Shadowing Practice: Animation Basics in 14 Minutes (6 Big ideas for beginners) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

181 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

Hi, welcome to Animation For Anyone, my name is Alex.

Today's lesson is a bit of a crash course in animation.

We'll start with how animation works, and then I'll share with you the six ideas

that I think are the most important to understand when you first start animating. And after

that, I want to show you my thought process for how we can use multiple animation ideas at the same time.

Let's jump in.

I think the easiest way to understand how animation is working is by looking at a flipbook.

If you're anything like me, you might have made little animation flipbooks out of your exercise books at school.

You draw a picture, and then a slightly different picture, and you keep going until you flip through your pages and see your pictures move.

This is how pretty much all animation works.

Recreate still images and play them back quickly to create the illusion of motion.

If you've never tried it, maybe spend a few minutes now.

It's pretty fun.

Flipbooks are a good way to visualize animation, but they're a little bit hard to demonstrate the ideas i want to explore today

so instead i'm going to use a coin and capture the visuals digitally

that lets me play back the animation at a constant predictable

speed of 24 frames per second in future videos i'll show you how to do this

but for now we're really just looking at the ideas behind the animation

and how to plan out the movement so

if i want to animate this coin moving from one side

of the piece of paper to the other i take a picture of it move it a little

and then take another picture and then keep going until I get to the other side.

Now, when I play the images back, it feels as though the coin is moving across the screen.

Looking at it though, I think it feels a bit weird.

I think the most important question you can ask yourself while you're animating is how does this motion feel?

This is my guiding principle while I animate.

All of the fundamentals we talk about today and in future lessons really come back to this one question.

So if I ask myself, how does this motion feel?

I'd probably describe it as jumpy or jittery.

Let's look at why that might be happening.

Below the coin, I've illustrated the exact spacing of each of the frames.

You can see that it's not very even.

There are frames that are really close together and there are frames that are really far apart from each other.

And that's because I've not been very deliberate about how far I move the coin each time.

So if this motion feels jumpy or jittery now, I think we can make the motion feel a bit smoother

by making the spacing between the coins a little bit more even.

Now that I've evened up the spacing, you can see that the coin moves a little bit more consistently across the screen.

There's no more jumpiness.

At the moment, the coin moves across the screen in one second, or 24 pictures.

Let's see what happens if I move it across the screen in less time.

I think we can see two really clear things here.

The coin moves much faster, and the spacing between the coin is much larger than before.

Let's see what happens if we make the coin take longer to cross the screen.

Okay, I think that the results here are pretty clear as well.

The coin feels like it's moving more slowly, and the spacing between the coin is much closer than before.

So this is the first big idea in animation I wanted to show you.

Things feel fast when they're far apart, and slow when they're closer together.

So if I ask myself now, how does this motion feel, I'd say smooth or consistent, but maybe a little unnatural.

The coin starts moving suddenly and then stops moving suddenly.

So if we wanted to make a more natural feeling, the coin could start moving slowly, speed up in the middle, and then slow down at the end.

We start slow by having the coins closer together, and then gradually get further and further apart,

and then we slow the coin down by making the spacing closer and closer until we come to a stop.

I think that's starting to feel a bit more natural.

For this next step I'm going to loop the animation so

that the coin travels from the left of the screen to the right and then back again, using the exact same spacing.

For this next step I'm going to exaggerate the speeding up and slowing down a little.

You can see that the spacing's changed, so the parts that were close together before are even closer together now, and the parts that are far apart are even further apart.

Let's see what happens if we exaggerate it even more.

You can see now it feels a bit more lively or zippy.

We don't always have to start slow and finish slow either.

Here's an example of how changing the acceleration can entirely change the way the motion feels.

In this example, I have a coin that slowly speeds up, gets really fast, and then changes direction suddenly.

This gives us a kind of bouncy feeling.

One thing that I think is quite important to mention at this point is that these motions all feel quite different, but they have the exact same timing.

They all take 24 frames to get from one side of the screen to the other.

All of the difference in the way that they feel comes from the amount of space we put between the frames.

So this is the second big idea I wanted to show you.

If we want to make things slow down or speed up, we gradually get closer and closer together or further and further apart from each other.

This is called acceleration and deceleration.

Some people call it easing.

Or you can just call it speeding up and slowing down.

So far, all of our animation has been done using a coin, which doesn't change shape.

I'm going to start using a cutout piece of paper so that we can change the shape as we animate.

In this first example, I'm going to take the fastest frame of animation and stretch the frame out a little.

This changes the feeling of the animation.

I think it feels a little less rigid, maybe more zippy, more lively.

Let's try changing the shape again, but this time we'll squash it.

I think the best example to demonstrate squash would be our bouncy animation.

I'll start by stretching out the frame where we're moving the fastest and then squash it where we change direction.

This is going to make it feel a little bit more like a bouncing ball.

Squash and stretch is the third big idea I wanted to share with you.

It's great for adding a little bit of life to your animation and making it feel less rigid.

It also really helps the audience understand what the object is made of.

This coin doesn't squash or stretch as it bounces, so it feels quite hard, whereas a rubber ball might squash and stretch heaps, which is what makes it feel rubbery and stretchy.

So that's three big ideas covered, and I've got three more I want to show you.

The first is anticipation.

Anticipation is a really important part of animation, but it's something that's easy to forget about when you're first starting out.

Anticipation does two key things.

It builds up energy and it also gives the audience an indication that something's about to happen, which really helps with clarity.

When I think of anticipation, I think of a spring.

It builds up energy in one direction and then releases it all at once in the opposite direction.

You might like to think of someone jumping.

Before they jump up in the air, they often move down to build tension in their body this

downwards motion is the anticipation in this example i have a ball

that moves quite suddenly

and then slows down to make it feel more natural i

could add a little bit of squash to anticipate the movement this makes it feel like we're building up energy

and releasing it all at once the fifth idea i'd like

to talk about is overshoot overshoot is like a mirror image to anticipation.

100

Imagine you have a really big movement, go too far and then bounce back.

101

Overshoot helps add weight or springiness to your animation.

102

In this example I've added a double overshoot to the ball as it springs back into place.

103

You might have noticed that all of our motion so far has been along a straight line.

104

The last idea I'd like to talk about today is arcs.

105

Things in nature don't usually follow a perfectly straight line.

106

More often than not, natural movements follow some sort of arc.

107

Arcs tend to add flow to your motion.

108

In this example, I've taken our coin, and rather than moving it directly across the page, I've swung it down like a pendulum.

109

This gives it an entirely different feeling.

110

Okay, so those are the six big ideas I wanted to talk about today.

111

Let's have a bit of a recap.

112

Our first idea was about speed.

113

If we make things closer together, they move more slowly and if we make them further apart, they move more quickly.

114

Our second idea is about spacing and acceleration.

115

If we gradually get closer and closer together or further and further apart, things feel like they're slowing down or getting faster.

116

The third idea is about squash and stretch

117

and how using it can add a bit of life to your motion

118

and also give the audience a sense of what your objects are made of.

119

The fourth idea is about adding anticipation to your motion this will help build up energy

120

and sometimes add clarity our fifth idea is overshoot this is

121

where we let objects bounce back after a big movement

122

and our sixth idea is about arcs this is where we decide

123

if we want our motion to follow a straight line

124

or a more natural flowing arc through space

125

so the question is how do we use all of these ideas at the same time

126

if you're working on an animation you can ask yourself how does this motion feel?

127

The answer could be anywhere from it's great I love it to could be better

128

or it could just be this feels wrong.

129

If your answer is anything other than great I love it you can use these ideas to start asking questions

130

that will help improve your animation.

131

Does the speed feel right?

132

Should we change the spacing to adjust the acceleration?

133

Should we be using some squash or stretch?

134

Or maybe we need some anticipation?

135

Are the arcs working well?

136

Or do we need some overshoot to help sell the weight?

137

I'm going to walk through a simple animation now

138

and use these questions to help push our animation to the great I love it part of the graph here.

139

So for this animation, I'm trying to make a ball jump in the air

140

and land on the other side of the screen.

141

Let's just move the ball upwards, upwards, upwards, and then come back down again.

142

It takes 1 second or 24 frames to get to that point, and let's play it back at full speed.

143

Now if I ask myself how does this motion feel, I'd say not that great.

144

It feels unnatural, it feels stiff, it doesn't have any weight to it.

145

So this is where we can start asking those questions and apply those animation ideas that we've been talking about.

146

I'll start with the most obvious thing, to me at least.

147

I think this motion could use an arc.

148

If I imagine a cannibal flying through the air, I don't imagine a straight line up and a straight line down.

149

I picture more of an arc.

150

This is because it's being affected by gravity.

151

So let's add an arc to this motion.

152

Okay, so I think that's starting to feel better straight away.

153

Let's see what other ideas we can start working into this animation.

154

I think we could use some squash to create an anticipation

155

so it feels like the ball is building up energy before the jump I think

156

that we could exaggerate the acceleration by using a couple of

157

frames of stretch in the fastest part of the motion

158

And we could also use a bit of squash to create an overshoot

159

when the ball lands This will give it a bit more weight and make it feel a bit more springy Okay,

160

I think that's looking even better.

161

It's a totally usable piece of animation.

162

But if I ask myself one more time, how does this motion feel, I'd say it falls into this area here.

163

So if I look at these ideas again, I can think about which ideas I could exaggerate even more.

164

I think that we could push the anticipation even further, so it feels like it's shaking and building up energy just before it jumps.

165

I think that I could fine -tune the spacing a little bit more

166

so that the acceleration is clearer as it leaves the ground, and I think that I could exaggerate the overshoot even more by adding a stretch frame.

167

This means that it'll have a kind of double overshoot, making it feel really springy.

168

And this is the final result.

169

I think that it's got a lot more energy and personality now.

170

And that's it, six of the biggest ideas in animation

171

and how to start applying them to any animation you want to make.

172

Thanks for sticking with me.

173

Now for some homework.

174

Choose an animation medium, It could be anything from a flipbook to a program

175

that you're learning and take one of the six ideas we've talked about here today, like anticipation or arcs, and create a short animation based on that,

176

maybe one to two seconds long.

177

Then take a different idea, maybe squash or stretch, and create a second animation, once again, one to two seconds long.

178

And lastly, create a short animation that uses both of these ideas at the same time.

179

Hopefully you've enjoyed this crash course.

180

We'll be looking at these individual ideas and many more in future episodes.

181

See you next time.

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence

IPA PracticeMaster every sound

VocabularyBuild your word bank

Vocab GameLearn while playing

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

Recommend Video

63 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 181 sentences and 2455 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:10. The speaker talks fast, about 186 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
animation noun	/ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/	The act of animating, or giving life or spirit.
coin noun	/ˈkoɪ̯n/	A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle.
squash noun	/skwɔʃ/	Cucurbita maxima, including hubbard squash, great winter squash, buttercup squash, and some varieties of pumpkins.
anticipation noun	/ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/	The act of anticipating, taking up, placing, or considering something beforehand, or before the proper time in natural order.
stretch verb	/stɹɛt͡ʃ/	To lengthen by pulling.
acceleration noun	/əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/	The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as opposed to retardation or deceleration.
arc noun	/ɑɹk/	That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon.
bounce verb	/baʊns/	To change the direction of motion after hitting an obstacle.
gradually adverb	/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/	In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
upwards adverb	/ˈʌpwɚdz/	Towards a (higher) position closer to the sky than the ground.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
smooth adjective	/smuːð/	Having a texture that lacks friction. Not rough.
demonstrate verb	/ˈdɛm.ənˌstɹeɪt/	To show how to use (something).
clarity noun	/ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/	The state or measure of being clear, either in appearance, thought or style; lucidity.
lively adjective	/ˈlaɪv.li/	Full of life; energetic, vivacious.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
build up verb		To erect; to construct.
slow down verb		To decelerate.
speed up verb	/spiːdˈʌp/	To accelerate; to increase speed.
close together adjective		Near each other in time or space.
come back verb		To return to a place.
flip through verb		Synonym of thumb (“to turn the pages of (a book) in order to read it cursorily”).
line up verb	/laɪnˈʌp/	To align; to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running.
plan out verb		to plan, organize, make a plan for something

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've never tried · I've illustrated · I've not been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · has been done · is made

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: smooth /smuːð/, sixth /sɪksθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, squash /skwɔʃ/, anticipation /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/, acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/
Long words — get the stress right: animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, anticipation /ænˌtɪs.əˈpeɪ.ʃən/, acceleration /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like animation, coin, squash.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Animation Basics in 14 Minutes (6 Big ideas for beginners) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Download App

Learn Figma Motion in 8 minutes

I Finally Answered Your Questions

simple tricks to hiding lights in a scene

AI Animation Pipeline: How I Make Cartoons 100% With AI

ABSOLUTE Beginner Basics.. Blender For Noobs 2025

How To Edit Videos Viewers Will Watch To The END.

How to Teach Drawing to Kids | Basic Drawing Tricks!

Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement

Shuffling for Beginners: Your First 5 Moves to Master

How to visualize? The easiest visualization method!

Give Me 15 Minutes. I'll Teach You 80% of Obsidian

Stop chasing original ideas—here’s what actually makes you creative