During week 7, we had been given a task to create bouncing ball animations. Trying to vary the weight physics of the ball from ping pong balls to bowling balls. I had practiced this kind of exercise before and referenced the Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams while doing so. I didn’t find this too hard but already can recognise the subtle mistakes and unrealistic movements of some of my practices. For this task, I used Adobe Animator for the first time, it took some getting used to and definately some help from tutorials but I got comfortable enough with the basics.

 

First Try

Second Try

 

 

Different Weights

 

Bowling Ball

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eejc0p7nCM

Ping Pong ball

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTsx5eW2eLU

 

In class we created a ball moving in a linear motion. Once I was happy enough the animation was smooth, I tried to do more spacing practice. I had also done some practice with this using The Animators Survival Kit, so I was familiar with the method. Though I often mix up that the closer the frames are the slower the object moves, and the further the frames are the faster the object seems.

 

Linear Motion

Spacing

Alec had us do an exercise – To draw a wavy line, and animate a ball with the weight and gravity that would be relevant to the climbs and falls. I found this difficult, especially the uphill climb. I felt I couldn’t get the right amount of spacing to mimic the balls struggle to climb, the falling felt much easier. For each beginning of spacing difference I started about mid way of the hills, then gradually increased or decreased the amount of frames.