Quote from GunniiPlan ahead. This straight ahead animation technique most people animate by here is terribly inefficient. Any professional animator would tell you to stop that and start with extreme keyframes and create inbetweens after you've got an idea of what you will be making. This is especially effective when it comes to timing.
Give this guy a fucking medal. He's the only one I have ever seen say this on here.
I say if you're serious about animation, get a degree, honors degree, masters, you can even do a PHD in animation. I taught many students who have went on to become professional studio artists and animators. Companies like Axis Animation, Framestore, BlackRock Studios, yadda yadda yadda. So if you're serious you need better contacts too. Being in this circle of stick animators can be bad for you as you will not excel beyond stick animation. It doesnt mean you have to leave, you just have to broaden the horizon.
So some tips for your guys would be:
> Possibly get professional schooling (college/university)
> Make industry contacts, or contact those who dont specialize in your field (eg, stickanimation for you guys)
> Step outside stick animation, being in this rut will damage your creativity and originality.
> Stick fights get boring after 5 years (as I started them 12 Years ago) and dont progress anything but your stickfighting animating skills. So do something cinematic with an action plot if you want to get good. Learn to animate character, and not a senseless stick dude jumping about and always fighting. Nobody will care about your characters if they have nothing to empathize with. You need to connect your audience with the character you create, and the only way to do this is through strong progressive storytelling. This doesn't mean it has to be a huge story, shorts can be 2 mins long and still have progression.