General Animation advice needed

[shadowedge]

Hi everyone,

animation isn't one of my strong points, I only understand the basics of traditional animation(anticipation, secondary action, follow through etc.)

In the past, I've used rotoscoped guides, to make animation. But right now Im going to animate (non human biped) without guides, without mocap.

So I need advice, see I have a well working rig, a biped with a center of gravity (COG), and a customized control page that lets me key and unkey all animatable controls at the same time.

Based on traditional animation, we make keyposes and draw the inbetweens right? In 3d, the computer makes those IB's for us.

So what would be a better way to do "mano mano" animation?

Is it better to manually key parts of the rig? Or should i animate them the same way in traditional animation by making straightforward keyposes?

So in essence, what Im trying to ask is, how would you go about animating a biped without guides, without mocap?

I just need general advice, nothing application specific

Many thanks!