Animation looks stiff

[JSCreativelab]

Hi, I'm currently practising with Animate. My experience is therefore not yet that great. For our shop I should animate a figure that waves.

I got the waving "reasonably" right, but the figure is still extremely stiff. How can I work on the figure so that it doesn't look so stiff? Do you have any tips and tricks or tutorials for me? Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything in the media centre that really addresses my problem. I don't want him to move any further, but "just" not look so stiff. But when I do something with the scaling, for example, it looks even more unnatural than usual.

I would be very grateful for a few professional tips.

[n. tilcheff · Accepted solution]

For a more organic feel you will need a fully-functional rig with articulated joints.

A gesture of an arm requires a subtle change in the whole pose.

Only then your character will look properly animated and not stiff and unnatural.

Here is a quick exaggerated sketch I did to illustrate my point:

These are the four key poses in the animation:

Hope this helps!

[JSCreativelab]

Oh, thank you so much for your examples! That helps me a lot! I will give it a try. The moving the body thing makes complete sense to me. How could I have forgotten that.

Many thanks again! I'll get in touch if I have any further questions.