Character Rigging and Animation best practices for 2D characters

I have been following different tutorials about character rigging using the Skinning Editor on Unity. Some of the character samples I have developed are front-view. I am developing a platformer-like game. Therefore, it is important to consider side-view animations most of the time. When I started creating bones using the Skinning Editor on Unity, I found it quite difficult to move the front-view face into the side-view, as well as change the body position.

front-view example of my characters.



In this context, what would be the best practice? For main animations like idle, running, walk, jump, attack, etc., is it better to create the animations on Unity using side-view characters (e.g., Lost Crypt Unity's 2d demo)? Or, is there a good tutorial on how to deal with front-face characters to create 2d animations using the Skinning Editor on Unity?

 

I'm not sure how you would ever make a 2D face-on view of a sprite look like a side view... this would normally be handled by having separate sprites for side view vs head-on view.