Commencing the first week of animation tasks was the bouncing ball, which is the quintessential exercise for an animator learning and adapting their skillset. In my first attempt (as seen below), the ball is bouncing onto a stationary spot, and I have tried to make it appear ‘realistic’ with elements of slight exaggeration in the squash and stretch. “The animator’s job is to synthesise movements and apply just the right amount of creative exaggeration to make the movement look natural within the cartoon medium” (Whitaker and Halas, 2009, p.27). Reflecting on improvement, however, the slight roll at the end seems slightly unnatural in movement, and the frames should be extended to produce a more natural roll in timing.
The Second ball bounce included a sideways movement that was tricky to stop convincingly and realistically. To achieve the smooth and circular ball arcs, I used a motion train to easily manipulate the height and distance of each bounce. To deepen a further understanding of this, I would work on perfecting the timing by studying real-life references of balls rolling to a natural stop in the future.
References
.WHITAKER, R and HAROLD, J. 2009. Timing for Animation. Amsterdam, Focal Publishing. Page 27.