A lead/head for animation (9)
I believe the answer is:
aliveness
'animation' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a leadhead' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'leadhead' could be 'l' (head letter of 'lead') and 'l' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aliveness that I've seen before include "quick?" , "Vigour, vivacity" .)