How To Learn The Basics Of Design Ultimate Guide For

By Tania Melissa
last updated February 10, 2025
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How to Learn Graphic Design: 7 Steps to Build Your Skills
Learning graphic design can be an excellent skill, whether you want to land a job as a graphic designer or become a well-rounded communications professional. Graphic design is a broad creative discipline that encompasses many types of visual design and communication, from designing brand logos to touching up photographs.
Companies and organizations use graphic design to communicate to their customers or users what they do and who they are. Graphic design is a skill needed in creative fields such as brand marketing, to government agencies that need infographics, to UX departments that need UI designers to create web pages.
In this article, well guide you through the steps to learn essential graphic design skills and point you toward resources for kickstarting your journey.
How to learn graphic design
Learning graphic design starts with the basics, like understanding the principles of design. Step by step, well take you through how to learn these skills.
Read more: What Does a Graphic Designer Do? And How Do I Become One?
1. Learn the basics.
Graphic design is about using visual communication to convey different messages to specific audiences. The basic design principles involve how those messages are represented. Graphic designers need to know color theory, typography, hierarchy, composition, shapes, and layout, and how these work together in an image or website or poster to engage different market segments.
Learn color theory and image formats with UC Boulder:
2. Build your skills with online courses.
Once acquainted with the basics, youre ready to learn the fun stuff. Its easy to build your skills with the wealth of online courses and resources available to us today.
Here are some courses to get you started:
And some guided projects to build specific skills in two hours or less:
Graphic design vs. UX Design: Whats the difference?
Graphic designers often specialize in brand-centric work designing visual elements for companies. They use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and other design tools to convey messages and ideas.
User experience (UX) designers work with product teams to design user-centric interactions using tools like Figma, Sketch, and Miro. In recent years, UX design has gained popularity as a well-paid career path and is expanding from just tech firms to nearly every kind of organization.
Read more: UX Design vs. Graphic Design: Choosing the Right Career Path
3. Master the ins and outs of design programs.
To truly learn graphic design, youll need to be proficient in graphic design software. Most designers use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop for the majority of their work.
If youre just starting out, or hoping to dabble in graphic design, Canva is your best bet. Built mainly for the average person to deliver beautiful social media posts and resumes, designers can peruse Canva to understand which types of aesthetics and designs are trending.
As a graphic designer, youll want to create designs from scratch on Adobe and bring them to life using the talents youve developed.
Read more: 5 Popular Graphic Design Software and How to Choose One
4. Create a portfolio of projects.
Since graphic design is such a visual field, a portfolio is the best way to demonstrate to potential employers your unique skills and work. After youve mastered some skills, you may want to take on projects here and there to build a portfolio.
If you have trouble finding freelance projects, make up your own. Give yourself a prompt, such as creating a logo for a health care technology start-up that focuses on well-being, or assist in designing a series of social media posts for the launch of a cosmetics brand. In your portfolio, youll want to include the brief, the final designs, and any positive feedback you received.
Tips for creating an impressive portfolio
Ready to start building your portfolio? Here are some tips.
1) Show your best work.
2) Express your personality through your designs.
3) Document the impact of your designs, such as increased brand awareness (with real percentages and analytics!).
Read more: Tips for Creating an Impressive Graphic Design Portfolio
5. Grow your network.
As you build up a portfolio, youll also want to grow your network. Connect with fellow designers at meetups or networking events. Search for design leaders on LinkedIn and ask for an informational interview. Think of an industry you may like to focus on, such as non-profit organizations or branding agencies.
To grow your personal brand, you might even think about creating content and sharing it on Instagram, Pinterest, or another platform. Graphic designers often develop a style or niche over the years, and you can land a job easier if companies can get a general idea of what your designs will look like.
6. Get some work experience.
It may feel difficult to land your first job or consulting gig. Remember that you can volunteer or start with an internship to gain more experience on the job. Fiverr and similar freelance platforms can connect you with people willing to pay per gig for work like designing a resume or presentation. This can be a low-stakes way to gain work experience.
Networking can also help you gain contract or freelance work that will build your portfolio, so you can continue adding to your skill set and experience.
Work from anywhere
Learning graphic design can be a useful skill because it can be done anywhere. Graphic designers are one of the top jobs with flexible hours, meaning you can work remotely or even while traveling. Social media marketer is another common remote job that sometimes involves a basic understanding of graphic design.
7. Continue to learn and grow.
Once you've mastered the basics, continue to learn and grow, so you can flourish in your graphic design career. There are always new software tools to learn and innovative ways of designing for brands.
As you grow as a graphic designer, you can take additional courses to learn a specific niche or align your skills with a particular industry. You can focus on mastering motion graphics or another user interface (UI) design field that is gaining speed. Honing your craft and talent while being open to opportunities will help you move quickly in your career.
Learn graphic design with CalArts
Learn the principles of graphic design and skills like typography, image-making, motion graphics, interface design, and editorial design with CalArts Graphic Design Specialization. Get hands-on experience in the capstone project that you can add to your portfolio.
The Ultimate Guide to Animation for Beginners
Your Online Guide for Learning How to Animate
A step-by-step guide for a career in animation, or just for fun!

Dramatic shot by Antnio Vieira
Considering a Career in the Animation Industry?
This guide will show you what professional animators do and share how to get started on your own animation career. It will outline the skills and education you need, as well as key steps to getting a job as a professional animator.
Animation Studios & The Animation Pipeline
Animation is a broad discipline with many facets and specialties. Before we jump in, lets look at some of the behind-the-scenes steps that studios go through to make your favorite animated films.
First, imagine that an animation studio is a machine made up of many moving parts. In this case the parts are departments, people, and projects and together they build visual stories. You can break down the assembly line of this machine, lets call it the Film Production Pipeline, into three large groups:
- Pre-production is the earliest stage of the film, and involves things like script writing, storyboarding, visual development, and others. Its where a lot of the storys building blocks are created.
- Production is the middle stage and includes pieces like character modeling, rigging, and animation. This is where much of the building happens, using those initial blocks to shape the story.
- Post-production is the final stage, including compositing, VFX, and color correction. This last step is about the details, polishing the story and getting it ready for the audience.
The studio is a collaborative environment so while people and departments have their specific areas, a decision in one area can affect all of the following teams down the line.
In this article were mainly focusing on the Animation part of the Film Production Pipeline, but we encourage you to dig into the other elements as well.
To learn more about the animation production process, check out this 3D Animation Pipeline Guide by Dream Farm Studios.
What Animators Do
Animators are artists, but instead of tools like paint brushes they use the characters we see on screen to tell a visual story. Its the animators job to take the script and the directors vision and bring characters to life. If they do it well, the audience may forget that theyre watching what is essentially a digital puppet and not a living, breathing person.
Animators can be acrobats, comedians, and actors, sometimes all in the same scene! Their job is to create dynamic and interesting character performances for movies, TV shows, games, and advertising.

Colorful walk cycle by Hector Gil
Animators generally fall into two main categories:
2D Animators use traditional, hand-drawn techniques or modern, digital tools to tell stories. They use the core principles of timing, spacing, and appeal to bring characters to life on screen.
3D Animators use 3D software to accomplish many of the same things 2D animators do. In addition to the fundamental principles of animation, 3D animators use the advantages of modern software to push their artform to new levels. These artists are responsible for animating everything from spaceships, to dragons, to lead characters.
At their cores, 2D and 3D animators use the same principles, but different tools. Lets look at 3D animators a little more closely:
3D Character Animators bring characters to life on screen. There are many different careers they can focus on, but here are the most highly sought-after roles:
- Feature Film Animators work on movies and TV shows to create appealing and entertaining performances. These animators are responsible for the memorable character performances in movies like Frozen, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and How to Train Your Dragon.
- Game Animators typically focus on body mechanics and physical performances, with an emphasis on weight and impact. They create dynamic animation that makes both the gameplay and storytelling immersive.
- VFX Animators use varying levels of exaggeration and subtlety to animate digital characters alongside their live-action counterparts.They frequently bring superheroes, giant robots, and fantastical creatures to life.
Different Types of Jobs in the Animation Industry
Earlier in this article we outlined the Film Production Pipeline and the three phases of production: Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. Were huge fans of animation, but animators will be the first to tell you that their art is collaborative and that it takes many talented people working together to bring movies, video games, and other projects to life.

Shot by Silvia Panicali
Below is a brief list of some specific job titles you might also encounter in a typical production environment in the animation world.
Pre-Production Job Titles
- Art Director
- Background Artist
- Character Designer
- Concept Artist
- Effects Designer
- Environment Designer
- Previs Artist
- Story Artist
- Visual Development Artist
Production Job Titles
- 3D Modeler
- Animator
- CG Artist
- CG Supervisor
- Character Animator
- Cloth Simulation Artist
- Groom Artist
- Layout Artist
- Layout Technical Director (TD)
- Lighting Artist
- Lighting Supervisor
- Matte Painter
- Modeling Supervisor
- Modeling TD
- Rigging Artist
- Rigging Supervisor
- Rigging TD
- Shading TD
- Shading/Texture Supervisor
- Texture Artist
Post-Production Job Titles:
- 3D Rendering
- Compositor
- Editor
- Motion Graphics Artist
- Roto Artist
- Sounds Effects Artist
- VFX Artist
- Visual Effects Supervisor
The best way to get information about specific skills and requirements for various types of animation jobs is to keep an eye on job listings. Most spell out the requirements in great detail along with any specialized training or experience that might be necessary.
You can find job listings a number of places, including Animation World Networks job section, the Animation Guild, individual studio websites, LinkedIn, and various other job seeking sites.
We think so, but its important to make sure its a good fit for you! Check out this page for more info about salaries and industry growth. We also took an in-depth look at the animation jobs some of our students and mentors are doing, including reasons why they love their work.

Exciting chase by Ximo Ferrer
Do you need a degree to get an animation job?
No! The good news is that you do not need a college or university degree to get a job as a professional animator. Feature film and game studios dont really care about degrees, they care about your skill set.
Do you have good body mechanics? Can you act a range of emotions and scenes? You highlight your skills by putting together a demo reel to show future employers. A demo reel is a series of short clips, usually 15-30 seconds, that showcase your absolute best animated work. For more specific information about what recruiters look for in a demo reel, please see tips from Animation Mentor Co-Founder Shawn Kelly, along with many other blog articles and videos on the subject.
Take a look at Animation Mentors Student Showcase, which is essentially a school demo reel. The Showcase highlights the best work from our students, many of whom started our program with zero animation experience.

Still from a shot by Madison Erwin
Whats next? Learning to animate.
How to start learning animation with Animation Mentor
Animation Mentor offers a 6-course animation training series for people who are new to animation and want to learn how to become professional animators. The courses build upon the 12 principles of animation so that as you progress through the curriculum you create more complex and dynamic assignments.
Like every pro animator in history, youll start by mastering the fundamentals. Learn to animate a basic walk cycle and then move on to create more complex movements like jumping, climbing, and dancing. By the third course, Advanced Body Mechanics, youll use animation reference to create an exciting action sequence.
The rest of the Core Animation Courses focus on creating outstanding animated performances. From perfecting the art of facial animation, to creating engaging dialogue scenes, youll learn to animate Oscar-worthy performances the pros would be proud of.
Once youve mastered the skills you need to succeed, youll get advice from the best mentors in the industry on what studios look for in an animator and how to create the perfect animation demo reel.
All of our courses are taught by industry prosfrom studios like Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Sonywho will give you feedback on your animation and mentor you to be successful. Youll join a caring, online community of like-minded peers who share assignments, feedback and support, and build life-long friendships and connections.You will also have access to professional rigs that you can use on assignments and your demo reel, with ongoing access after you graduate.
In total, the series takes 18 months to complete.
Once youve completed the 6 Core Animation Courses, you can also sign up for the many workshops that teach other specialized skills.
Animation is an art that takes passion, patience, and practice. You cant fake passion, you either have it or you dont, but the rest is just hard work. The true secret to an animators success is this: The more time you spend on animation, the better you will become.
How to Animate for Beginners

Shot of our Quinn rig by Ryan Pfeifenroth
Unlike traditional 2D animators, 3D animators use computers and technically dont need to know how to draw to do their work. Learning basic drawing skills, however, can help you sketch and plan your ideas before taking them to the computer, which saves time in the long run.
Because animators have to make their characters move, act, and react, it is helpful to understand the basics of human anatomy and movement. There are a bunch of great books we recommend, which include exercises and lessons to help you start learning right away.
If you want to learn 3D animation for beginners, check out our free video tutorial series taught by one of our Co-Founders, Bobby Beck. Not only did he help create a school to train future generations of animators, he was also one of the lead animators on Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo!
Bobby will walk you through downloading a free Maya rig and show you how to get access to a student version of Autodesk Mayas software so you can work through the exercises and create a simple animation.
This exercise will help animation beginners get comfortable with the Maya software and familiarize you with animation techniques like:
- Timing
- Spacing
- Weight
- Arcs
- Squash & stretch
- Appeal (and more!)
After youve set up Maya and followed the tutorial to animate our Squirrels rig, you can try another of the best exercises for beginner 3D animatorslearning to animate a bouncing ball.When youve mastered the bouncing ball, feel free to dive deeper into some of our other 3D animation projects for beginners, like learning to animate a character holding a prop. This exercise will help you understand the interaction between a character and their environment, but its a little trickier than it sounds. Luckily, Animation Mentor Co-Founder and Lead ILM Animator Shawn Kelly wrote a great article that will help you avoid some beginner mistakes.
You can also check out the Animation Mentor Blog to find tons of free articles written by our mentors and alumnitheyre full of animation tips and tricks!

Whimsical squirrel house from Maya student Ximo Ferrer
Animation Software for Beginners
Animators use many different tools to animate and while theres no way to list every one of them here, wed like to outline the most popular ones for you (theyre used by animation studios worldwide).
3D Animation Software Tools
- Autodesk Maya If theres a gold standard for 3D animation software its Maya. This is the go-to tool for professional animators and studios, and its crucial that new animators learn to use it. Although licenses can be expensive, Autodesk offers a free educational version.
- Blender Blender is gaining popularity as a high-quality but still free 3D animation tool. This software has grown in recent years to include better usability and exciting features. If the price of Maya is too much for you this is your next choice.
- Houdini Houdini is famous for giving artists the ability to create stunning visual effects. Like Maya its a bit harder to learn, but there is a free version available for students.
- Cinema 4D Marketed as one of the easiest tools for 3D modeling and visual effects, Houdini is good for anyone interested in enhancing live action movies with realistic effects.
- Autodesk 3DS Max 3DS Max is another Autodesk software that covers several animation pipeline steps. Its best known for game animation and modeling.
2D Animation Software Tools
- Toon Boom Harmony Harmony by Toon Boom is an animation tool that can be used by both pros and new animators. We recommend it for our 2D Animation for Beginners Workshop.
- Adobe Animate CC Adobe created this software so its easy for beginners to understand, but also complex enough for professionals to enjoy.
- Adobe Character Animator This softwares main goal is to make facial animation as easy as possible. It does that by connecting to your webcam and animating a 2D character according to your facial expressions. While this is a great tool for beginners, we still recommend learning facial animation on its own.
- Adobe After Effects This software is used in the industry for character animation and character rigging.
Best Animation Hardware
- Drawing Tablet A drawing tablet is a tool used to create digital sketches. This is must if you want to become a concept artist or simply want to draw out a scene for a storyboard. Wacom makes some of the better known products in this area.
- A Good Computer Animating scenes with complex rigs, atmospheric lighting, and multiple moving objects takes a lot of processing power. Youll need fast memory and a good graphics card. If you are not sure exactly what to buy, high or mid-range gaming PCs should have what you need. This website has several good articles about the best computers for animation.
Animation Resources

Cherise Higashis shot of our hungry Aia rig
A great starting place is the Resources section of our website, with links to free e-books, tips and tricks, and webinars for those exploring a future career in animation.
Some other great sites include:
Animation Books for Beginners and Experts Alike
Learn from the legends of animation with these books by famous animators along with books by our mentors and school founders.
Animation Career ResourcesAnimation Tips and Tricks Volume I and Volume II by Shawn Kelly and Animation Mentors Carlos Baena, Keith Sintay, Aaron Gilman and Wayne GilbertCracking Animation: The Aardman Book of 3D Animation by Peter Lord and Brian SibleyHow to Get a Job in Computer Animation by Ed Harriss
General AnimationAnimation: From Script to Screen by Shamus Culhane*Cartoon Animation (The Collectors Series) by Preston Blair*Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volumes I and II: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures by Walt StanchfieldThe Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston*
Anatomy and DrawingAtlas of Human Anatomy of the Artist by Stephen Rogers PeckManwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior by Desmond Morris *Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation by Wayne Gilbert*
ReferenceAnimals in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge*Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists by Mark Simon*Heads by Alex Kayser*The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge
Performance and ActingActing for Animators: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation by Ed Hooks*A Practical Handbook for the Actor by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Robert Previtio, Nathanial Pollack, Scott Zigler and David Mamet
Staging, Lighting, Rendering and CompositionDigital Lighting & Rendering by Jeremy BirnDigital Texturing and Painting by Owen DemersFilm Lighting: Talks with Hollywoods Cinematographers and Gaffers by Kris MalkiewiczThe Art and Science of Digital Compositing, Second Edition by Ron Brinkmann
Animation Mentor Blog
Here you will find a wealth of information about the animation industry, working in animation studios and working on games and movies written by professional animators.
Youll also find in-depth articles about the importance of demo reels; and webinars for how to animate specific challenges like realistic creatures or believable fight scenes; or our series on how to animate the 6 Basic Emotions such as anger, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise and disgust, to name a just a few of the amazing articles youll find.
Start your animation journey today by learning from pros at studios like Pixar, Blue Sky, and ILM!
Get more informationabout Animation Mentors
Character Animation Program.