This exercise is to have a character jump and throw a ball into a hoop, the intent is to figure out how to effectively convey body mechanics with the 12 principles. A mixture of squash and stretch, arcs, anticipation, easing in and out, follow through and overlap, and combine these to create a character who can jump and shoot.
The first thing to do was to find reference that can help understand the body mechanics and break down the process of dribbling a ball and then jump shooting it into a hoop.
The dribble for example has anticipation and arcs with squash and stretch for the ball to give the the push of the hand on the ball and the weight of the ball. The form of the body is also important making sure the line of action is pushed into a C shape for a solid form. Easing in and out is also important to ensure the speed and bounce has the right energy from the force.
The second part of this was the jump shot, and how it has an anticipation and follow through to help with the understanding of throwing the ball, the anticipation is one of the most important aspects of the throw as it helps produce the power and speed of the ball as it leaves the hand as well as direction. Secondary action would be the trousers swaying which could help with understanding pieces of the rig should have it to convey the aspect of weight of items and the feeling of movement.
Even though these videos were used as reference, its okay to push the limits on what can be done with the understanding of bouncing and throwing a ball. Originally the plan was to create a very by the books animation following the reference.
The first attempt at this was created with the intent to follow the references closely, but it was suggested to add some exaggeration to push the poses and to make it be an action that tom himself would do and not just a by the books jump and throw.
The second attempt this time the latter poses were redone and tweaked to emphasis the exaggeration and follow through, giving it a much more toony scene of Tom throwing the ball and the ball hitting him an action with reaction moment.
More principles were used and smoother arcs were considered throughout to try and make the follow through and overlapping action a little more expressive, squash and stretch has been used for the ball and the model itself, arcs were studied throughout to make sure they have a smooth transition.
The final version this one slightly different from the previous with adjustments to the ball’s movement and the impact moment, were it hits him this one removing a few frames to try and speed up the process.
Overall: the scene successfully conveys the goal of the principles, it uses a lot of squash and stretch, arcs and overlapping action and follow through to help push the piece further some secondary action might help give an idea of items on him that are lose such as whiskers could be affected while jumping which in term helps with the feeling of him moving through space.