And now for something completely different

Secretly quite pleased with this one, as all the time I was working on it I was thinking "this isn't going to work, this isn't going to work... that cup looks terrible... this isn't going to work!"

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination — the ball bouncing itself doesn't really look natural at all (more like it's jumping) and I should have added an extra couple of frames where the ball actually lands in the cup (at the moment, it kind of just vanishes and looks a bit odd). It might also have been cool to have the cup rattle or shake a tiny bit as the ball lands inside it.

I'd also like to do another version where the ball maybe misses the cup and knocks it over or something... if I find the time I might go back and do that.

Overall though, it's really really simple but I think it works pretty well. :]

Just for fun, here's the rough layout for it:

Aggressive ball — 4th attempt.

Variation on the previous attempt, using roughly the same timing and spacing but with a freehand ball. I also applied a little more squash and stretch to the ball as I did quite like the 'gummy' feel of earlier attempts.

Once again, I also did a slower version, but I think it loses a lot of its personality:

Aggressive ball — 3rd attempt

 

Further experimentation with the 'aggressive' ball idea. This time I reverted back to using Photoshop's marquee tool to create the shapes so that I could focus purely on the speed and spacing.

Initially, I thought it was too fast so I lowered the frame rate very slightly to slow it down a little:

I think the slower one is much smoother, but I think the faster version has the kind of aggression I was going for.

Aggressive ball — 2nd attempt

Still not too much different but it actually looks like it's jumping now. Speed remains much the same, though I think that maybe reducing how much the ball squashes when it lands might help to solidify the impact. Angry things aren't floppy!

Aggressive ball — 1st attempt

Despite all promise of beer and cake, I wasn't allowed to stay in the animation studios all night, so I decided to do a bit of digital experimentation in preparation for getting something finalised finished tomorrow.

I wanted to try expressing mood through motion (that sounds very pretentious, I'm sorry) and am attempting to get a ball that bounces in an angry, aggressive manner.

I was aiming for something that kind of draws itself back in preparation before throwing itself downwards with all its weight, but it hasn't really turned out that way. It kind of just looks like it's stuck to the ceiling, falls off and floats back up again. I'm not entirely sure how to go about fixing it — if I remove too many frames I fear it may be too choppy. It's currently running at the highest frame rate possible (for Photoshop anyway), so whether it would be different in Dragon, I don't know.

I'm going to have another shot at it and see if I can speed up the drop at all.

Ball bouncing, take 4

Fourth attempt at a ball bounce, reverting back to a larger ball and again trying to really keep the arcs under control. I tried to emphasize the bounce by using two 'squash' frames instead of just one. I think this one's a bit too fast so I shot it again in 2s, which I think looks a bit better but unfortunately it really emphasizes all the mistakes and inconsistencies!



It's really wobbly right at the end — it was supposed to be a series of smaller bounces as it rolls away but it came out looking more like I just couldn't keep it straight. I think I'd just need to have it bounce a tiny bit higher.

I think I'm beginning to get the hang of a basic bounce so my next target is to have a go at playing with physics, mass and weight a bit more.

Ball bouncing, take 3

Spent the morning working on a few more tests, the first using a smaller ball than before. I managed to get my mitts on a lightbox for the whole thing, meaning it was much easier to keep control of the size of the ball and its movement through the arcs. I think the angle of the bounces look more natural as a result.

Weighted object — 2nd attempts

After my previous attempt at expressing weight didn't come out too well, I started thinking about how I could give a better impression of mass and weight in an object. Even after adjusting the spacing so that the object appeared to fall very heavily, it just didn't have the feeling of a solid impact as it hit the ground and I got to wondering how I might be able to fix that.

What happens when a heavy object hits the ground? Loud noise and... vibration! It seems really obvious now that I think about it. It's still really hastily done but I think the little vibration at the end helps to bring it together. I should have held the first few frames (before the coin drops) just a bit longer, though — just to extend it a bit more.

Weighted object — 1st attempt

First and very quick attempt at expressing the weight of an object.



I don't think I considered the timing of this one carefully enough. There's no depth or feeling of mass. I need to increase the spacing in each frame as the ball drops. As it is, it's too uniform and doesn't really carry any weight.

I can't really use squash and stretch in this instance as I don't want the ball to appear floppy and soft, so I need to figure out how to really emphasise the drop and impact with the ground.

Ball bouncing and other assorted excitement

Was awesome to get back to working again after such a long break. Left with one hell of a headache though — those lightboxes get into your skull a bit.

It's funny how complicated something like a ball bounce actually is. My ball kept shrinking (must see a doctor about that) as the path of the arcs got smaller — ended up just drawing around a coin to keep things consistent.

The angle of the first arc seems a bit unnatural to me — I think it probably should have started dropping a bit sooner. The arc on the second bounce looks a bit too high as well, and I didn't keep an eye on the ground level so the ball lands too far down at the end. Overall though, I think it's passable as a first attempt.

Might try a smaller ball next time and see if it makes things any easier in terms of keeping the size under control.