How to Make Animated Clips Like a Pro (Even for Beginners)
The process of creating animated videos, no matter how small the ones, is quite terrifying for beginners to the whole thing. Nonetheless, if the right mindset, tools, and techniques are there, the result would be no less than professional in every way. This manual will walk you through a comprehensive process for making animated short films from nothing, including storyboarding, different animation techniques, sound design, and even how modern animation studios are utilizing AI (Artificial Intelligence) animation tools for workflow mixing.
If you’re a beginner animator or content creator, this guide helps you build confidence in crafting short animations that capture attention.
“When structure carries the vision, creativity can soar unburdened.”
This kind of internal note helps teams stay focused: set structure first (story, layout, timing), then let creativity flow in the details. Use it in your own planning sessions as a reminder to respect the process.
1. Planning & Storyboarding: The Blueprint for Your Clip
Before you ever animate a single frame, planning is essential. A strong foundation makes the rest of the work far smoother.
Define Your Purpose and Duration
Decide what the clip is for (social media, explainer, teaser) and how long it should be. Short animations, 10 to 60 seconds, are easier to produce and share. Knowing your goal early keeps you from overreaching.
Craft a Simple Script or Outline
Determine key beats: what happens first, what the emotional or informational arc is, and how it ends. In short clips, clarity is more important than complexity.
Storyboard Key Frames
Sketch out your visual beats, key poses, transitions, and camera moves. The storyboard acts as a roadmap for timing and visual flow. Label each frame with approximate timing and notes about movement, transitions, or expression.
Timing & Pacing
Decide how long each shot runs. Use rough numbers (2s, 1.5s, etc.) and leave space for flexibility. Good pacing ensures no scene drags or feels rushed.
A well-done storyboard is the single best investment you can make early on. It saves countless hours of rework later.
“Let the system handle the routine steps, let the artist shape the heart.”
This internal guideline encapsulates a hybrid mindset: use tools and automation for repetitive work, but keep creative decisions firmly in human hands. You can embed it in team training or production philosophy.
2. Choosing Your Tools: Manual, Hybrid, or AI Animation
Once your plan is in place, you need tools. Beginners have many options, from fully manual to AI-assisted workflows.
Manual & Traditional Options
These tools provide you with the highest level of control and, at the same time, teach you the basic principles:
- Pencil2D: an open-source and very friendly software for the creation of 2D frame-by-frame animations.
- Blender: a very powerful and free software that can work with both 2D and 3D animation workflows.
- Toon Boom Harmony: the 2D software with the highest market share, supporting rigging and cut-out workflows.
Hybrid & AI Animation Assistants
These help speed certain parts of the process, especially for beginners or small teams:
- Runway: good for generating quick animated visuals and interpolation.
- DeepMotion, style transfer AI, or motion interpolation tools can fill in the in-betweens or assist with lip sync.
These hybrid tools let you focus on layout, timing, and emotional impact while offloading repetitive or tedious tasks.
What Studios Use
Even full animation studios adopt hybrid approaches. For example, Just Animations markets “AI animation” as part of its service offering alongside traditional animation.
They’ll often use AI features for in-betweening, clean-up, or consistency checks, but human animators refine, polish, and ensure emotional coherence.
3. Creating & Animating Assets
Now the work begins: building the visual elements and animating them.
Character Design & Asset Creation
Design your characters or elements. Consider clean line work, modular parts (limbs, heads, props), and layers (foreground, midground, background). If you’re working in 3D or rigged 2D, create skeletons or rigs so movement is easier.
Layout & Backgrounds
Place characters in scenes. Roughly define camera angles, depth, and background assets. Use layers so characters can move independently of the backdrop.
Key Frames & Inbetweens
Animate in this order:
- Key frames: draw the main poses (start, middle, end)
- Inbetweens: fill the gaps
- Refinement: polish arcs, adjust spacing, and refine motion
If using hybrid or AI tools, you might generate inbetweens automatically and then refine them.
Lip Sync & Expression
For clips with dialogue:
- Transcribe audio and break it into phoneme segments
- Animate visemes (mouth shapes) aligned with audio
- Add expression layers (eyebrows, eyes, cheeks)
- Use AI-assisted lip sync tools if available, but always check manually
Motion Refinement & Follow-Through
Add secondary motion: hair, clothing, accessories. Use principles of follow-through and overlap to make movements feel natural. Refine curves, motion arcs, and easing to smooth movement.
4. Sound Design, Effects & Rendering
Sound and finishing touches are critical to making your clip feel professional.
Sound Effects & Ambience
Add footsteps, rustle, background ambience, foley, whatever supports the action. Sound helps viewers suspend disbelief and connects visuals to feel.
Music & Voiceover
Find a piece of background music that suits the tone, and then mix it so that it enhances the sound but does not overpower it. If there is a speaker or voiceover, ensure the mix is performed in such a way that the sound layers are very clear and the voice is on top of the other sounds.
Final Rendering & Export
Select suitable formats (MP4, WebM, GIF). Render at high resolution (1080p is standard) and frame rate (24 or 30 fps). In case your animation software generates image sequences, use a timeline tool to composite them for final export.
Quality Check
Watch your clip several times fully. Check for frame glitches, lip sync mismatches, jittering motion, or visual artifacts. Correct before publishing.
5. How Animation Studios and AI Tools Speed Up Production
Large and small studios alike use workflows to make how to make animated clips more efficient.
Template & Asset Libraries
Studios often build libraries of characters, props, motions, and backgrounds they can reuse.
AI & Automation in Pipeline
AI tools assist in:
- Inbetweening (automatic interpolation)
- Clean-up or line smoothing
- Consistency checking across frames
- Lip sync and facial pose generation
- Style transfer (applying art direction in batches)
Human Oversight & Review
No matter how much AI is used, human review is essential. Studios will adjust AI output to ensure that tone, movement, and expression align with character goals and story.
Iteration & Feedback Loops
Because of faster processes, teams can iterate more: try alternate camera angles, re-time scenes, or test different expression sets. This iterative loop helps the clip reach more polished results.
Just Animations similarly blends storytelling, design, and technical execution in its workflow. They pitch themselves as a “creative animation studio” capable of handling concept to completion, including AI animation options when beneficial. Their portfolio shows the use of 2D, 3D, and AI-enhanced visuals.
Conclusion & Steps You Can Take Today
You now have a blueprint for how to make animated clips like a pro, even as a beginner. The keys:
- Invest early in planning and storyboarding
- Choose a toolset aligned with your goals (manual, hybrid, or AI animation)
- Build your assets thoughtfully, rig or modularize for flexibility
- Animate in phases (key, inbetween, refine), and always polish motion details
- Layer sound design, voice, and effects carefully
- Use AI tools where they help, but maintain human control
- Review thoroughly and iterate