If you’re interested in pursuing a career in film or animation, you’ll quickly discover that storyboarding is an essential part of the process. But what exactly is storyboarding? What is a storyboard? Storyboarding is a preproduction tool consisting of a series of images, usually drawings, with descriptions that depict everything intended to happen, moment by moment over the course of a piece of visual media. It’s a tool used to reduce uncertainty in the filmmaking process, making it easier for everyone involved to work towards the same goal. The storyboard is not an end product in and of itse ..read more

The world of animation has come a long way since its early days. Animators of today have access to advanced technology and software tools that make the process easier and more efficient than ever before (learning animation is also easier than ever) However, despite these advancements, there are still certain core concepts that continue to be the foundation of any animation education. These concepts are known as the 12 principles of animation. Developed in the 1930s by animators at Walt Disney studios, the 12 principles of animation were a gradual process of discovery and refinement. As animato ..read more

Storyboarding is one of the most important steps of the creative process for filmmakers, animators, and anyone who's planning any kind of video project. This is why we created the best free storyboard template you can download right now. In this post you'll find 3 unique storyboard templates, each is designed for a different part of the process, or different working styles. Thumbnail Designed for quick sketches, a great way to get your initial ideas down on paper. We included many panels on each page to make it easier to get a feeling for the rhythm of your scene as you work. This templa ..read more

In the 9+ years Bloop Animation has been around, we have always created our own products and courses. Bloop was never meant to be a course marketplace, but rather a boutique learning platform with high-quality premium courses. That meant our rule was – we create and own all of our courses. Today, we break that rule. Today we announce a new course, created by our friends at Story Xperiential in partnership with Pixar Animation Studios. You can guess why we broke our rule for this one (: Story Xperiential was created by a team of former Pixar veterans with the purpose of reaching out to creative ..read more

Before writing this yearly review, I did what I do every time – I read through past reviews. I try to be as honest as I can with my intentions for future plans when I write these reviews, and I think that’s a good thing, but the down side is that they sometimes create an ironic narrative. For example, this year I have finished the first Snowlands graphic novel, but looking back at the yearly reviews shows the many incarnations of this project, starting at 2017 as a futuristic YA graphic novel, which was then discarded in 2018 in favor of writing a feature film, which was then written in 2019 w ..read more

There are a lot more career paths in animation than you might think. While aspiring animators often picture themselves working at one of the big studios, there are other lesser-known options you should know about. This will be important as you start a job hunt, as this could provide ideas for where to look for work–and what kind of work you could be doing. In this post I’ll cover the potential career options you have as an animator. Film / TV The most obvious career path (though not the easiest) is working in movies and TV shows (Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, etc.). Even th ..read more

I wrote Animation for Beginners In 2014, shortly after graduating from SVA. That was the same year I launched a YouTube channel named Bloop Animation, which turned into the Bloop Animation learning platform. The book, until very recently, was sold on the Bloop Animation website only, and was included with the Master and All-Access Packages of our courses. But a lot about that book has now been changed, and I wanted to tell you how and why. The short version is – I’ve republishing the book in a brand new edition which is twice as long, more than twice as awesome, and available for the firs ..read more

When I finished writing the yearly review for 2019, I said “Not sure if 2020 can top that, but here’s to an amazing new year!” It’s amusingly sad reading it now, knowing what a challenging year 2020 turned out being for everyone. It seems like the world has shifted and we all had to adapt in one way or another. The lucky ones only had to deal with transitioning to working from home, while many suffered losses in both livelihood and health. I want to start this yearly review with wishing you, our readers, a much better 2021. I wish you nothing but good health and happiness. So how was 2020 for ..read more

We are releasing a massive update to our After Effects Animation course next Friday (Black Friday). Here are all the details. Why update? Even though our After Effects course was great, I felt like it could use a refresh, and in it try to focus more on the motion graphics aspect of the software, teaching some important After Effects skills such as logo and text animation, as well as take the character animation section to another level, by covering advanced character rigging. What will the new course cover? The new course will cover all the basics. The user interface, project management, layer ..read more

If you’re looking into producing animated content, there’s a wide array of software and techniques to explore. Two popular 2D animation programs - Moho and Adobe Animate CC, have a lot in common, but differ in some key ways. In this post we'll look at the differences so you can determine which better suits your goals or way of working. In other words:  Moho vs. Animate CC. Which one should you use? Contents: Use Cases Learning Curve Art Tools Animation Features Cost How to get started Use Cases Moho The big hook of Moho is it’s ease of use for creating reusable 2D rigs with a tr ..read more