# Adobe Animate Essentials: 2D Animation Fundamentals - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/adobe-animate-essentials-2d-animation-fundamentals/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Video & Animation · Quick win · Rated 6 /10 # Adobe Animate Essentials: 2D Animation Fundamentals Updated August 2026 Toniko Pantoja · 2D Animator, Character Designer Beginner · 50 min A brisk, likable walkthrough of Adobe Animate's basics that teaches you just enough to animate a ball and a rabbit, nothing more. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fadobe-animate-essentials-2d-animation-fundamentals%2F1859154090) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A fast lap around the interface Toniko Pantoja's course runs under an hour, and it treats that runtime as a feature rather than a limitation. The class opens with a plain tour of Adobe Animate's workspace: the tools panel on the left, the timeline along the bottom, the library and properties on the right. Pantoja sets the project to 1920 by 1080 at 24 frames per second early on, a small but useful habit for anyone who has never opened animation software before. The pacing throughout favors demonstration over explanation, which works well for a beginner who wants to see hands move rather than read a manual. The centerpiece is the bouncing ball. Pantoja draws a guide arc on a locked layer first, then animates the ball against that path using onion skin to track spacing between drawings. The lesson makes a genuinely useful point without ever naming it as theory: spacing, not extra drawings, is what sells acceleration and deceleration. Widening the gap between keyframes as the ball falls, then narrowing it near the bounce, communicates speed change more convincingly than any slider would. Squash and stretch get applied afterward, stretching the ball vertically in freefall and flattening it on impact, which reinforces the same physical logic in a different dimension. ## Where the class runs out of runway The frame-by-frame section on the jumping rabbit is where the course tries to go further, introducing breakdowns, connective drawings between key poses, and layered opacity guides for perspective. It is a reasonable follow-on to the ball exercise, but the explanation moves quickly and leans on visual demonstration rather than articulated rules, so a viewer without any drawing background may keep pace with the button-pressing while missing why each pose was chosen. The library lesson is the most practically valuable segment after the ball. Turning a looping fire effect into a reusable graphic symbol, then dragging duplicate rabbits into the scene and offsetting their start frames so they move out of sync, is a clean demonstration of a workflow habit that saves real time on longer projects. The export lesson closes things out competently, covering the guide-layer trick to hide reference drawings from the final render and the H.264 settings for social media upload. What the course does not attempt is any instruction in drawing, character design, or rigging, and it says as much implicitly by keeping every example to simple shapes and loose gesture work. It also skips deeper Animate features like the bone tool, symbols with nested animation states, or sound syncing. For a 50 minute beginner class that promises only the fundamentals, that scope is honest rather than a shortcoming, but it does mean the course functions as a launching point and nothing more. Anyone hoping to leave with a polished short film, or with codified animation principles they can recite and reapply, will need to look elsewhere afterward. As an orientation to the software and a first taste of timing and spacing, it does its narrow job well. The standout The bouncing ball demonstration, where spacing between keyframes is stretched and compressed by eye to show acceleration and deceleration without touching a curve editor, is the one technique worth the whole class. ## What you will learn - · Navigate Adobe Animate's interface: tools panel, timeline, library, and frame-rate setup - · Use keyframe controls (insert keyframe, blank keyframe, insert frame, remove frames) to build motion - · Animate a bouncing ball with tween-based motion applying squash, stretch, and arcs - · Draw frame-by-frame character animation using onion skin and breakdown poses - · Convert animation into reusable graphic symbols and manage them through the library - · Export a finished animation as an MP4 using Adobe Animate's built-in video export Best for: A complete beginner to both animation and Adobe Animate who wants a fast, hands-on orientation before attempting a longer project. Skip it if: Anyone who already knows animation principles from another program, or who needs guidance on drawing, rigging, or camera work, since none of that is covered. Helpful Examples Engaging Teacher Clarity of Instruction Organization of Lessons [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fadobe-animate-essentials-2d-animation-fundamentals%2F1859154090)