This is a collection of effects animations I've produced over the years. I enjoy effects animation because it's quite different to character animation, and you have a sense of freedom by animating straight ahead with a single drawing as a reference or starting point. I find it quite therapeutic.Â
Explosions
Here's a collection of explosion animations of various sorts. These are good for things like game development and any pieces of flair for linear animation. These are very fun to animate!
FIRE
Fire is another fun element I love to animate. Like with most effects animations, observation of real world reference is the best way to understand how fire moves and behaves, it's never the same and it can vary depending on how big the fire is.
Dust & SMOKE
Smoke, vapour and dust are great to play around with, as unlike fire or water, they're not always bound by the weight of gravity, so you can let these linger in the air a little longer than normal. This can lead into other effects like fairy dust and glitter, as well.
WATER
Water tends to be on the slightly trickier side, as you have to consider gravity and surface tension when animating. Planning ahead and observing reference is advised when tackling water and similar elements like bubbles.
GLITTER
Glitter is another fun one to animate, though you have to keep an eye on all the various sequins and flickering particles that are falling down at different rates. The result is worth the slog.
ELECTRICITY
Electricity can be another fun but tricky one to get right. Additionally, you have to consider the accessibility of the viewer when animating something that flashes very quickly on screen, so it doesn't trigger any seizures. Essentially, the sequence of frames is one thick line, followed immediately by the same line but very thin, then that same line but a darker blue or red or other dangerous colour.
MiscellaneousÂ
Other pieces of animation that I would file under "effects" but don't fit in the above catagories.