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@stimuli , do you get the same problem creating a set of single frame images.  Maybe try a different codec ? 
 

I got it fixed, mark, with some advice from "bagginsbill"
was an openGL issue with a recent graphics card I got. simply changing some of the preview render settings fixed it =)

JosterD, you have been strangely silent apart from your origional post.
Is any of the info posted here helping at all?

Whatever software you are animating in has its own shortcuts to certain animating tasks. Discovering these shortcuts just takes lots and lots of trial and error.
For Poser (the only one I animate in) the real movement magic is in "spline wrangling" (coined a phase! WOOT!) in the spline wave editor pallette. If you arent familiar with it just click the long button at the top of Poser's key frame window that has the wavey line on it. This graph is the key to making poser figures move well.

P.S. Isaoshi, thank you for the kind words =)