More on anticipation and planning out animations

Ok well I am going to give up on my soccer kick animation because I realized I really screwed things up.

First of all... I didn't plan it out at ALL.. Which is a big mistake I won't make again... But hey you learn from your mistakes and I am ready to work on my new animation anyways. Second of all. I didn't work on my anticipation at all. I found a website a while ago (danimating.com) and I found a person hitting a tennis racket.

What I realized. This guy probably did a ton of studying references and took videos of himself before he made this animation. And furthermore you can tell what type of person it is. He is a pro because the ease of him serving and the power he had in it showed it. And after the action he landed with ease and shuffled his feet to get the return hit.

Another thing I realized was that. There are more frames for the anticipation instead of the actualy swing of the racket.

Actually when he swings the racket it goes in a few frames. To show how fast it is going, and to show power. What I made a mistake on was actually making the frames not skip when kicking the leg. I had it evenly spaced out as I can. But I realized it doesn't matter if you have the anticipation right.

And there was a slight breaking of the arm when he was serving but went by to fast that you cant tell.

Also another thing that I realized that there was a Double X. The crossing of the elbow.
(From the Animator's Survival Kit)

So rule of thumb. Work on anticipation a lot. Don't make the animation to slow (my problem) Fly by the movement. And prepare your animation!