so im trying to make a video where a wagon is being pulled down a dirt road.
my frustration is how do i animate the light bouncing of the wagon down the road? best to do it with manual animation or with something like rigid body physics?
Thanks in advance.
It depends on the scene, camera position, how pro is it? Up to you to decide. I many times tried different approach and find the one that i like. Good luck 
Remember that you can animate things using global or local coordinates. You can also animate the influence of attributes such as “parenting.” These techniques can be used to animate the relationship between something (such as a lamp) and the thing that it is attached to (a wagon), while the wagon still carries the lamp down the road. With Blender today (“Animato” …), you can animate any parameter.