This is probably a question that comes up a lot, so here’s a fucking article about it. You’re welcome.
My answer is no, not really. But it helps. A shittone.
A good grasp of the art fundamentals gives you a massive head start if you are just starting out with animation. Already having the habitual skills of line confidence and construction allows you to focus on the other many things that matter.
There isn’t any timing involved when you are making a still illustration. But in animation, you have to consider anticipation, squash and stretch, arcs, and many other principles simultaneously to create the illusion of movement – on top of drawing the actual frames. Animating is already hard as is, so why not make it easier for yourself?
It’s sort of like having the foundations to build the house, without the foundation there are no bricks… yadadada you’ve heard this shitty metaphor before and it definitely applies here.

But learning animation by learning art first with a step by step checklist approach is boring. You could progress fast as hell but it’s almost a guaranteed way to leave you in a blazing ultimateshitdeathpit of burnout. There isn’t a defined point in your art journey that makes you ‘good enough’ to start animating, and there is no point in grinding away at perspective drills if they bottleneck your incentive to illustrate.

I started out in the 7th grade with no animation knowledge whatsoever, but with a raging desire to make music videos of edgy ass MCR songs and a very very very legal copy of Macromedia. My first full length animation was an absolute masterpiece with disproportionately drawn birds, inconsistent shading, and lazy backgrounds. If I only started today, I would be much too critical to even begin a project. I wouldn’t be able to recreate such a work of art without the blind, ignorant passion from 2015. Your first project will always be a mess, but that’s the fun of it.
If you haven’t started animating yet because you’re questioning your abilities, then I say jump the gun and do it regardless. Try to animate the things you love – and if you’re finding something difficult to draw, there’s no harm in taking a few steps back to practice them again. It’s a back and forth adventure, and you’ll naturally learn more as long as you keep practising and searching for ways to improve.
p.s. don’t delete whatever you make at the start because i fucking bet your ass you will regret it
This article really gave me the motivation I need to start making animations, I have been following your work for a few weeks and I really admire what you do, I hope one day I can pay you a tribute when I have more experience in the field of animation
Really glad to hear that my words are of useful value hahah.. didn’t actually expect anyone to find this page! I hope you give it a shot and just enjoy the process, it’s difficult but very much worth it :] Have fun!
holy fuck holy fuck shitttttt
gosh o’ golly thank you so much for this Hat. cause of this post I FINALLY found the femtwink of my dreams and he’s coming over RIGHT NOW to watch me animate a epic derp romantic animation meme of us both making love❤️❤️❤️gos bless
youre welcome stinky ass mf
Do you guys know what this means? This is actual solid proof that animation is a totally viable way to get POTENTIAL PARTNERS. YOU SHOULD ANIMATE, NOW!!
Thank you for these, I doubt I would animate anytime soon but your writing stuff is actually genuinely entertaining and I am ONE BORED KID. Its really nice and interesting to hear your thoughts and advice or whatever on whatever subject. Especially the stuff your most passionate about.
May I request something regarding either composition or character design? I don’t really have any specifics but maybe something something on how you approach it and your process on refining or finding it.
Wow it feels weird to use PiratePhase again instead of literal pissbucket
Aight im about to litter your comment section with embarassing ‘humor’ because I am incapable of thinking before sending. Literalsite Bucket spam starts today
lets go you pussy
the “do not delete what you make at the start” bit is so true. for some reason when i was younger i deleted my childhood scratch account. there was so much stuff on it, and all of it is just, gone. i feel so fucking stupid and would definitely beat the shit out of younger me in an attempt to stop it from happening.
This started to give me a head start on animation sure its going to be hell going through but I’m a do it anyways just wing it. Don’t know what else to put besides your cool 🙂