Animation Wisdom

I originally posted this as a response to this post on Stephen Gregory's blog. He was addressing the question of "what is the secret formula for good animation".
Click Here

I thought my response was insightful enough to re-post on my own blog. Lame, I know.
I changed some at the end to fit here.

I think that deep down every animator knows the answer to that question. But we all want a secret formula because we think that we are applying the principles and then we get scared because our animation still looks like crap. I think the "secret" lies in the deeper understanding of those principles and in being able to control them enough to support (not detract from) our acting choices. I guess you could call it Animation Wisdom. Like any sort of wisdom, Animation Wisdom probably comes from experience and more importantly, expert instruction. I say expert instruction is more important because then we can see the breadth, width and depth of the principles applied right in front of our eyes and that is essential in making rapid progress. Expert instruction can come from people such as Stephen Gregory and his tutoring program but there is also a wealth of info available to us through books and the Internet check out Kieth Lango's tutorial on polishing animation.
I think that key is to always be trying to gain more incite into how to apply the principles in more meaningful ways yet always supporting the acting.