I've been animating since I was 10 but I had to take a long break due to school and Boy Scouts. I came back now because I want to be an animator as a career, as it has always been my passion.

Here are a few rust breakers I did:

This was to practice combat and blur:
http://www.fileize.com/files/4e3b71c2/ceb/Stickpunch360kick.swf

This was to practice inertia and attempt to make a cool loop:
http://www.fileize.com/files/dbd6fb50/1ec/Stickman_Portals.swf

This was a more recent acrobatics attempt.The flips was good but the landing sucked:
http://www.fileize.com/files/15faf730/2ce/Flipz.swf

Then this, being my first rustbreaker, is a running to flip thing:
http://www.fileize.com/files/5bd83b09/90c/Stickman_run-flip.swf

Any feedback? All criticism is welcome, I know I've dropped back down to noob status.

Dude, your animations would be perfect if you just double-framed! Except for the last anim, its weird.

They would be far from perfect :/
First of all, don't directly link to your animation. if it ends in .swf then find a different link.
Secondly, learn what easing is.
Thirdly, Go look at some movement tutorials.
Lastly, Judging by these animation and the fact that you started animating when you were ten I very seriously doubt you were any better than you are now.
Rust is practically non existent and otherwise just an excuse for excessive laziness. Once you learn easing, you won't forget it. The same with proper physics and movements. Now I will tell you when I take a while off from drawing with my tablet, it is quite awkward to come back to it after a month or so, but that would mean giving up my computer for a month which isn't happening. When this occurs you just have to realize you're drawing like a dumb shit and take your time.

Just keep practicing.
Oh yeah, please make one long animation rather than all of these shorter animations. If it's easier for you to do it the way you did, at least compile them. It's a lot more convenient for me.

Quote from Arch-Angel

They would be far from perfect :/
First of all, don't directly link to your animation. if it ends in .swf then find a different link.
Secondly, learn what easing is.
Thirdly, Go look at some movement tutorials.
Lastly, Judging by these animation and the fact that you started animating when you were ten I very seriously doubt you were any better than you are now.
Rust is practically non existent and otherwise just an excuse for excessive laziness. Once you learn easing, you won't forget it. The same with proper physics and movements. Now I will tell you when I take a while off from drawing with my tablet, it is quite awkward to come back to it after a month or so, but that would mean giving up my computer for a month which isn't happening. When this occurs you just have to realize you're drawing like a dumb shit and take your time.

Just keep practicing.
Oh yeah, please make one long animation rather than all of these shorter animations. If it's easier for you to do it the way you did, at least compile them. It's a lot more convenient for me.

First of all thank you for your critique, it will help me greatly, but I do have some problems:

1. Rust is an existant thing. I know what easing is, I spent a VERY long time learning how to do it in the past. The problem isn't that I don't understand the concept, it's that I'm out of practice.

Here is a few animations from before my long hiatus (done in pivot):
http://www.fileize.com/view/44b8f7fe-7b7/ - Very nice and smooth air kicks
http://www.fileize.com/view/8e139268-3d5/ - A random flight thing
http://www.fileize.com/view/be927c21-48e/ - An old smoothing test where a stickman has a pulling force put on him
http://www.fileize.com/view/35a2d4e0-7d1/ - Another smoothing test, just ragdolling
http://www.fileize.com/view/27fe8d96-4a8/ - An old collaboration
http://www.fileize.com/view/76c27b00-fbc/ - Something less good, but interesting

All these animations are much nicer looking, and have better physics (barring the kicks one, that was supposed to be in zero-g's)
You can also clearly see the amount of easing put in. Perhaps it is just the new medium of flash that is baffling me.

I do know what easing is, but over time I may have forgotten. If I were to put money on it, I would say that my previous statement is true; It is the fact that now I am using flash. It explains why I can't get as natural of movements. I will consult the flash tutorials immediately. Thank you Arch, and thank you Adoozy for the compliments!

Your pivot anims are better than your flash anims. What I see in your flash anims is that its executed poorly. You need to practise, practise and practise. From what I see, I don't really think you've found a style that suits you properly yet.

So keep working and improve. :)

Quote from Dronez

Your pivot anims are better than your flash anims. What I see in your flash anims is that its executed poorly. You need to practise, practise and practise. From what I see, I don't really think you've found a style that suits you properly yet.

So keep working and improve. :)

Thank you drone. I haven't used flash that much until now. I'm doing an animation a day for practice.

Thats cool, sounds like you'll be better in no time!

If you had easing and anticipation down, you'd be fine.
For example, that acrobatics animation; You need some build up before that flip and easing in the air + the landing.

I started out the same exact way. Once you apply those things in in like 2 animations and notice how significant the change is, you'll just be used to it then you'll be using it all the time.

EDIT: Now that I watched it again, there is in fact easing in the air, so never mind about that.

Quote from Raxore

First of all thank you for your critique, it will help me greatly, but I do have some problems:

1. Rust is an existant thing. I know what easing is, I spent a VERY long time learning how to do it in the past. The problem isn't that I don't understand the concept, it's that I'm out of practice.

Here is a few animations from before my long hiatus (done in pivot):
http://www.fileize.com/view/44b8f7fe-7b7/ - Very nice and smooth air kicks
http://www.fileize.com/view/8e139268-3d5/ - A random flight thing
http://www.fileize.com/view/be927c21-48e/ - An old smoothing test where a stickman has a pulling force put on him
http://www.fileize.com/view/35a2d4e0-7d1/ - Another smoothing test, just ragdolling
http://www.fileize.com/view/27fe8d96-4a8/ - An old collaboration
http://www.fileize.com/view/76c27b00-fbc/ - Something less good, but interesting

All these animations are much nicer looking, and have better physics (barring the kicks one, that was supposed to be in zero-g's)
You can also clearly see the amount of easing put in. Perhaps it is just the new medium of flash that is baffling me.

I do know what easing is, but over time I may have forgotten. If I were to put money on it, I would say that my previous statement is true; It is the fact that now I am using flash. It explains why I can't get as natural of movements. I will consult the flash tutorials immediately. Thank you Arch, and thank you Adoozy for the compliments!

Your concept and application of easing should be better than what it is.
Do you know what the terms, smooth, choppy, and fluidity mean in terms of animation? It sounds like you believe easing and smoothness are the same thing, they are not.

If you insist you understand the fundamentals then I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll be looking for more animations from you.
Also, like I mentioned in my first post "Lastly, Judging by these animation and the fact that you started animating when you were ten I very seriously doubt you were any better than you are now. "
Judging by the pivot animations you posted that were "before [your] long hiatus," my statement is correct. If you make one ten second animation every day, and keep your mind open to criticism, you will be a very good animator by the end of April.

Thank you very much arch, and btw:

1. Smooth - Meaning the motions made are clean, enough frames between every action where it is defined without jumping around
2. Choppiness - When an animation does not have the correct amount of frames needed to define the action, it looks "Choppy". It looks like it jumps from one frame to another, this doesn't particularly mean that the movement has no smoothness. Sometimes choppiness is good for combat. Abruptly shifting; variable.
3. Easing - When a motion begins, physics must come into play. Newton's first law, an object at rest wants to stay at rest and an object in motion wishes to stay in motion, dictates that upon the beginning of the action, it will move slowly. It means that you won't just immediately be moving forward very quickly, you have to ease into it. The beginning of the action will be slow until its peak where it will be going at its highest rate, and highest space between frames. As the second property states, when you come to a stop, the beginning of the stop will be fast, until reaching a complete stop, which is when it will be slow/small movements.
4.Fluidity - Smooth and flowing; graceful admittedly, I am not entirely positive if my definition of it is correct. I always thought it meant transitioning from different actions smoothly and naturally.

Thank you again for the critique, and please tell me if I have any of the above definitions wrong.