Simple 2D Idle Animation for your Character | Handdrawn | Beginner 2D Game Art

An overview of how idle animations tend to look in platformers and why. The video will also cover my process for animating two idle animations in procreate and the choices I make.
00:00 Posing Your Character
02:58 How much movement should you have?
04:55 How should your animation look?
07:12 Animating the Mushroom Character
13:03 Animating our Demon Character

[@ISuperI]

Another usage of the idle animation I think is to serve as a complement of the health of the character. For example, in Yoshi's Story, you start with Yoshi being pretty optimistic, walking and singing, and as his happiness (aka health) gets lower the happy attitude starts to fade and he takes a breath like he's about to have a anxiety crisis (each time harder), until he reaches a point where he seems very tired, then he eats fruit (recover health) and gets happy again.

[@FullMoonGame]

One trick I like to use in idle animations is to offset little movements by a few frames. This makes it less obvious to pinpoint when the animation starts looping again

[@Nonsensical2D]

I'll look into testing it, I felt a bit that it was switching back and forth too quickly, but just repeating frames was super obvious and looked horrible :)

[@adar9236]

this is super useful! I've been struggling with my own game's idle animation for a bit now, so thanks a ton for this video.

[@VARIGONSTUDIOS]

I love the in-depth animation breakdown. I went to school for 2D and 3D animation but I never thought about some of the points you highlighted. I'll be revisiting my games animations, thanks for the help! +1 sub.

[@mandyrivers71]

The best idle animation video I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing. Excellent work, and your explanations are very useful.

[@madeirander]

Dude, your channel is a gem and extremely handy for someone starting 2d game art like me, thanks a bunch!

[@Fareons]

I love the topics you pick; you highlight stuff I didn’t know I was important until you talked about it. Great quality too; I hope you keep making these as fast as you’ve been doing!

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks, I appreciate it a lot. I've been trying to throw in easier videos in between more difficult ones, so the topics will jump a bit but it helps me make videos more often than once a month :)

[@chattychatotchannel]

Your stuff is so helpful and informative you’re a lifesaver

[@1upIndie]

Really impressive videos on game design and animation. Your channel is top quality (I already recommended it on mine). Keep it up the outstanding work.

[@Nonsensical2D]

Thanks, I appreciate it :) I'm going to have to check your content out :)

[@vcdgamer]

When it came to animting my game characters, I borrowed a trick from Iconoclasts and invented my own method. For the player character and friendly npcs, I make their idle animation a bit bouncy depending in their mood, which is usually, happy. But for certain enemies and monsters, I give them just one static pose. This is where I apply this trick to make all characters and monsters feel alive in the world I created... For the monsters, I simply drew that exact same pose over and over for 8 frames. Using the imperfect tracing method to my advantage, the enemies still feels different from the rest while feeling pretty much alive in the game world. Next, when it comes to all my animations, I try to keep everything capped at 8 frames, then run it at 8-16 frames per second. The only exceptions are certain animations that aren't a cycle of any kind. This method however had a pro and con... The pro is, I manage to get away with creating lively characters that never feel stiff despite sticking to only one pose or two. The con however, is that I have to draw each frame over and over which usually makes my animation process last up to an hour per animation. What makes it sadder is that people like that kind of animation style since it helped make the game a bit unique. Plus I have to keep the consistency going in all my characters (except maybe machines) or else it would seem off.😅

[@Nonsensical2D]

I think one hour per animation seems like a really good tradeoff though! I think animations tend to take a lot of time for everyone, plus having a unique style can often be a really good selling point in and out of itself :)

[@ericblakenburg5380]

New video: instant watch 🥳

[@Nonsensical2D]

I appreciate it :)

[@ghostlabgames]

I appreciate your detailed explanations and thought process. I find them incredibly helpful as I overthink animation and tend to feel like I am missing something. I think the 2d animation to functional game asset is a sorely underserved area for indie game devs. I'd love to know if you have some super secret resources that I could investigate. :D

[@Nonsensical2D]

Hmm, when it comes to animation I have personally mostly looked at "the illusion of life", "the animator's survival kit" and then "Game Anim", so books on the topic, then there are aspects of it that I feel personally comes down to looking at what tends to work and figuring out how you can learn from it, I'm still struggling with it myself :)

[@hashygaming5269]

Hii you deserve million subs man. Learned a lot from this tutorial. I have one request please make birds, airoplanes and sea 2d environments content.

[@ScarRstudio]

guys, he's smiling!

[@vcdgamer]

You saw it too eh?😅

[@PHOBOS1530]

Wow, you've been uploading a lot lately

[@Nonsensical2D]

Ye, it's a mix of having more time due to the holidays and slowly improving the speed at which I work, Hopefully I can keep it up :)

[@smallvaly2745]

Hey nonsensical2D , did u made a game with Ur caracter in it , bcause Id like to play it , thanks.

[@Nonsensical2D]

I don't have anything released yet, the character is being used for a project, but it is still in quite an early state.

[@li3911]

Is it possible to learn how to draw perfectly on a regular xp pen deco 01 graphic tablet?

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

is it ever possible to learn how to draw perfectly?

[@vcdgamer]

I'll say yes. I use an XP- Pen Deco mini 7, that pretty much has no screen. And I had to practice for up to 3 months before I really got to polish my animation skills. And it's still being polished to this day. It ultimately boils down to constant practice. Even if it's with stick figures. :-)

[@vcdgamer]

Dpends on the level of perfection in a certain category of art or animation. Even though, no art is ever truly perfect. Just some that are close to perfection.😅

[@Nonsensical2D]

Ye I think most tablets nowadays are quite good, I do animation on my computer using a huion tablet and as far as I know xp pen make similarly good tablets. the rest of it will just be practicing drawing, but I don't think the tablet should hold you back.

[@HoneySidhu-tv7rm]

2:20 look at old man's underwear falling

[@greguar86]

its super strange for me that there is no idle animation in Animators Survival Kit. its usually neglected in animation course, but it seems like the most important animation for a game besides walk cycle

[@Nonsensical2D]

I do agree that it is quite important, I think one reason it is sometimes neglected is that some animation errors in your jump/attack/run animation can affect gameplay a lot. Like if you have a floaty jump in your game, but the animation doesn't match it very well, then your game runs the risk of feeling bad to play. It feels like a portion of some animations are about setting the correct expectation for how the character will feel to play. But it should definitely be included :)

[@leventesoos4622]

what is your program name you are using to draw?

[@Nonsensical2D]

Its procreate on the ipad

[@Agony.]

How do I get in to game dev?

[@Nonsensical2D]

I would say the easiest way to start is probably to download either Godot or Unity (since it is free) and follow a tutorialmaker on youtube that does some game genre you like. You can download some free art assets to get going and play around a bit. If you like it then you go from there.

[@wagdynavas6337]

Are you a game designer or it is just a hobby for you?

[@Nonsensical2D]

I have an education in STEM, but I try to keep my channel more focused on game art and not game design or programming.

[@Gatitasecsii]

Oh so ghostsong is another silksong clone... In your other video you were talking about it while showing your own game.

[@d00mnoodle24]

?????? You hk fans are clueless, if you actually played ghostsong you'd see that it's way more metroid than it is HK, also there's big differences between the artstyles, check nonsensical 2D's video on it and you'll see

[@agentr5178]

your character look like balls