How to Learn Live2D and Master It in 3 Months

Step 1: Know What Skills You Need

“What are you talking about? I’m here to learn Live2D! Isn’t that obvious?”

Not really! It’s important to know exactly what skills you need so you won’t waste time by heading in the wrong direction.

When I started, I didn’t realize you don’t have to have great drawing skill to start in Live2D—that was a surprise!

Here are the key things to focus on when learning Live2D:

1. Learning Live2D Processes
2. Learning Animation Principles
3. Learning to Process Live2D Illustrations
4. Learning Live2D Animation Tools
5. Learning Live2D Supplementary Tools
6. Optional – Learning to Draw Live2D Illustration

Step 2: Follow a Good Tutorial from Start to Finish

The key word here is great tutorial. You want to learn from someone who really knows their stuff (like my Live2D rigging tutorials – shameless self-plug). Especially when you are starting out, it’s important to learn the right way.

There are lots of ways to do things in Live2D that can achieve the same result, but some ways are better than others. Experienced riggers think deeper about things like making their workflow easier and using fewer computer resources.

New learners might not know the best way yet, so learning from a pro is super helpful.

Also, it is very important to follow a tutorial from beginning to end. Do not skip any part or focus on specific part. This gives you a complete picture of the process.

This might be time-consuming at first but will definitely save you lots of time time on unlearning bad practices later. I learned this the hard way!

Quick Tip: Watching other Live2D riggers stream their work is really helpful. It can take time, but you can learn a lot and even ask questions! I used to stream my Live2D rigging on Twitch (I’m taking a break right now, though).

Step 3: Set Live2D SMART Goals

Once you understand the whole Live2D process, set some goals. But not just any goals—SMART Goals! Having a specific goal keeps you motivated.

Example:

I will create a Live2D animation with eye blinking, share it on my Twitter account, and aim for a minimum of 10 likes within the next two weeks.

• S = Specific (Create a Live2D animation featuring eye blinking – You know what you want to do)
• M = Measurable (Aim for 10 likes on your Twitter post – You have a clear way to track progress)
• A = Achievable (Eye blinking animation is a fundamental and satisfying achievement for newcomers – It’s a realistic goal for a beginner)
• R = Relevant (Align with the ultimate goal of learning Live2D – Making sure that everything to related to ultimate goal!)
• T = Time-bound (Complete within 2 weeks – Include deadline for those like to procrastinate!)

When you set goals, always think about what area you need to improve.

Step 4: Build a Strong Foundation

Getting good at Live2D is all about having a solid foundation!

By “foundation,” I mean the basic, sometimes boring stuff that’s actually really important. You will see lots of fancy animations online, but don’t get distracted! Focus on the basics first. Read the manuals and practice the fundamentals every day.

From my experience, my mentors always told me to focus on these basics. After a year or two, I could easily understand how those fancy animations worked and even recreate them most of the time—all thanks to that strong foundation!

Now, I’m one of the people making those cool animations!

Step 5: Join the Live2D Community

It’s always good to have people to learn with. Joining a community (like Reddit’s r/Live2D) is super helpful. You can learn from others, share ideas, get feedback, and ask questions.

If you’re lucky, you might even find a mentor who can help you learn even faster! Getting timely feedback from experts can speed up your learning.

The community helped me a ton with my Live2D questions, and it was also great to have people to support me when I felt like giving up. Don’t learn alone—connect with others! It can really help, especially if you want to do commissions or other projects later.

Step 6: Practice Deliberately and Experiment

It’s not about practicing a lot, but it’s about practicing deliberately. That means be targeted and focusing on things you are not good at yet.

Focus on the basics and seemingly boring tasks, but not the ones you’re already good at.

Always try new things and push yourself to learn new skills! Short, focused practice (even just 5 minutes) is better than hours of unfocused practice.

Before I practice, I always have a clear idea of what I want to learn and what I need to improve. This helps me stay focused, stay away from distractions, and learn new things faster.

Step 7: Practice Consistently

Everyone knows practicing is important, but there’s a science to it!

Which is better:

1. Practicing for 2 hours one day a week, or
2. 5 minutes every day?

According to the perspective of atomic habits, practicing 5 minutes every day is better.

Starting with just 5 minutes a day is easy, but trying to do 2 hours right away can be demotivating and lead to giving up. The most important thing is to make practicing a habit.

Make your practice (1) obvious, (2) fun, (3) easy, and (4) rewarding. Small improvements every day add up to big changes over time. If you improve by just 1% every day for a year, you’ll be 37 times better by the end of the year—not 3.7 times!—thanks to the compound effect.

Although atomic habits contradict goal setting, but I still think it’s helpful to have a general direction. To each their own, I suppose.

I try to practice every day to train my brain and show myself that it’s important. The first 5 minutes are usually the hardest, but once I get started, time flies by! By the end of the day, I have learned a lot before I even realize it.

Step 8: Study Sample Models

Sample models are one of the best ways to learn Live2D. You can learn lots of new techniques from them—it’s truly one of the best resources.

They have helped me discover things that other people don’t usually talk about or things I missed. They really speed up the learning process.

But don’t start with sample models right away. Learn the basics first, so you can really understand what’s going on. I have made some free Live2D sample models you can check out (another shameless plug!).

Step 9: Teach and Share What You Learn

“While we teach, we learn” – Seneca 

When you know you’re going to teach something to someone else, you put in more effort and learn better. This is called the “The Protégé Effect.”

Teaching helps your mind to solidifying and consolidating the information, which will let you really understand and remember what you have learned. This is super helpful for Live2D.

If you are not confident in teaching people right away (That’s me!), try The Rubber Duck Method. Start by explaining things to a rubber duck first. Seriously! Once you feel more confident, you can start answering questions and even making Live2D tutorials, like I’m doing now.

Helping others also helps you learn! Making tutorials and explaining things is one of the best ways to learn and remember information.

Step 10: Learn by Mimicking (It’s Okay!)

I love to try to recreate animations that I think are awesome. Is that copying? Won’t it hurt my creativity?

Mimicking is a great way to learn Live2D, especially when you’re starting out and don’t know what to do. It gives you a starting point.

Mimic and learn from animations you like, then add your own spin, make them better, and eventually, you will develop your own style!

It’s like using something you like as a reference. Your own style will come naturally after you have mastered the basics.

I think there’s a difference between mimicking and just copying. Making something 100% original is almost impossible these days, there’s always some inspiration from somewhere. So, using other work as a reference is fine.

I’m more of a logical thinker than a creative person, so using references is really important for me. But if you are naturally creative, you might not need to do this as much. It’s all about finding what works for you.

Conclusion

You can get pretty well at Live2D in about 3 months if you follow these steps. Once you have done them, you will be ready to go! But there are always new things to learn and skills to pick up.

And, of course, if there’s anything I said was wrong, I’m sorry. I must’ve stupefied, please knock me out of it.