Ball Bounce

For Media 351 we were asked to do two things for our first project. The assignment as a whole uses a simple bouncing ball animation to show the importance of spacing and timing in any form of animation.

For the first part I drew out my sketch of a bouncing ball, then scanned and outlined each frame as a separate layer in photoshop. After importing all of these layers into After Effects, I lined them up side-by-side to play like an old-school animation flip book.

The second part required me to have two different balls, showing different amounts of squash/stretch to create weight. This one had to be keyed entirely in After Effects. This one proved a little more difficult for me, simply because I do not grasp After Effects well enough to be able to get my animations to do exactly what I want. It was still a learning experience and i'm pleased with how it came out.

This project really made me focus on how to manipulate space and timing to create different effects on each object. Sometimes making an unrealistic arc can create a more smooth or realistic feel.