Question about Limbs and Layers

[En1glVla]

I watched a tutorial of a guy drawing this extremely basic, black and white doodle of a monster and he said to put each body part on a different layer (e.g. head/torso/arm/arm/leg/leg) so I did that but it's very confusing trying to set them up so that I can animate the limbs smoothly and easily. Can anyone give me an example?

1. Do I make 4 layers for arms/forearms, legs/knees or just 2 for arms/legs, I use 2 atm and use classic tween in CS6 with symbol swapping but that's all I know how to do, I'm new
2. How should I draw it into the layers to get the limbs to move naturally like this http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/603782

[HauntedDiapers]

Not an expert by any means but I'd say it'd depend on the type of animation you're doing. For general movement it helps to keep simple, for more complex movement (like someone picking up a cigarette for example) it may be better to do it frame by frame.

By the sound of it you may not be using keyframe caddy, which I definitely recommend. There's a tutorial that's related, although its a walk-cycle, where the guy is animating using tweening and symbols. definitely worth a watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdhuDGOyAXc

[En1glVla]

At 4/18/13 12:23 AM, HauntedDiapers wrote: Not an expert by any means but I'd say it'd depend on the type of animation you're doing. For general movement it helps to keep simple, for more complex movement (like someone picking up a cigarette for example) it may be better to do it frame by frame.

By the sound of it you may not be using keyframe caddy, which I definitely recommend. There's a tutorial that's related, although its a walk-cycle, where the guy is animating using tweening and symbols. definitely worth a watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdhuDGOyAXc

Thanks, I watched a walk cycle, no one shows the legs most of the time it's too time consuming and unneccessary. I just need to know how to attach the limbs to the layers, don't let the question end at one reply please. The thing I'm trying to do is make a character move it's arms/head/mouth/hands/eyes like it's having a conversation, like the link I posted in my last message of this topic, I'm not copying it just using it as a learning guide, but the problem is that I don't know how animators draw in the limbs to the layers to make it look and move smoothly and naturally. Also, should I use 2 or 4 layers for limbs? I'm completely new to this and watched a lot of tutorials but it helps best to ask someone who knows.