I am often asked how I make my animations so smooth, so please let me explain:

Have you ever watched the movement of a band conductor? I’ve never made this analogy before, but I think it’s a fine example of the flowy feel I aim for in my work. Here is an excellent example, (I’m not much of a fan of Beethoven, in particular this song but the conductor poses some excellent sweeping movements and flicks that beautifully coincide with the music.)

Of course the next point I want to make is that you want to aim for a mixture of pose-to-pose and straight ahead animation. Straight ahead animation is what really gives your work that smooth look, but it does have it’s cons… like having your character resize out of proportion, poor planning, etc. Mixing some pose-to-pose in the bag fixes those problems. (Also I want to point out that I almost always re-edit my key poses as I’m working on breakdowns.)

Lastly I’ll go and inbetween everything until it looks right. You may have already seen this video I posted once - It shows exactly how I work.