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Why can limited animation make movement look jerky?

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Animated scene from The Wild Robot showing a round-eyed robot with a fox perched on its shoulder in a forest clearing. — Animation Scene from the 2024 science fiction animated film *The Wild Robot*, directed by Chris Sanders.

Limited animation is a technique used to reduce the labor and costs associated with traditional animation by simplifying the production process. In this method, each individual drawing is repeated anywhere from two to five times rather than being displayed as a unique frame for every moment of action.1

Because the number of distinct phases of movement is significantly reduced, the resulting motion lacks the smooth gradation found in full animation, causing the figures to appear jerky on screen. To further minimize work, animators often employ "cycling," where a limited number of body movement phases are drawn once and then repeated to represent repetitive actions like walking or talking. Additionally, in limited animation, often only specific parts of a character are animated while the background and other body parts remain static, which further contributes to the lack of fluid, natural movement.1