Ball Bounce and Walk Cycle

This process and production session was about learning how to make basic animations and to focus on basic motion to make objects move naturally. Our tasks involved creating 2 rough animations, one being a ball bouncing across the screen  and the other being a walk cycle of a simple character. During the tasks, we needed to think about the principles of animation especially squash and stretch for the bouncy ball.

Bouncy Ball



My bouncy ball animation was roughly drawn because we focused on just the motion so the drawing didn't have to be great. I created the animation on Photoshop using the timeline feature that allows drawings to be continually drawn frame after frame thanks to the onion skin feature, which creates a faint drawing of the last frame so the next drawing can be positioned accurately. During the drawing I focused on squash and stretch so when I drew the ball travelling between surfaces it would be a slight oval because it creates the illusion its travelling at a high speed and then when it hits a surface I would make the ball a really flat oval because the momentum pushes the object with massive force against the surface before bouncing away. The final result of the animation creates the illusion that the ball could move in reality because with the principle applied the motion looks realistic.

I really enjoyed this exercise because it is fun to work towards a completed outcome that you can be proud of.

Walk Cycle



My walk cycle didn't go to plan and this was because this was my first time using Photoshop for animation. I understood where to draw and how to use onion skin but I got confused with my timing and spacing when it came to the time line which is why the walk cycle is really fast. However I am happy to say that I now know how to overcome this the next time I use Photoshop for animation. Another problem I had was I didn't have enough paper to continually draw my sequence from left to right and then Photoshop refused to move the drawings so that is why the animation all happens on one spot. Next time I need to overlap my drawings so I have room on the page.

Apart from the difficulties I really enjoyed animating like this and I am really eager to use it in future projects to see what the out come will be.

What Did I Learn?

• Animating on Photoshop.
• Using the Onion skin feature. 
• Using the principle squash and stretch in an animation.
• How to effectively use timing and spacing on a timeline.