The Ultimate Animation Foundations Course
Learn the most important skills in animation.
Learn the fundamentals of 2D animation in a fun an intuitive way. Each class is designed to build your foundational knowledge, step by step, so that you gain the skills you need to tackle your own projects. If you're new to animation or looking for a fresh perspective on classic ideas, this course has you covered.
Learn to think like the great animators
Learn the philosophy behind great motion. This deeper learning will help you make animation that you love. No matter what style of animation you enjoy, these lessons will help you approach even the most challenging project.
Take things at your own pace
You can take your time with the classes or study them intensively. When you enrol you’ll have lifetime access to the course. No subscriptions, no tricks. It’s yours forever to come back to whenever you like. And if you’re not 100% satisfied, get your money back.
What You'll Learn
Animation Basecamp has four main chapters, each with guided exercises, student examples and insightful lectures. Every class will level up your skills and confidence so you can start making your own ideas a reality. There are also bonus chapters that cover software training and let you follow the journey of two example students as they tackle each project.
Chapter 1The best starter exercises.
Build your confidence quickly with a strategic selection of exercises.
The first chapter of Animation Basecamp is dedicated demystifying some of the most important concepts in animation. We do this through simple, hands on projects that make animation’s biggest ideas feel fun and intuitive.
There are 8 guided exercises in this chapter and each one builds your core understanding of animation quickly.
Chapter 2The fundamentals of believable motion.
Now that we’ve learned the basics, we’ll start to take more inspiration from the world around us.
The key to harnessing the power of animation is to create motion that feels believable to our audience. We do this by simplifying natural movements like waves, bounces, swings, and many others, into rules of thumb that we can apply to any situation.
This chapter features 8 new exercises that will ground your motion in reality, making your imaginary worlds feel believable.
Chapter 3Breathe life into your animation.
It’s time to breathe life into our animation.
In this chapter we look at core ideas that help our characters think and feel. Simple additions to our motion have the power to make our characters come to life, and this is really where animation starts to feels like magic.
As we begin to layer more ideas together in this chapter we also explore strategies so that complex ideas don’t feel overwhelming to create.
This chapter guides you through 8 exercises that help you add life and intention to your subjects.
Chapter 4Elevate your animation.
In this final chapter you’ll learn how to take your work from rough sketches to fully coloured animations.
We also practice bringing all of your fundamentals together into a single project. This is where you’ll get to use all the new animation skills you’ve learned throughout Animation Basecamp.
Bonus Material
Showcase Critiques
Follow the journey of two example students on their animation journey as they tackle the same exercises as you. Watch as I critique their work and offer additional tips and tricks for applying the lessons learned in each class to other projects.
FX Animation Starter Pack
In this bonus course you’ll learn to harness the power of FX animation. Discover the secrets of smoke, electricity, liquids and more.
Ready to Learn?
See what students are making:
Throughout Animation Basecamp you’ll create loads of fun animations that build your skills and confidence. Many can be completed in an afternoon but you can spend as long as you like on each project.
I’m so happy to share a very small selection of Basecamp student projects here, so you can see what you’re in store for!
Learn 2D animation today!
When you enrol and you’ll be the proud owner of:
Take the guesswork out of learning animation with an expertly crafted course that builds your animation skills step by step.
25 unique guided exercises to learn and practice your new skills.
A bonus FX animation mini Course
Private Community Access.
Software training.
Over 8 hours of bonus “Showcase Critique” recordings to follow and learn from.
All Future Updates.
Lifetime access:
$199
Your very own Animation School
I’ve been lucky enough to lecture at animation schools around the world, but I’ve always been disappointed that I couldn’t reach more students with the big ideas of animation in a deep-dive course.
After developing a new style of teaching specifically for the internet and attracting hundreds of thousands of students to my classes on YouTube, I thought it might finally be time to create my most ambitious class so far - Animation Basecamp. It’s my idea of the ultimate animation foundations course. A structured, full introductory animation class that is far more accessible than traditional animation school, but also able to go much deeper than normal online classes.
New bonus chapter
When you sign up for Animation Basecamp you’ll also get access to a whole new mini-course call FX Animation Starter Pack. This bonus chapter will teach you to animate smoke, energy and explosions!
Community + Showcase Critiques
In Animation Basecamp you’re never on your own. We have a private community feature where you can chat and each assignment has an active comment section to share your work. There are hundreds of student projects to be inspired by.
Each assignment in Animation Basecamp is also accompanied by a “Showcase Critique” where you can follow two students, Shadi and Robin, as they attempt the same assignment you’re working on. You can watch as I give Shadi and Robin feedback based on the creative hurdles they face each week. It’s the perfect way to cement the concepts we explore and also offers you a chance to learn from the common problems students run into as they’re learning animation. There are over 9 hours of bonus content in this section alone!
What students are saying
Do I need to be able to draw well?
One of the reasons many people find animation intimidating is because they are self-conscious of their drawing ability. My dream is to get anyone into animation, no matter their drawing skill or confidence.
A core idea in Animation Basecamp is that Drawing and Animating are treated as separate skills. If you’re able to draw a line, or a blob, you’ll be able to enjoy every class in the course. That’s because I focus on the fundamental ideas behind motion. Whether you’d like to draw an intricately designed anime mecha or a simple ball, each class can be adapted to your drawing level.
Animation Basecamp is the perfect way to start your animation journey or level up to become a skilled 2D animator
FAQ
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Animation Basecamp is designed for everyone from complete beginner to confident animator wanting to pushing themselves. It could be your first time dabbling with animation or it could help you understand ideas you've studied elsewhere more deeply. Ultimately if you sign up and feel like it isn't a good fit in the first 14 days, shoot me an email (alex@alexgrigg.studio) and I can refund you. So no harm in trying it out :)
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I’ll be using an affordable app called Rough Animator ($6.99) which works across desktop computers and mobile devices. I’ll also include a full tutorial on how to use the app so you won’t feel left behind. But that said, you can use any animation program you like. So long as it has basic drawing, timeline and editing features, you’re good to go. You can see a full tutorial on the basics of Procreate Dreams here, and Adobe Animate here.
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The barrier for entry to animation keeps getting lower and lower, which is awesome. You can complete this class using any computer or mobile device that can run an animation program, but I strongly recommend using a device that has a drawing tablet with pressure sensitivity. This could be a laptop with an external tablet or an iPad with an Apple Pencil.
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This course is designed to be accessible to artists at all skill levels. If you can draw a circle and a line you’ll be able to do this course. If you’re an advanced artist, you can push your projects a little further, but at its heart this course is about creating compelling motion.
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This is a self guided course, so personalised feedback is not part of the curriculum. BUT there is an active community area and comment section where you can share your work. You can also follow along with the showcase critiques and watch as two new students receive in-depth feedback from me. This is super useful as we cover lots of the common hurdles students face when they’re first learning animation.
Bundle & Save!
You can now save 20% by picking up both of my flagship courses, Animation Basecamp and Mastering Procreate Dreams together as part of The iPad Animation School Bundle.
Fancy a free guide?
Do you want to get started in 2D animation but don’t feel ready for Animation Basecamp? You might enjoy Animator’s Starter Pack. This is a free resource designed to give you a head start in your animation study. It includes:
A mini-ebook with my favourite animation exercises to boost your fundamentals.
A cheat sheet of the apps I recommend to new animators.
An educational newsletter with bonus animation ideas.
