Animation isn’t only about drawing cute characters or moving things across a screen. It’s a craft that requires commitment, discipline and its own peculiar sort of daily practices, which separate amateurs from professionals. Whether you want to work at Pixar, make indie shorts or just a freelance animation artist getting the right habits are just as important.
Professional animators are not just really good at drawing. They erect rituals that contribute to honing their abilities, feeding their creativity, and making themselves productive even when the well of inspiration dries up. These aren’t secrets hidden in the bowels of animation studios; they’re real-life behaviors that anyone can adopt with time and determination.
In this ultimate guide, we’re going to examine a list of the ten most important habits of professional animators and methods practiced by them on a daily basis. These are more than just mere suggestions or tips; they’re the very building blocks of what makes animation careers successful. How they see the world around them, how their thoughts shape and form, to the way they handle feedback and deadlines, you will learn what it really takes to think and work like a professional animator.
1. Daily Sketching And Visual Practice
Serious animators treat the act of sketching in a similar manner to how athletes treat training – it’s something that cannot be negotiated. All successful animators draw every day, even if it’s just 15 minutes. It keeps their eyes sharp, and hand-eye coordination going.
But, the beauty of daily sketching is that you don’t need to wait for fancy equipment or for perfect conditions. A lot of animators keep small sketchbooks with them wherever they go and make quick gestural drawings of people in coffee shops, animals at parks or interesting details they see. The sketches aren’t meant to be masterpieces. They are exercises that develop visual memory and enhance understanding of form, weight and movement.
Life drawing sessions are particularly useful. To draw real, moving people you learn how bodies actually move, how weight is transferred and how clothes respond in action. These are skills at the core of character animation, even if the characters are stylized or cartoony. The fundamentals are all the same whether you’re drawing a real human or a bouncing ball with eyes.
Digital painting has also added to a new era in animations. Pros often spend hours per day practicing on their tablets and styluses in order to develop muscle memory that allows them to work quickly digitally. They play with different brushes, they noodle around with various pieces of software and they stay comfortable with the tech that will be feeding into their production pipeline.
2. Studying Motion And Movement Constantly
The pros are obsessed with movement. They see the world differently from most people. When a bird flies, they’re analyzing the mechanics of the wings. You’re seeing how the body as a whole participates in that expression when someone’s laughing.
This is not just a matter of observation. Video references are watched and studied by most animators. They could record themselves doing something and play it back in slow motion, frame by frame if necessary, to see exactly what happens at each instant of time. Sports tapes, dance reels and nature documentaries serve as textbooks for learning how things move.
Professional practitioners don’t just see the twelve principles of animation — including squash and stretch, anticipation, staging, etc. They make sure to be on the lookout for them both in real world references and other animations. When they watch movies or cartoons, they are dissecting timing and spacing and thinking about how animators solved certain movement problems.
Professional animators learn physics, too – only not in any academic sense. This is how they naturally understand gravity and momentum and energy transference: they watch, they play and fumble about. They also know that a ball slows down as it bounces upward, but accelerates while falling. They comprehend that heavier objects behave differently from lighter ones and are able to articulate this mass visually through animation.
3. Maintaining An Organized Workflow System
Organization may not be the sexiest thing in the world to talk about, but it’s a fundamental skill in professional animation. One animated scene can consist of hundreds or thousands of files. Projects can soon turn into a chaotic mess without some decent organization in place.
Animation professionals themselves establish their own systems that work for them, and stick with it as if it were a religion. They establish clear project folder structures, are strict with file naming conventions, and version diligently. Instead of “final_final_REAL_final.ma,” they’d use naming such as “scene03_shot12_v004.ma” that immediately indicates to them what is in the file and what version it is.
Project management is about more than just files. Note the tasks, deadlines and finally your progress as a professional. Many use specialized software — like Shotgun, Ftrack or even simple spreadsheets — to track what’s left to be done, what is in progress and the stuff that’s completed. This is even more crucial when you are involved in team work and coordination becomes the key.
Back-up systems are another key aspect of organization. No pro animators ever trust their work to a single hard drive or location. They employ automated backup and cloud storage and adhere to the 3-2-1 rule of backup: three copies of your files (two on different media, one offsite).
4. Seeking And Applying Feedback Constructively
None of this work happens in a vacuum, and pros know feedback is the quickest way to up your game. But it goes beyond just taking feedback—it’s about seeking out feedback and implementing it without feeling personally attacked.
Animators often show work-in-progress to colleagues, mentors, or online communities. They don’t wait until they can “get things perfect” to begin showing what they have. In reality, if you can receive feedback early in the process it saves you wasting time on things that don’t work.
The secret is in asking the right questions when seeking feedback. Not “What do you think?” but getting to the stage now where we question, “Does this walk cycle feel like there’s enough weight in it?” or “Does the timing of this anticipation work?” By asking specific questions, you will obtain actionable feedback instead of general opinions.
Just as important is how professionals react to criticism. They listen without instantly defending their decisions. They hear notes, remove their ego and think about outside notes, even when it hurts. Not every piece of feedback gets made, and that’s okay; but every piece gets thought about. This emotional intelligence is what separates the professional from the amateur who falls in love with his or her first idea.
Creative directors and lead animators give regular feedback to their crews as well. As professionals, we learn to give clear, constructive criticism that helps people improve but doesn’t discourage them. As jobs become more advanced, this is a valuable skill.
5. Continuous Learning And Skill Development
The animation field is in constant change, and professional animators must continue to learn during their careers. There is ever-advancing software, technique and technology. Staying current isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Professional animators practice regularly, as in several times a week. It might involve studying online, watching tutorials, reading animation books or trying out a new tool. Some of them are mentored on platforms such as Animation Mentor, iAnimate or Schoolism, where they get to learn from professionals who have been in the business for years.
Learning is not just about technical knowledge. Animators in the field often also learn acting, storytelling, cinematography and design. They get that animation is about more than moving things, but really knowing performance and composition, character places in life. Some enroll in theater or improv classes to learn about character and emotion.
Staying connected to the animation world so you never stop learning is really good. Professionals attend conferences when they can, such as CTN Animation Expo or SIGGRAPH, forums and take part in challenges (like Animation Bootcamp or 11 Second Club). These connections expose them to new ways of doing things and keep their skills sharp.
Learning, as a discipline, also entails what to study. Professional animators constantly re-watch classic Disney movies, study the work of great animators such as Glen Keane or Hayao Miyazaki, and deconstruct modern cartoons to find out why they function. They end up with this mental library of reference that feeds their own work.
6. Time Management And Meeting Deadlines
Animation is a job where the work required to do even only one second of it is time-consuming, and animators become experts at realistic schedules. They know how long it really takes to do things, not just how long they would like them to take. This bracing diagnosis frees them to make some commitments they can deliver.
This process of segmenting large projects into smaller goals is something that all professionals do. Instead of treating a project as one giant mountain to scale, they break it up into a series of smaller, doable chunks: thumbnailing by Tuesday, rough blocking by Thursday, polish pass by next Monday. This technique makes progress tangible, and chases away the paralysis of extremely daunting projects.
Professional animators also respect the 80/20 rule. They have the sense of when something is good enough and they stop tweaking. Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity, and it can kill deadlines. Professionals have the judgment to distinguish between when more polish adds concrete value and when it is just procrastination with a tasteful UI.
Many professionals also time block. They could schedule the morning hours for creative work when their minds are freshest, hold afternoons for technical tasks or meetings, and protect some days entirely from meetings in order to focus deeply. Amid all the admin, make sure to make time for real animation work.
Professional animators leave themselves a buffer when working with clients or studios. They understand that there are revisions and glitches, delays of the unexpected sort. Underpromising and overdelivering generates reputations; overpromising and underdelivering destroys them.
7. Physical Health And Workspace Ergonomics
It’s the sitting-on-your-ass-for-hours that destroys your body. The professional animators, who do not suffer from the chronic pain that often besets the field, develop habits to save their bodies.
Good ergonomics begin with the way your workspace is designed. They invest in good chairs to support their backs, position monitors at eye level to avoid neck strain and set up their drawing tablets or mice so they don’t get shoulder or wrist issues. These are not indulgences — they are necessities for long careers.
You must take regular breaks and keep moving. Many professionals subscribe to the Pomodoro Technique or similar methods: work for 25-50 minutes, then take a 5-10 minute break to stand up, stretch and rest their eyes. Some use apps that prompt them to move, and others try phone timers. The key, though, is less the form than the regularity.
For animators, hand and wrist exercises are particularly valuable. Professionals will do simple stretches during the day, and use stress balls to keep their hand strength up, while also keeping an eye out for any tingling or numbness that might be an indicator of emerging conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome. It is the early catch that keeps career-ending injuries away.
Eye fatigue is also a huge concern. Professional animators swear by the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This small practice will help you to prevent eyestrain. And many put on blue light filters in the evening and have good lighting that doesn’t create glare on screens in their work spaces.
Some professionals also exercise as a part of their work schedule to combat the constant sitting of animation. Yoga, swimming and strength training enable them to prevent this issue – the rounded shoulders and tight hips they are bombarded with due to sitting all day.
8. Building And Keeping Up An Impressive Portfolio
A portfolio isn’t something professional animators make once upon a time when they are looking for work—it’s something they constantly build on and update. The portfolio management habit is a practice of growing and evolving and being ready for opportunity.
Every professional animator is selective about what makes it into their portfolio. They show their best work, not everything they have ever crafted. And as we get better, the older pieces then come out in favor of better examples. Quality always trumps quantity. A portfolio with five great pieces is better than one which has twenty not-so-great ones.
How you show up is as important as what you do. They build clean, easy-to-navigate portfolio websites or demo reels. They make sure videos are compressed and able to load quickly, that the navigation is intuitive, and that contact information is clear. First impressions are made in seconds, and a shoddy portfolio will bury any good work.
The context in which something was made can help viewers grasp the work. For each piece, it’s typical for professionals to write short descriptions about what their role was (especially in team projects), the tools and methods used, and any constraints or challenges they faced. This serves as a way to show potential employers or clients not only what was created, but also how the animator thinks and problem-solves.
Demo reels get special attention. Professional animators understand that many recruiters and directors only watch the first 30 seconds. The best work goes in first, and the whole thing doesn’t run over two minutes. Every shot in a demo reel must earn its inclusion by demonstrating certain skills or solving an interesting problem.
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9. Collaborative Communication Skills
Animation is almost always a team sport, and professionals who animate are good communicators. They form habits that turn them into valuable collaborators and good-to-be-around team members.
So, good communication begins with inquiry. Whether they are receiving an assignment or a brief, professionals make sure they know exactly what is required of them before rolling up their sleeves to get started. They define deadlines, validate references, clarify their stylistic expectations and highlight emergent dependencies from the other team members’ work. This way you don’t have to waste time working on things that aren’t the task at hand.
Frequent updates keep projects moving along. Professional animators don’t vanish into caves and emerge a few weeks later with work in hand. They provide steady updates, raise issues early and stay visible to their teams. This is a practice that can avoid surprises and make course corrections, before wrong time has been sunk into wrong ways.
Documentation is another communication habit. When professionals work they all have clear notes about what they need to do, document their processes for any team member that may need to pick up their files and keep shot notes or change logs. Everyone’s job is easier, and you don’t get knowledge silos like this.
And professional animators know how to sell their work, as well. They build up their work before showing it to directors or clients, have reasons prepared for their design decisions and present their work with confidence while still being receptive to changes. They realize that client presentations are as much about trust-building as progress-showing.
Conflict resolution skills matter too. When creative differences arise — and they will — professionals deal with them respectfully and professionally. They keep what’s best for the project and productive collaboration in mind rather than who’s right, and they don’t let personal feelings get in the way.
10. Balancing Creativity With Technical Excellence
For animation to be great, it has to have both visual vision and technical skill. Professional animators have established habits that allow them to cultivate both sides of this equation without letting one subsume the other.
Never losing sight of the fact that explorations also ensure renewal is important. Professionals make time for personal projects, experimentation, and play. The creativity these areas of interest provide helps ward off burnout and frequently results in creative ideas that benefit their professional work. Many animators take part in game jams, make fan art or have passion projects on the side of their main gigs.
Command of the technical doesn’t mean knowledge of every street in every software package. It means knowing your tools so well that you can figure out how to use a combination of them to solve whatever problem you’re presented with. Professional animators become wizards at their software, mastering keyboard shortcuts and finding or writing custom tools that make rigs or templates to speed up repetitive work.
The balance of artist and technician also extends to knowing when it’s time to be an artist and when it’s time to be a technician. Sometimes the job is purely creative problem solving — finding just the right performance for a character or creating a compelling style. Others, it means technical troubleshooting, fixing rig issues, optimization of render times or making sure things file correctly through pipeline.
Real animators continue to be interested in both art and technology. They go to art museums the same way they try out new plugins. They learned about color theory and they also learned about rendering algorithms. This two-fold interest keeps their output working both beautifully and practically, as all good animation should.
Wrapping Up Your Animation Journey
It’s not as if you’ll build 10 essential habits overnight, and that is perfectly OK. Professionals gain these practices through years of hard work. It all comes down to getting started somewhere and incrementally building. Choose one or two of the habits that are most challenging to you in the present moment and start there. When they become automatic, add another.
And just remember that these habits have a purpose, they don’t exist to make you a better animator. They’re making animation more sustainable as an occupation. They prevent burnout, secure your health, retain your job and allow you to produce work of which you can be proud. They turn animation from a miserable slog into something of a balanced, even joyful, occupation.
The business of animation will keep changing. Cutting-edge technologies including AI, virtual production and real-time rendering are already transforming practices. But those central tenets — daily practice, studying movement, organization, feedback acceptance, continual learning process, time management skills to protect health and portfolios (both reels and traditional)-plus good communication skills & an excellent balance of art and technique — will never change no matter how many times the technology changes. They’re about how to act and think at work, not just tools or techniques.
Your journey, your process and progress, is going to be personal to you. You will find your own versions of these habits that are right for your personality, work approach and life situation. The point is to understand that professional success is built on regular daily habits rather than occasional flashes of inspiration. Cultivate these habits and you’ll cultivate a career that endures.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many months (years) does it usually take to build these professional animator habits?
It usually requires at least two to six months of routine repetition to establish a solid habit. Turning to the research on behavior, studies indicate that 66 days is the average amount of time for a new habit to become automatic; it varies by individual and can depend on how complex the habit in question may be. Begin with one or two of these instead of attempting to institute all ten at once. Once those start to feel natural, work in additional ones. If progress feels slow, don’t be discouraged — sustainable change is always gradual.
Do these professional habits require expensive gear?
Not at all. Professional animators will eventually want to shell out for decent tools, but most of these habits require very little in gear. Sketching every day only requires paper and pencils. All you need for studying motion are your eyes — and possibly a smartphone to record some references. Organization costs nothing except time. Even digital animation can begin with free software such as Blender or Krita. Concentrate on creating the habits; invest in equipment as your skills and budgets develop.
Will any of these habits even apply to me if I’m self-taught rather than animation school trained?
Absolutely. Actually, self-taught animators might have an even greater need for these habits than those who were trained because they can give the structure and discipline that formal education generally imposes. All of the professional animators are self-taught (trained through daily practice). The behaviors are more significant than where you acquired them. Cultivate these habits and skills, and they by itself will help develop your skills regardless of schooling.
How do professional animators not burn themselves out and still keep up with these habits?
Balance is critical. Professional animators think of creative work as a marathon, not a sprint. They build rest and recovery into their schedules, take real vacations, and have interests outside of animation. Most of those things — working out, personal projects and time management, for example — actually shield against burnout by supporting sustainable work habits. The trick is to listen to our body’s signals and adjust intensity (or take a break) as needed, remind ourselves that taking breaks isn’t laziness but actually professional maintenance.
Which should I focus on first, artistic habits or technical habits?
This may be more or less of a factor depending on where you’re at and what your goals are. If you’re having trouble finding work, technical skills and portfolio habits will probably be more immediately useful. If you work, and you don’t like it, artistic enhancement becomes a priority. That being said, the most successful animators don’t pick one or the other — they grow them both at once. Try to alternate focus: perhaps concentrate on technical learning one month, and the next engage in creative exploration. The habits are more powerful in combination, each reinforcing the others over time.
