Dot Escuela

ONLINE ANIMATION || 2DFX || WORKSHOP with Ines Scheiber.

DATE: 11, 12 & 13  July, 2025.

SCHEDULE: (Madrid Time)

Friday. 09:30am to 12:30pm Stop. 12:30pm to 01:00pm 01:00pm to 04:00pm

Saturday.09:30am to 12:30pm Stop. 12:30pm to 01:00pm 01:00pm to 04:00pm

Sunday. 09:30am to 12:30pm Stop. 12:30pm to 01:00pm 01:00pm to 04:00pm

DURATION: 18 hours PRICE: 200€ LANGUAGE: English. Online Plattform: Google Meet.

ONLINE ANIMATION || 2DFX || WORKSHOP with Ines Scheiber.

In this workshop, we'll work on designing and animating 2D effects, focusing on realistic and anime-inspired styles with an emphasis on volume. The goal is to help students who find their effects animations "too cartoony" or "too flat", or character animators who'd like to dip their toes in effects animation, and walk them through a more naturalistic approach of effects drawings and animation. 

But beware! Volumetric design and motion is a highly technical skill and hard to achieve... I recommend this class to the brave, those who are motivated and have prior experience in animation.

We'll cover how to improve draftsmanship for effects in particular, and techniques to describe space and volume through both design and motion.

For 3 days, I'll guide you step by step through an exercise where you'll animate a Pokemon attack of your choice. We'll follow a professional pipeline workflow, as I explain each step and cover relevant theory principles such as perspective, inertia and wave motion.

As an animator often jumping between western production and Japanese anime, I'll brush up on the differences in their pipelines and art styles, and how to accomodate for both.

THE EXERCISE

Choose a Pokemon attack:

 - EASY:  Solar beam, Thunder

 - MEDIUM: Hydro cannon, Flamethrower

 - HARD: Smog (smoke spray)

We're aiming to deliver a full animation from starting to full blast attack, in Tie Down level.

I'll supply the layout so you don't have to waste time drawing the Pokemon or the rest of the scene, so you can focus on the FX. But you're free to adapt the template to your preferred Pokemon!

DAY1 : Introduction to 2D FX and Design

Theory: We'll cover the role of a 2D FX animator, how it differs from character animation and discuss the place of 2D FX within the pipeline. We'll also discuss the wide variety of styles in 2D FX, and their respective traits.

Practice: We'll learn how to define an FX style by searching up and analyzing references, then design a style frame.

DAY2 : Animation principles for Roughs

Theory:  We'll practice how to convey energy and speed, and focus on animation principles for realistic motions, such as air currents, pressure, gravity and the various forces of nature that can influence an effect.  

Practice: We'll animate the start of the attack, then work on a loop of continuous flow and impact on the target.

DAY3 : Secondary motion, Dissipation and Tie Down

Theory:  We'll cover the various ways to enrich an animation to make it feel more natural and chaotic (through adding particles, wind pressure), and how gravity and inertia come into play when dissipating an effect.

Practice: We'll put special care in Tie Down, to push the drawings to satisfying levels of realism and volume, and figure out how to avoid going overboard in details.

SOFTWARES:

You're free to animate in the animation software of your choice.

I can support TVPaint and CSP files, for other softwares I'll need you to export a video file if you want feedback.