Episode Interactive is an app like a visual novel but with more animations.

The characters remind me of paper cutouts, there is an option for users to make their own story using their characters and props, but I rather solo this.

Anyone know how they animate their characters?

(I have a few designs that I may post later on for criticism.)

Wanting to know how to go about this and make it look somewhat professional

Sorry if this is a silly question am looking for advice thanks if you read this entire thing.

https://www.episodeinteractive.com/

Anyone know how they animate their characters?

This is not a game design question, so I'm moving it out of the Game
Design forum. Moving to Visual Arts.

I'm very certain they're animating the characters with After Effects. The general idea of how is something like this:

1) Draw/Design the character in Photoshop (or in Inkscape/Illustrator and then export it to Photoshop).

2) Separate each part of the character that you would like to animate by placing them on different layers. For instance, if you wanted to animate an arm bending back and forth, you'd have to have the forearm and upper arm on separate layers.

3) Export the layers to After Effects and then parent them. I.E. The hand would be parented to the forearm and the forearm would be parented to the shoulder, etc etc.

At that point, you're pretty much ready to animate the character. However, if you're not really experienced with AE or animation in general, you'll probably have to start with a couple tutorials to get acquainted with the software.

You could go the PS/AE route, but Animate (Another Adobe product) and Flash-style animation tools in general seem to be the standard for doing this kind of animation.

I'm very certain they're animating the characters with After Effects. The general idea of how is something like this:

1) Draw/Design the character in Photoshop (or in Inkscape/Illustrator and then export it to Photoshop).

2) Separate each part of the character that you would like to animate by placing them on different layers. For instance, if you wanted to animate an arm bending back and forth, you'd have to have the forearm and upper arm on separate layers.

3) Export the layers to After Effects and then parent them. I.E. The hand would be parented to the forearm and the forearm would be parented to the shoulder, etc etc.

At that point, you're pretty much ready to animate the character. However, if you're not really experienced with AE or animation in general, you'll probably have to start with a couple tutorials to get acquainted with the software.

Thanks I do know how to use AE but I perfer Blender

Thanks I do know how to use AE but I perfer Blender

It stays the same.

Here is a poorly made example, I color coded each part to show where it's broken.

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Here I am also using Blender's bones, that way I can export it as .fbx to Unity, the engine I would use for this type of game.

The characters remind me of paper cutouts

The name of that style of animation is literally "cut-out", and is one of the two major styles used in 2D animation. The other style is called "frame-by-frame".
Some animation use both techniques at the same time for a hybrid look (modern My Little Pony is an example, it's made with Adobe Flash which is now called Adobe Animate CC).

Anyone know how they animate their characters?

Besides what's already been mentioned, any of these tools have built-in cutout animation functionality. Check their documentation:

- OpenToonz
- Synfig
- Toon Boom Harmony
- Moho


Also, someone made animated portraits for their game using Live2D, a Japanese program that relies on warping effects to give the illusion of depth.
This type of style is usually called "2.5D", like it's 2D but with something extra.
- Live2D Cubism
- Animated portraits