Punching Tutorial (Fighting Basics)

Notice: I will not be putting up any pictures, instead I will upload a .piv file for you to download. Please do not steal my animations.

So, You may be asking, how can I make a fighting animation. I'm pretty sure you probably have already experimented with this, but the outcome probably was very stiff and choppy. Now the question is, How can I make a good fighting animation? Well. First we need to reduce choppiness. How? There is a technique called easing. Easing is when you start an animation off by moving the onionskin only a little bit. The onionskin will get bigger and the gray area will become less close to the stick man.
The first frame of any animation should start off with only a little gray area. If you've looked at my animations, you'll know what I mean. The second frame should have twice the amount of onionskin, THIS WILL LIMIT how much the stick can move in one frame, but that's how you reduce the unrealism. Keep doubling the amount of the gray area in your desired motion until the 6th or 7th frame, then just keep going until you come to a suitable place to reduce the onionskin back to as much gray area as on the first frame. Make sure to do this considerably, about every 10 to 15 frames or so.
The problem that most people have with the animations is that they don't understand easing. Personally, this took me about 2 months to master, it might take you anywhere from 1 week to 3 months, depending on you and how you animate. Easing is essential. You must make sure that you learn it if you want to make good looking realistic animations. Try to practice easing until you can do it like me without any guides, then proceed to learn other movements. IT WILL HELP A LOT, TRUST ME!!

I now assume that you can ease and do it very fluently without any guides. Let's move on to the punching tutorial.

Punching is the foundation for fighting animations. It is like the base of the animation. In order to make a punch seem realistic, you must first know the movement. In real life It's just your arm straightening in a forward movement. Because you are 3D and the stick is 2D, you have to make the arm go up as usual(DON'T forget to ease this.) and when the arm is at the top, it should be in a bent position.
THIS IS CRITICAL: With the arm in the bent position, make it disappear for a frame, put it on the other arm, this will create the illusion that the arm is actually on the other side and you can't see it from a 2D angle, after this frame just straighten the arm out like a normal punch and ease the stick man back into position, ready to punch again.
Remember the stick must move forward when it punches, so make sure the legs move like a walking animation. also here is a .piv file:

Download Me MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PIVOT 3 BETA OR IT WON'T DISPLAY THE ANIMATION.