Dynamic 2D video game character animation with free tools

Design and animate characters for your game with Inkscape and DragonBones today!

4.40 (278 reviews)

Udemy

platform

English

language

Game Design

What you will learn

You will be able to design, rig and animate your own 2D game character with free programs!

You will have a basic character animation knowledge!

You will be able to recreate my workflow and design and animate your own characters!

You will create simple animations, that are ready to be used with ANY 2D game engine!

Why take this course?

Last update: 2018 April 1st.

With DragonBones 5.6 came the new Mesh tool! Check out lecture 17 and 18 and learn to use it today!
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Update: 2017 June 7.

Just added a lecture about the proper idle animation! New lectures coming soon!
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In this course you will learn how to combine two amazing free programs to create smooth and flexible 2D game character animations!

Inkscape is a free and open-source Vector Illustration software.
With it you can create versatile, ready to use character designs in no time!
Draw anything, export in any size - Perfect for 2D game design!

There are several great courses published about Inkscape, but in this one you can learn how to create a character and make it ready to animate!

DragonBones is a free 2D Skeletal Animation program.
Import your character parts, create the bone system and animate! It is really this easy!

The standalone version just came out at the end of 2016, so this is the first full and comprehensive English course about DragonBones! There are only a very few DragonBones tutorial online, if you want to learn the software, this is a good place to start!

During this game animation course you will

design a simple knight character in Inkscape (feel free to design your very own character using the same method!)
export the character properly to be used with DragonBones
assemble the character and build up the skeletal structure
create and use meshes to animate soft bodies, like cape and hair
create four basic animations for the same character: idle, walk, attack, die (more will be added later!)
easily modify your character to a totally new version, while keeping all the animations!

The course is mostly about DragonBones, so you will need some basic Inkscape knowledge to follow the design part at the start!

Follow the course and ask me anything as you develop your animations!

Screenshots

Dynamic 2D video game character animation with free tools - Screenshot_01

Dynamic 2D video game character animation with free tools - Screenshot_02

Dynamic 2D video game character animation with free tools - Screenshot_03

Dynamic 2D video game character animation with free tools - Screenshot_04

Reviews

Alexandre

August 2, 2023

It's a really nice course! Professor go through each step of animation! He explains every detail and every movement with fundamentals! This course is very helpful! Thank you professor!

Luciano

February 25, 2023

Hey, I loved it, I'm only a developer and now I can create simple characters and icons using Inkscape and animate on Dragon Bones because it's very, very easy to use. Thanks István and I'll buy yours another course.

Prakash

February 10, 2022

The instructor didn't care to tell the keyboard shortcuts, it's almost as if watching someone doing their work instead of teaching. It got better after we reach dragonbones part. this course is worth doing.

Brian

January 6, 2022

Some part in the design part not really clear in term of using the tools, but I've managed to push through it. Recommend his character course for more details. But another than that, he is a great teacher. Enjoy it a a lot!

John

December 2, 2021

I felt that there could have been more content (I'm sure there are numerous animation techniques we haven't seen, for instance), and there was a lot of "watching the instructor do something" which could have been sped up, but I enjoyed the course, and the instructor's enthusiasm came through!

Jane

February 9, 2021

István is very good at what he does: he has both the technical expertise necessary to teach the skills of his craft and, more importantly, the gift of explaining things in a very digestible manner--even if you have no previous knowledge of the subject! Thank you, István!

0ve

December 27, 2020

Can be difficult to follow. The current version of dragonbones are, in places, working differently than explained.

Carlos

October 13, 2020

Really good! I didn't know Dragonbones and I think it's very well explained how to use it. Congrats for the course

Julian

October 11, 2020

I think is short, but It's a nice introduction to dragonbones, wish it have more content, I think to take this course you need to have experience in vector graphics software, any, not only inkscape. But is ok as a fast introduction, and also to have the knowdlege how to prepare your graphics for animation.

Kristianus

June 3, 2017

The only one well made Dragonbones tutorial on earth! Thank you so much for your time to create this great tutorial. The tutorial is very easy to follow and I just realized that Dragonbones is very fun program after we know the features. I highly recommend this tutorial. Keep it up István Szép.

Stephan

May 10, 2017

I add fun going through the course which I had completed. I still have to practice inkscape difference and interception concept with the images. Although, I do understand what they mean but I still had trouble with the application portion. However, overall a pretty neat course. Do you have a course on designing titles and UI for Game design? I would gladly purchase it for sure.

Faisal

January 26, 2017

Well structured course, the teacher is awesome and great presentation skills, straight to the point, which make ease for the beginner to easily understand the important info. I recommend this course.

Géza

January 26, 2017

Clear and easy to follow course, yet it's providing a really good amount of basic information. I am really satisfied with what can I do by the end of the course.

Zoltan

January 25, 2017

Great course and great theme. I decided to create a shooter game and now I've already now how to create the characters and their movement. It's a big step for me.

Krisztina