2D Animation Pipeline: Step by Step

A 2D animation pipeline has three phases: pre-production, production and post-production. Each phase holds a few steps, and every step makes something the next one needs before it can begin.

This guide walks through all eleven steps in order, for anyone planning an animated video or trying to understand how a studio builds one.

What is a 2D animation pipeline?

It’s the order of work a studio follows to turn a script into a finished animated video. Each step produces something the next one builds on.

Falmouth University’s animation brochure says the pipeline is usually split into three main stages, though every 2D project ends up with a slightly different version. Small projects may merge two steps; larger ones may add more. Think of the steps below as a standard map.

Skip a step, and the one after it has nothing solid to start from.

What are the stages of the 2D animation pipeline, in order?

Eleven steps, in three phases. Steps 1 to 4 are pre-production. Steps 5 to 8 are production, which is where the drawings begin to move. Steps 9 to 11 are post-production.

1. Write the script that fixes the story and the dialogue.
2. Draw the storyboard: a shot-by-shot plan in pictures.
3. Build the animatic by timing the storyboard drawings to the audio.
4. Design the characters and backgrounds so the look is agreed before any scene is drawn.
5. Set up the layout of each scene with its camera angle and staging.
6. Draw the key poses for each scene.
7. Fill in the frames between those poses so the movement runs smoothly from one pose to the next.
8. Clean up the line work, then add color.
9. Composite the separate art layers together so each scene reads as a single picture.
10. Mix the sound.
11. Edit the scenes together in order and export the final video.

When you give feedback, name the step number. The team then knows which stage to reopen.

What happens in pre-production?

Nothing here is animated yet. This phase is planning, and each piece feeds the phase that follows.

Script, storyboard and animatic

The script sets the story and the dialogue. It also sets the runtime: every line and every action takes screen time.

The storyboard turns that script into one drawing per shot. Each panel fixes the framing and camera angle for its shot and marks the key action: you see the plan before any animation exists.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says some animators plan the final product with storyboards or animatics. It describes them as looking like a comic strip.

The animatic is the storyboard with timing added. Its panels play against temporary audio, which gives you a first look at the pacing. Dialogue is usually recorded before animation starts, because animators draw the mouth shapes to match the voice track.

Character and background design

Design closes the phase and ends in a model sheet.

Every animator on the project draws from one page, so that page has to be right. A model sheet packs five zones onto it.

The turnaround gets the middle: the character seen from the front, the side and the back. If the costume or gear is busy, add three-quarter views as well.

To its left sits the expression grid. Four to six headshots, enough to cover the emotional range the project needs, and the skull volume stays locked even when the mouth opens wide. Proportion rulers run down the side, measuring the character in head units.

On the right you’ll find flat color swatches. Props and notes get a strip along the bottom.

Concept art and background design happen in parallel. Between them they set the look of the project and decide where each scene takes place. Keep one master copy of the sheet, so every animator draws from the same version.

Order matters when you draw the turnaround. Get it wrong and the proportions drift.

1. Silhouette first. Build the head, limbs and torso from spheres, cylinders and boxes, then fill the shape with solid black. If you can still tell who it is, the design works. If you can’t, fix the shape now, before anything else goes on.
2. Front view next, in an A-pose with the feet roughly shoulder-width apart. Down the side of the canvas, mark the character’s height in head-length units.
3. Lock guidelines across the whole canvas, from the top of the head to the ankles. Every other view has to touch those lines.
4. Now the side and three-quarter views. Line up the nose, ears, shoulders and knees with the front anchor, and watch the spine curve (get it wrong and the profile looks flat).
5. Back view last. Mirror the front to get started, then redraw whatever changes: hair, clothing folds, shoulder blades, heels. Asymmetrical patterns need a check, because they have to land on the correct side.

Colors come after the shapes. Skin, hair and clothing each get a flat color under neutral lighting. The Hex or CMYK values need checking, since colors can drift between screens. The Character design page at Drawphics covers the full method.

What happens in production?

Now the drawings move.

Layout and key animation

Layout comes first, and it’s worked out from the storyboard. Each scene gets a camera angle and staging. Characters are placed in the frame here too, and their size against the background is fixed. Animators and background artists both build on these drawings.

Key animation follows. Here the animator draws the key poses: the drawings that mark where an action starts and where it lands. Between two keys sits a breakdown, which sets the path of the movement.

Some animators work straight ahead instead. They draw one frame after another in sequence, which tends to suit loose, flowing action. Pose-to-pose suits action with planned timing.

Then comes the line test. Rough drawings play back fast, so any timing problem shows up before clean-up starts. Running alongside is the exposure sheet: it says which drawing sits on which frame, and it carries the dialogue timing.

In-betweening, clean-up and color

In-betweens fill the gaps between key poses and breakdowns, and they’re what makes movement look smooth. Clean-up comes next: rough lines become final ones. Color goes on last and follows the model sheet, so the palette holds from scene to scene. Backgrounds get painted separately and joined to the characters later.

A hypothetical example shows the scale. Say a 10-second scene runs at 24 frames a second. Animated on ones, with a new drawing for every frame, that’s 240 drawings.

On twos, with each drawing held for two frames, it’s 120. Even the lighter option leaves 120 drawings to clean up and color.

Rigged cut-out as an alternative

Some projects use rigged cut-out characters. The character is built from separate pieces joined at pivot points, like a puppet. The animator moves the pieces instead of redrawing every frame, and the same pieces can be reused across shots. The Rigging of character page explains the method.

What happens in post-production?

This is where the pieces become one video. Falmouth University’s brochure describes the stage as the point where all the separate elements are brought together and enhanced.

Compositing stacks the character layers and the backgrounds into finished scenes. Effects go in at this point too, along with color correction and camera moves such as pans and zooms. Next is the sound mix. The voice has to stay clear, so music and effects sit underneath it.

Editing joins the scenes in order and sets the final pacing. Export comes last, and it produces the file you receive.

Where will the video play? That decides the settings, because resolution, aspect ratio and file type all change by platform. Tell the team the destination before export, and check the exported file on that screen before you sign off. Keep the layered working files too, in case a later cut needs changes.

Where should you review and approve the work?

A change gets more expensive the later it arrives. Fixing a pose at the storyboard means redrawing one picture. Fixing it after color means redoing every frame that contains it.

Start with the script: confirm the story and the runtime before anything is drawn. Once the storyboard exists, check the shots and their order. Pacing gets judged at the animatic, while changes are still easy.

Each character needs approval on the model sheet, since every later drawing copies it. The line test is where you watch the movement, before clean-up starts. The full cut with sound is the last thing to review before export.

Give notes as one list per review point, and name who signs off at each one. The team can then plan every change together, and each request has an owner. Leave a change to the final review and it costs the most.

How is a 2D animation pipeline different from a 3D one?

Mostly in how the images get made. The same brochure says 3D pre-production begins much the same as 2D, with research, story and design. The split comes in production.

In frame-by-frame 2D, artists draw or paint every image, in-betweens included. In 3D, they build models and rig them to move, and the software works out much of the motion between key poses. Frames are rendered at the end. Some projects mix the two by placing 3D elements inside a 2D scene.

Who works on a 2D animation pipeline, and how big is the field?

BLS says animators work in teams. The roles line up with the phases (on a small team, one person may cover several):

The agency counts 2D and 3D artists together as special effects artists and animators. The US count for 2025 is 51,900 jobs. Median pay? $102,030 a year, as of May 2025.

Growth from 2025 to 2035 is projected at zero. Hardly a boom. Still, about 4,200 openings a year are expected, mostly to replace people who leave the field.

Self-employment is common here: 63% of these workers work for themselves. A project can therefore draw on freelancers as well as staff artists. When you hire a team, ask who owns each stage and who hands work to whom.

How long does a 2D animation pipeline take?

No single number fits every project. Runtime, style and team size all move the schedule. Longer videos have more scenes.

A detailed style means more drawing in each one. Add characters and you add model sheets; add backgrounds and you add painting.

Revision rounds add time. So does late feedback.

Ask for a schedule that gives a date for every review point as well as the delivery date. Then you know when feedback is due. A delivery date alone tells you very little, since it hides the points where a delay would start. Ask the team which factor drives the estimate for your project.

What should you prepare before starting a 2D animation project?

Start with a script. Add a target length and the place where the video will play, and a team can plan the storyboard and the schedule. Sketches or examples of the style you like help too, along with a short note on audience and tone.

Does the video need a voice? Settle who records it early, because the recording comes before animation. Share the brief before the first storyboard is drawn.

If you’re ready to plan a project, start with the 2D & 3D Animation page at Drawphics. For explainer work, see the Explainer video page.