Preparation

• 1). Decide how many characters you want in your scene. The more characters in the scene, the harder it is to draw and keep track of your characters' movements. If you are a beginner at drawing, stick to one or two characters in your scene.
  
  
• 2). Place your graticule on your peg bar. A graticule is a transparent grid used to measure out screen ratios relating to a center point. A peg bar is a metal or plastic bar with three pegs set either at the top or bottom of your light box, and is used to anchor your animation paper. Your animation paper will be hole punched to correlate with the peg bar. A light box is a box with a special bulb that is made to overlay multiple pages on top of each other, making it easier to trace your animation.
  
  
• 3). Place your hole-punched animation paper onto your peg bar. Draw your guideline page on top of your light box on a flat surface. Use student-grade animation paper for beginners. It is more cost effective than animation vellum.
  
  
• 4). Trace the lines of the screen ratio onto your page with your 2H pencil and a ruler. Draw either a 12-field ratio or a 15-field ratio. Your 12-field paper measures 12 ½ inches by 10 ½ inches and is used primarily in film. Your 12-field aspect measurement for height will be eight fields top to bottom and your length will be 12 fields from left to right. Your fields are your measurement for drawing within a certain space.
  
  
• 5). Draw a 15-field aspect guideline for television. Your 15-field paper measures 15 ½ inches by 13 ½ inches. Your 15-field aspect measurement for height will be 10 fields top to bottom and your length will be 15 fields left to right.
  
  
• 6). Draw over your traced lines with a fat tipped permanent marker and a ruler. Do not use washable markers. They tend to bleed onto the back of your pages.
  
  
• 7). Remove your graticule. Place your guide sheet on top of your lightbox.
  
  

Drawing your 2D animation

• 1). Lay your first frame (page) of your scene down on top of your guideline sheet.
  
  
• 2). Draw your action safe line using your 4H pencil. An action safe line is the cutoff point for your animation before it is cut out of the screen. Add an action safe line depending on your point of view (POV) camera shot and camera direction. Your camera direction follows the N (north) S (south) E (east) and W (west) directions. Your graticule also follows these directions and is labeled as thus. Your point of view is the direction which your character sees a scene.
  
  
• 3). Draw your first scene to create your first frame. Use your blue pencil to draw your initial characters. Use your red pencil to make corrections to your character. Use a dark pencil (2B-6B) to finalize your character. Your blue and red lines will still show up when you scan your frames or capture them on a capture machine. They will be erasable when you take them into a color program to add color and texture. Your dark pencil line will be harder to erase on the program.
  
  
• 4). Place your second frame on top your first frame. Trace over your first image. Draw your next movement slightly over your first image.
  
  
• 5). Repeat tracing over your last frame until you are finished. You may need to remove your pages when you cannot see your guideline page lines.
  
  
• 6). Scan your pages or use a capture machine to import your pages to become a movie. Capture machines are expensive and are primarily used in schools and production houses.