How to Make an Animation Flipbook
Once you have the materials you need, follow these steps to create your hand-drawn flipbook:
What Do You Need to Make an Animated Flipbook?
Flipbooks work best when they’re small but thick. A flimsy flipbook won’t allow you to get a good grip on the pages to flip them properly, and large pages will move too slowly as they encounter air resistance. You’ll want to get a pocket sketchbook, 3" x 5" or so. For the best effect, you’ll want something with a flexible top cover, a rigid backing, and pages with a slightly lighter weight so that you can see one through the next (nothing as thin as tracing paper, though). You can also just bind together copy paper at one end, trim it down to size, and either glue the ends together, clip them, or staple them with an industrial-strength stapler. You’ll want more pages than you actually intend to use for your flipbook animation.
Tips for Animating a Flipbook
The point of the flipbook is to exhibit basic animation skills and principles. Flipbooks aren’t usually drawn the way most animations are using keyframes and in-betweens, although you can try putting in key drawings at set intervals on different pages. It’s best to work in pencil so that you can erase. Also, try to draw closer to the bottom of the page, in the space covering the bottom half. Anything close to the top half or binding may be harder to see when you’re flipping.
