From 3d to 2d

Hey guys,

I think I've finally made enough observations to make this claim I've been pondering over for some time. It looks like it's ok to have individual parts of the body move alone in 2d. While eating lunch, I watched a good five minutes worth of pencil tests from the Lion King 1/2 and The Emperor's New Groove and I've found multiple instances where the character's head or arm will move while the rest of the body remains stationary. Not only that, but the same drawing is held.

Now I've always wondered how Disney animators were so amazing with maintaining volume, especially when only a small part of the character moves. Now I see they just hold that drawing until the entire body needs to move again. I'm surprised by this since I've been taught no part of the body can move by itself. Even the slightest head turns would require some torso rotation which in turn requires hip and head counter rotation. I understand all of these minute rotations would be a major pain to do in 2d, but I'm surprised to see some less subtle gestures executed without any torso movement at all.

Another odd thing is I accept this and think it's great while watching a Disney film, but if I do it in my 2d work it immediately stands out as being wrong. Why is that? Is it because I've been working in 3d for so long that I'm used to the character moving to some degree during a hold? I really need to find out since I think this dilemma is slowing down my 2d workflow as I end up trying to add tiny rotations and translations to prevent things from becoming completely still. I've also stopped using a single held drawing for a hold. Instead I redraw the pose every two frame until the hold is over. If anyone knows the answer to my observation, please let me know! I don't need to waste my time trying to add small movements and redrawing held poses if it isn't necessary...