which helps to support the main movement and add more dimension to the scene.

If the animation is feeling flat one might try to do some extra action to them.

7. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate your movement –

While animation involves  creating believable movement, what makes a good animations, great is just adding some exaggeration.

Actions that are too subtle could easily be missed by the audience especially when one might want to highlight something or add dramatic effect  and one might try  pushing the animation out of bounds of the  natural movement.

8. Visually highlight the most important element –

Staging is all about directing the audience’s attention toward the most vital elements in a scene.

If one feels it is hard to know the way to focus in the animations one might add little movement or other visual highlights to draw the viewer’s eye.

9. Choose the right strategy for your scene –

There are different techniques for animating frame by frame straight ahead where one starts at the beginning and animate scene by scene and pose to pose  where you animate the beginning and end of the movement and then fill in the gaps to get there.

If one wants to practise choosing which is the best for animation one is doing .

According to a famous animator, straight ahead is  ideal for organic movement like smoke and fire because it makes animation more dynamic and random .

10. Be sure that drawing looks realistic in space –

Solid drawing  is one of the most important  2d animations tips.

It is a reminder that even though one is representing objects in two dimensions they might feel like they are in three dimensional space.

11. The animations should be appealing –

When one is starting to animate it might be easy to get into the technical point. That’s why the final aspect , if one wants to ensure that one is creating something interesting for the audience by adding beauty variety  or even some fun into the work.

Some other small aspects one should keep in mind is study real movement, practise classic  exercises, study animations, copy other animation  and find other software that won’t get in the way.

One might start with GIFs, learn to design with animation, and follow other animators’ work.