As the title states, my question is about the way you animate stick fig animation. I'm currently using head-first then draw the body, but I find the body hard to co-operate and place like it was in my head, it comes to some wierd posing, but at the same time it comes out pretty smooth and eased.

I tried to draw the body first but I have some problem with resizing, since I add the head afterwards.

To sum it up:

Does anyone have any tips, info or feedback on how to animate in head-first? Or is changing style a good idea?

Here is a short generic combo to show my style. I managed to pull that one off well, but I had to redo a couple of times.
http://www.truploader.com/view/101341

Thanks in advance! :)
EDIT:

Here is a anim I did recently, I tried to mix all of your opinions and did like so: I did a movement leading up to a major action (in this case a punch), what I normally do is to do an entire battle with only the head first then the body. So this is done to do it one movement at a time instead of the whole anim, Do you think the animation is good? Should I continue with this style? I like it and it's easier, but since animation is entertainment for the viewers, its good to ask you aswell, is the end-result a good enough to keep animating in this way?

http://www.truploader.com/view/421328

personally, I completely finish a frame before going to the next one.

if you have problems with resizing, use the grid and frequently check how the frames you've done look in sequence before moving on

I use basically the onion skin sorta way, I start with the legs and torso, then the head, then the arms last, so i do one frame at a time. What method you should use completely depends on what way you like the most and what works for you. I would try maybe some other methods to see what you like the most

Quote from Index

personally, I completely finish a frame before going to the next one.

if you have problems with resizing, use the grid and frequently check how the frames you've done look in sequence before moving on

tnx

Quote from Index

personally, I completely finish a frame before going to the next one.

if you have problems with resizing, use the grid and frequently check how the frames you've done look in sequence before moving on

I've always been using the grid, but body-first seem to make it all wobbly for me.

Well, I recieved alot of tips on diffrent ways of animating. :)
Though, I'd like to ask if someone has more tips on head-first animating?

Maybe try keyframing before filling in the rest of the frames with heads and then going back to the body. It might help keep the head in a better position for the body to fill around it.

Or it might not; I'm just throwing stuff out there.

Quote from Zed

Maybe try keyframing before filling in the rest of the frames with heads and then going back to the body. It might help keep the head in a better position for the body to fill around it.

Or it might not; I'm just throwing stuff out there.

I'm not sure I understood what you said there. I do set up a number of blank keyframes and then start adding in the head, but I get a feeling its not what you meant?

Bump, I made another anim! Read the Edit note for an explanation. :)

"Keyframing" in this context means drawing a few complete frames throughout the animation and then filling in the gaps between them. If you were doing a fight, for example, you might draw all the frames where one guy's fist/foot is in contact with the other's face. Then you'd do the anticipation and followthrough afterwards.

I always go frame by frame, double framing only when using extreme easing. I always animate the bodies first before animating the heads. That's so I can have complete control on how my stickfigures look like in each keyframe. I mainly use the brush tool, but for close-ups and angles I use the line tool. The outcomes were usually decent and I knew what I was animating.

Personally, I draw the whole stick figure at once, double frame (usually a lot) and after add weapons/clothing after if needed, but with full body i'd say keyframing and drawing a sketch first is your best bet. Doing the head first (The method stone uses/used idk) hasn't worked for me at all, since you have to come up with the moves beforehand and if you don't specifically write them down then they usually turn out quite bland and boring.

Thank you for the tips everyone! I'll see to it to find something that really fits me soon and I'll try the methods you told me. :D

Sorry for reviving a thread but hopefully this thread isn't THAT old.

Well, I've been trying diffrent methods, the body first method fell flat on its face, I can't get it smooth nor right in the other aspects. The only thing that feels comfortable is head-first but I am still having problems with it, like doing small movements like, stretching an arm out to get something while standing still or crouch down. Animating a fig on the move is not that hard though.

I use line tool, I don't have to worry about wobblyness that way, that and I fail artistically. I animate the torso and legs first. I'll move the lines around for small movements, and re-draw them for the bigger ones.
Then I'll go back and add in the arms, then the head.

Huh...I realize I stalk around way too much and post way too little :/