Limited Animation Research - Beth

http://www.fiziwig.com/anim/index15.php

In limited animation characters very often sit or stand side by side in front of some static backdrop, each presenting a 3/4 view to the camera. The characters seldom directly face the camera, nor do they often face each other. Almost never will a character perform any kind of 3-dimensional motion, such as walking in circles, or doing a ballroom dance. Walking motion is almost always side to side in profile, and seldom directly toward or away from the camera.

Head and body turns in limited animation are brief and usually animated with no more than 3 to 5 frames between the extremes. Often, such a character turn involves only the head, with the body remaining in full frontal view. Here is an example from Rocky and Bullwinkle that uses 3 intermediate frames in addition to the two extreme views. Below that is a more extreme example of a fast 180 turn with only one intermediate frame.

Walk cycles in limited animation can vary from full walk cycles similar to traditional animation, to little more than three frames of feet flapping around as the character image is dragged across the background image. Here is a typical 3-frame walk cycle from Peabody's Improbable History. Notice that the pants are black and there is no way to tell which is the right leg and which is the left. That way the same three frames can be cycled endlessly with no need to have separate half-cycles for left and right legs. In addition, this walk cycle is filmed on twos so that these three frames actually occupy six frames worth of time. I'll explore limited animation walk and run cycles in greater detail in a future tutorial.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6193603.stm

If you look at many of Hanna-Barbera's most popular characters - Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo - you will see that they wear a necktie or have a prominent collar.

This meant that the body could remain static when the character was speaking, and the artists would only have to re-draw the character's face in each frame.