Can anyone recommend books that focus on a: simplifying characters down to basic shapes (i.e. quick sketches, blocks and basic shapes. See images below) and b: planning out key frames with said basic characters. A focus on traditional animation would probably be better as thats the point of view i'm taking this from.

This is one of the things i want to work on. One of the problems i have when planning out the keys / poses is which ones should be the keys. Once i have them the extremes, contacts and breakdowns start to become evident. I know the key frames are exactly that, the key frames, like comic book. The frames that need to be there to tell the story, but when you have some complex movements it seems i can easily "over do" the keys or miss some out entierly. There are some things that are easier to plan out such as a jumping ball or character as the keys are quite evident. It just those complex ones.

There's a book called Simplified Planning for Drawing Animation by Wayne Gilbert which i'm going to look at buying. And before its mentioned i already have Richard Williams' book. Just looking at anybook that are less know but equally as good.

Here's some examples of what i mean. (Hope you dont mind me using your sketches as examples Danny ) Seems simple (and probably eventually is) but is still quite annoying.






Thanks.