Act it out...How many times have I heard?

I've heard this so many times and I thought I understood how important it is but I didnt. When I was adjusting and refining my restaurant animation test and had been spending so much time on the last part. I almost didint know what is THE RIGHT TIMING. I was watching the same sequence more than 100 times and felt I was going crazy...but never turned out OK.

I kind of want to fix this problem more logically.

Why my timing did not look right?

What made this timing so bad?

I was not so conscious about those reasons WHY WHY WHY? but I figured the main reason why it did not look right is PHYSICS! I guess my animation did not look physically correct and eventually did not look believable as well. (my Pixar class I'm taking in this semester is called "Physics of Computer Animation" and running into this problem before its first class coming tomorrow is not so bad, by the way :D)

The reason why I thought like this is that I was just copying whole timing from my video reference (I used video reference for my posing and acting purposes but not timing) , and it suddenly turned out "Yeah looks nice :D". What I did at that time was just simply counting the frame numbers and applying it to my animation. I realize the problem was my physics.

Then next question is...

the, How can we know the right timing in terms of PHYSICS?

I guess simply act it out and count how long it takes is the best way. Now I feel like....what a foolish I am because I cant even remember how many times I had heard great animators saying "Act it out!! Use video reference!!". WHY NOT doing the same way...

I leave some great posts related to this...

Act It Out

"Animators act out an animation sequence to get ideas on timing (an animation principle), posing and a variety of acting choices."

"Acting it out gets the animation out of the brain and into the body."

The only breakdowns should be in your animation planning

"The core of animation occurs in our planning. And that is where we should concentrate our style, time and effort."

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, you've hopefully done some planning and know what your poses are going to be on what frames, at least generally speaking. If that's the case, then you're just going to a frame, sculpting your pose, and then saving a key on everything, and then moving on to do the same thing a few frames later or whatever, right? Hopefully, that is the way you are working. If you are only in the first five or six years of being an animator or are a student, then I strongly believe you SHOULD be working that way."

and some more from Shawn Kelly's Tips and Tricks called "Key steps to effective blocking methods" (I was searching for the original post on the internet but I couldnt but fortunately, I had screen captured yeah~ :D)

"Go through your video reference, and anytime you see a major change in weight or pose, draw thumbnail of that pose and write down the frame number that it happened on. Look for which frames feet pick up off the ground, or important breakdown poses between extremes, etc. Draw all of those, and for EVERY ONE be sure to put down the frame number it actually happened on."

I remember Sean told me it's good to go back to basic once we learn something new.