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Unfortunately drawings, clay puppets and computer meshes don't talk, so when our synthesised characters are required to say something, their dialogue has to be recorded and analysed first before we can begin to animate them speaking.

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Get a new 2D animation tip every Tuesday. Learn the tricks professional animators use to save time and create more compelling characters.

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How to Animate Your Own Show. Before computers, animating two-dimensional cartoons was an extremely labor-intensive production, requiring whole teams and studios. Animation apps and software now make it so much quicker for one person to...

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Recently I've seen a lot of discussion between animators regarding how fast you should be animating. How many seconds per day need to be complete? What's "normal" in the industry? Are you going too slow? Let's step back and take a look to see if we can set the record straight.

First it's important to understand that "animation" is a very broad term. If you're attempting to do very limited Flash animation, you're probably going to seem to produce work at cheetah-speeds compared to a frame by frame animator drawing by hand. Likewise some animators simply animate faster than others. That doesn't make them better or worse, it is just how they work. And finally the actual SHOT you are animating is going to determine a lot as well. Is it simple, without much movement? Is the character performing an intense action with a huge amount of objects involved? On top of all that, there's framerate to consider!

As long as we go into the discussion understanding that there are so many variables it's nearly impossible to truly have a "normal speed," we can start to compare the apples and oranges that are "how much animation in a particular amount of time."

Ye Olden Days

Taking a look into the past, animation was once measured in feet. That's because everything was done on actual film (no digital) and so instead of referring to individual frames regarding productivity, people just said "I managed 2 Feet of work this week."
A foot of film is equal to 16 frames. Since most animation for film runs at 24 frames per second, a foot of animation is over one second if on 2s, and under a second if done on 1s. Editor's Note: As Geoff points out in the comments, it is 16 frames regardless of if it's on ones or twos. It would just be only 8 drawings if on 2s, vs. the full 16 drawings on ones. Thanks for the heads up, Geoff! Sorry I missed that.
In the earlier days of Disney Feature Animation, it was not uncommon for the animators to produce 3.75 feet of animation per day. That comes out to about 14 seconds of animation a week.

And that's nothing compared to Disney's FASTEST animators, who could blaze trails at 23-24 seconds of feature quality animation per week.

How does that compare to the current day and age, though? Surely with the technology we have now we go faster, right?

Animation Today

Truth be told, 14 seconds per week of film-quality animation is unheard of today. If asked to attempt that, most animators in the industry would laugh (or cry) and say it couldn't be done. Today it's not uncommon for feature animation (in 3D) to go at the pace of about 3-4 seconds of animation per week. A far cry from the 14 seconds that the Nine Old Men would churn out.

Meanwhile if you're looking at direct-to-video film, it's often in the 12-18 seconds per week range. Closer to the olden days of 14 second, but with a huge drop in quality by comparison. If you've ever seen a film produced direct to video, it can't compare to the stuff that hits the big screen.
Side note: If you ever want something terrific to study, check out The Emperor's New Groove directly compared to Kronk's New Groove. The difference is staggering.
Television Animation varies a great deal, and also depends on where it's being produced. In the US, some studios request their animators maintain around 25-30 seconds of animation a week, especially if it is limited style. That's not particularly troublesome to do since limited animation has a large number of holds and focuses heavily on dialogue.

Game animation also varies a great deal, but speaking with a few folks at various studios it seems like "normal" ranges between 5-10 seconds per day, or 25-50 seconds a week. Something more important drops it down to 2-4 seconds a day, and during crunch time it can increase to 10-20.

Variables Variables Everywhere

Again, everything above is based on such a variety of situations that it would be foolish to say there was a hard and fast rule about speed in which to animate. The biggest variable is going to always be quality. Quality will dictate your speed. Ferdinand and I once did a 48 hour animation competition together, and by the end we were producing 10 seconds of animation an hour! However the quality was rather terrible at that point. Such is a deadline of two days.

On the flip side, the Disney animators of days gone by could, and often did, sit for hours or even days at their desk contemplating a SINGLE FRAME. Keyframes are so important, as story-telling drawings, that no amount of time was set to make sure they were spot on. The poses of such frames required near-perfection, so rushing was not an option.

The final word is that speed really only matters "whence a deadline fast approacheth." If you are working at a large studio that needs things done ASAP, you may have to work at a much higher rate (and lower quality) than if it's a personal shot or short in front of you. And when it's a personal short, don't WORRY about speed. Focus instead on doing the absolute best animation you can. Because at the end of the day, it's very similar to a quote by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto:

"A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever."

Delay if you must, but don't sacrifice forever just to go fast.

So how slowly or quickly do YOU animate? Leave a comment below and share your stories of studio work, personal work, or any crazy deadlines that caused your normal speed to shoot through the roof!

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How Fast Should You Animate? - Animator Island

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Recently I've seen a lot of discussion between animators regarding how fast you should be animating. How many seconds per day need to be complete? What's "normal" in the industry? Are you going too slow? Let's step back and take a look to see if we can set the record straight.

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Creating a Looping Animation > Animating Shapes with Shape Tweens in Adobe Flash Professional CC (2014 release)

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You'll start the lesson by viewing the animated logo that you'll create as you learn about shape tweens and masks in Flash, in this chapter from Adobe Flash Professional CC Classroom in a Book (2014 release) .

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How to Write a Script for an Animated Cartoon

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How to Write a Script for an Animated Cartoon. Animated cartoons are fun to watch and a great challenge to create, as they require creativity, ingenuity, and detail. A successful animated cartoon starts with a good script that fleshes out...

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Storyboarding Tips: How To Storyboard Effectively

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Ready to create a great storyboard? Dive into this informative article & learn how to storyboard like a pro! Get storyboarding tips from one of our artists

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How would you put your own show on air, if you were to create one?

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What is the easiest way to create a storyboard?

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If someone does not know how to use proportions and perspectives, how would you figure it out?

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What's the easiest way to find out if your ideas are original?

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Could you take a character or plot and change it up a little to make it original?

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What makes a character/idea truly "original"?

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If you aren't confident enough to share with a partner, what would be another way to help?

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If you cannot use programs like Adobe, what is another good source?

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Could you use a storyboard to plan a play?

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If writing a story, could you script out small exchanges between characters and insert them somewhere in the script?

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How is looping relevant to animation and creating a show?

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Can storyboarding be used in other situations, and not just for stories or animation?

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If you are a beginner, what is the recommended speed to start out at?

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If you wanted to animate a long scene, but did not have the necessary "skills", would you be able to complete the long scene by taking it a scene or frame at a time, or would you practice with smaller animations first, before moving onto the big project?

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How fast do beginning animators usually go?

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If you created your own show, what would determine how popular it becomes?

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In a show, is originality better than quality?

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In 2D animation, how would you animate a crowd?

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What are some of the most fluid 2D animated shows on air that could be used in reference?

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Is it easier to draw the beginning and end frames and then fill in the middle, or is it easier to start from the beginning and animate until you reach the end pose that you want?

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If your character did not have a mouth, how would you specify that it is them speaking?

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How important is a character's individual voice?

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How could you animate the character's mouth for actions other than speaking?

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If a character is speaking quickly vs. if a character is speaking slowly, will you use different techniques for lip syncing?