Essential Animation Techniques for Dynamic Action Sequences by Proro

Want to draw action that actually hits? This class breaks down how pro 2D action animation is built in Japan, from tiny timing tweaks to full long-take fight cuts. You follow Proro’s real key animation pipeline in Clip Studio Paint and finish with a portfolio-ready action scene.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Set up Clip Studio Paint EX for anime work with brushes, lightbox, and perspective rulers
• Build solid action bodies with simplified mannequins and human geometry
• Control arcs and timing to make punches, runs, and jumps feel heavy
• Add afterimages (obake) for speed and readable motion
• Use fluttering follow-through (nabiki) for clothes, hair, and capes
• Animate moving backgrounds (background douga) matched to character perspective
• Exaggerate poses and camera angles for punch and impact
• Direct 1:1 fights with real live-action reference and anime-style key poses
• Create slow-motion hits with camera work and effect accents
• Draw smoke, debris, and shock koma (impact frames) without overdoing it
• Plan a long-take cut: storyboard, layout, wide/tele lens feel, and eye-flow
• Finish rough key animation (dai-ruff to ruff genga) and clean-up
• Write timesheets and camera instructions like a Japanese studio

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic drawing skills, simple human anatomy, willingness to draw a lot of rough frames
• Tools: Clip Studio Paint EX 2.0 or higher (not included), drawing tablet recommended
• Hardware: PC or laptop that runs Clip Studio Paint smoothly, 16GB RAM recommended for long cuts

📝 Description

This is not theory-only animation talk. Proro teaches the way he works at MAPPA, Wit Studio, and Production I.G — you draw along from day one. You start with small drills: arcs, spacing, mannequins, obake, nabiki. Then you stack those pieces into punches, runs, and full fights.

The FX section is super practical. You learn what smoke effects, debris, and impact frames are actually for: directing the eye, selling weight, and covering cuts. No random sparkles. You get shapes, timing, and the common mistakes that make FX look cheap.

Then comes the core of the class: a 5-step long-take build. Storyboard to layout to dai-ruff to rough key animation to clean-up. You pick references, design with wide-angle backgrounds, lock perspective, fix motion, then add obake and camera push. Same order as a real episode job.

You also get the Japan-specific stuff nobody tells you. How to read a storyboard, how to write a timesheet, how to give camera instructions, what studios look for in a portfolio. If you want work on shows like Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen, this is the unfiltered workflow.

All practice files are included as .clip originals — 10 basic drills plus step-by-step long-take files, boards, layout sheets, and Proro’s work settings. You can scrub his timing frame by frame and copy it until it sticks.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Anime majors, beginners, and self-taught artists aiming for jobs in the Japanese anime industry
• Aspiring animators who need a strong action-focused portfolio with key animation cuts
• Junior animators who want sharper, heavier, more stylish fight scenes

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Proro is a Korean 2D animator with 6 years in Tokyo, working as a key animator for MAPPA, Wit Studio, Production I.G, Studio Pierrot, and Studio Mir. He mainly handles action parts on major shonen titles.

His credits include Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Season 2, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, One Punch Man Season 2, Vinland Saga, Boruto, Kaiju No. 8, and Mashle. Directors keep calling him back for the cuts most people avoid — fast, complex action with clean staging.

In this class he shares what he wishes he knew earlier: the basic principles behind flashy cuts, how to meet a director’s intent 100%, and how to package your work so Japanese studios notice you.

🏁 Final Result

• A finished long-take multi-fighter action cut — storyboarded, laid out, rough-animated, with FX, camera work, and timesheet — ready to put in a Japan-style animator portfolio.

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.