Cinematography for 2D Animation Essentials

NOTE: This Course is for Beginners. It covers basic cinematography.

The most common problem with amateur animations is that everything is covered from only one camera angle.

That is because they either don't know other options, or because drawing the different angles of a character can be challenging.

One thing is certain:

Good cinematography pulls the audience into the story.

The objective of having awesome shots in your animation is to MAKE THE AUDIENCE FEEL. How can you call yourself an artist if you're not making your audience feel?

There are basic cinematography concepts ignored by many animators, and that is because in animation, the priority is to make a character come to life, which is the foundation, but once you have that, you need to be able to communicate in another level, a level that makes people happy if you want them to, or sad, or angry, or scared.

Good cinematography can make a dramatic scene even more dramatic, or a strong character look even stronger, or a weak character look weaker.

You can help to create tension between two characters, and also, you can help the audience feel more attached to one character than the other.

This 30 min course will explain the different concepts in cinematography.

• Frame Compositions
• Rule Of Thirds
• Camera Angles
• Blocking Your Characters
• Dialogue Coverage
• Panning and Tilting in 2D
• Camera Movements
• Parallax

And at the end of the course, you will learn how to bring everything together to improve a scene.

You will see 3 versions of it.

1. The amateur version
2. A More sophisticated version, which includes Over The Shoulder Shots
3. The Best version that includes camera movements like push and pull.

This course will help animators improve their shots, making the audience feel something when they see the animation. All thanks to the basic cinematography language that any animator should know.