Learn 2D Animation in Blender

If you want to learn how to create simple 2D animations with Blender, then this tutorial is for you. We'll cover the basics of Blender animation and then work on creating a simple 2D bouncing ball animation using Blender's Grease Pencil.

All you'll need to follow along is the Blender app, which is free to download.

Download Blender

Let's get started in Blender by creating a new document. Go to File > New > 2D Animation, which will bring up a new screen that looks like this:

Watch the video to see some of the basic navigation tools in action. For example, you can use the buttons on the right of the screen to zoom in and out, move the canvas, and switch in and out of camera view. And at the top of the left toolbar, you can see the Draw Tool is highlighted in blue, which means that it's active, so we can draw on the canvas to start creating our 2D animation.

Here's one more important navigation item to consider. In the top left, you can see a dropdown menu showing various modes we can use.

In this tutorial, we'll mostly be using three modes:

1. Draw Mode to draw our 2D animation
2. Object Mode to position, rotate, and scale it
3. Edit Mode to change the geometry

The Grease Pencil is the main tool we'll be using in Blender to create our 2D animation. To select it, we have to go to Object Mode first. Then choose the Add dropdown at the top, and choose Grease Pencil. This gives us several options, as you can see below.

For this tutorial, we'll choose Blank.

Now let's switch to Draw Mode, where you'll see the following useful tools and settings:

Now that you're familiar with the drawing tools in Blender, let's get started on our project. Drawing the ball is as simple as selecting the Circle Tool from the left toolbar and clicking and dragging. Hold the Shift key to create a perfect circle.

Next, add a smaller circle to represent the shininess of the ball. Switch over to Edit Mode and Rotate the circle as shown below.

Although you'll see a Fill Tool that looks a lot like the one in Photoshop and other programs, the process for adding colour in Blender involves a couple of extra steps:

1. Click on Material Properties in the bottom right.
2. Add a New Material and give it a descriptive name.
3. Choose Fill and select the colour.
4. Add a New Layer in the Scene Collection at the top right.
5. Go to the Draw menu at the top left and select Draw > Active Layer > New Layer.
6. Choose the Fill Tool from the left toolbar and click where you want to add colour—in this case, on the ball.

Follow those steps, both for the main ball and the smaller "shine" spot, and you should end up with this:

Now, we need to add the floor. This involves the same tools and techniques for drawing and colouring that we've used before, so why not try doing it on your own? If you need help, just check the video to get the full step-by-step instructions.

Here's what you should end up with:

Now that everything is set up, we're going to draw a movement guide for our ball to show how we want it to be animated.

Start by moving your ball into the correct position. So switch to Object Mode and use the Move Tool to move the ball to the top left of the scene.

Next, create a new Grease Pencil Object by going to Add > Grease Pencil > Blank. Call this one "Movement Guide".

Now we can go back to Draw Mode, select the Pencil Tool, and draw a line showing how the ball will bounce across the floor. Here's mine:

Now, it's finally time to start animating the ball! To do this, we'll switch to Edit Mode. Select the Ball object in the Scene Collection at the top right, and turn your attention to the timeline along the bottom of the screen.

You'll see that you already have some keyframes at frame 1—there should be three, representing the ball strokes, the ball fill, and the highlight. Drag over them to select them, and they'll turn yellow.

Now press Shift-D to duplicate those keyframes, and drag the duplicates to frame 10. Repeat the process to add keyframes at frames 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60.

Now we need to move our ball to show how it moves along the movement guide we created earlier. So switch to Object Mode and use the Move Tool to move the ball to the positions shown below for the various keyframes you've created:

The resulting animation will be quite rough. To make it smoother, add new keyframes every 5 frames, and move the ball so that it corresponds to your movement guide.

And your animation is done! If you need to, you can always make finer adjustments to the animation by dragging the keyframes on the timeline, and you can change the colour by following the same steps as we went through earlier in this tutorial.

Learn more about 2D animation in Blender in these free YouTube courses:

Or check out some of the free animation tutorials on Envato Tuts+:

• 

  How to Make 2D Animation in Blender With Draw Mode and Grease Pencil

  

  Jonathan Lam

  23 Nov 2022
• 

  How to Animate a Dancing Character With ActorCore and Blender for Free

  

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  27 May 2022
• 

  HDR Image Based Lighting in Blender in 60 Seconds

  

  Karan Shah

  13 Feb 2019
• 

  Create Clothing for a Character With Blender

  

  Sandy Gerber

  01 Nov 2016
• 

  Single-Point Tracking in Blender

  

  Uriel Deveaud

  03 Aug 2015
• 

  2 Points Tracking in Blender

  

  Uriel Deveaud

  10 Dec 2015