Easing is one of the most important factors of a decent animation. To begin making great animations, you must master easing.
Easing is when you start slowly, then speed up, and then slowing down until stopping.
Example: l-l--l---l----l-----------l----l---l--l-l ; the l's are the frames, and the -'s the distance.
This should be the product.
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Now compare the eased animation to the uneased animation
Example: l---l---l---l---l---l---l---l---l (equal distance moved all the way through)
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Do you see how much smoother the top animation looks than the lower one? Easing should be used in most if not all movements of an animation.
Running
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Study the frames, then make your own sort of style of running once you get the concept.
At 21 fps, I found that a 7 frame run looks best (the gif is messed up, can anyone pm me on how to fix it
)I used 3 frames on the ground, 4 in the air.
Frame 1: Front foot on the ground, legs pretty spread apart
Frame 2: Legs come closer, arms come closer, man crouches
Frame 3: Legs and arms cross, man crouches a little more. DO NOT FORGET TO PUT A FRAME WHERE THE LEGS CROSS or else the legs will seem to bounce off each other
Frame 4: Arms and legs finish the cross, man enters the air slightly, raises posture slightly along with origin (1-2 pixel)
Frame 5: Legs spread wider apart with the front leg at an acute angle, origin goes up slightly more, arms spread out and torso raises just a little more.
Frame 6: Man falls about a pixel, front leg goes into an obtuse angle, legs close in as well as arms, torso lowers slightly.
Frame 7: Man is almost on the floor limbs come closer together, torso lowers just a small amount.
Tip: use onionskin trailing with the head, arms, and back leg to make it look smoother if thats what you want.
Stiffness
Yeah, in this section, I can't really give a good example, this is more of a concept. If an animation is stiff, then the figure doesn't look fluid or, to be blunt: good. When most people try to help somebody make their animation flow more, they say "OMGZ you gotsa move all the joints every frame!!!!!!!!!!!" That's wrong. You don't necessarily have to make all the joints move in a frame, but you need to move enough joints to make it look fluid and flow well. Don't overdo it, but also don't EVER under-do joint movement.
Again, an example is hard to give, you just need to be able to understand the concept.
