Animation Fundamentals- Exercises

30.04.2024-/Week 2-Week 

Kelly Lau Jie Ning/ 0354839

Animation Fundamentals/ Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media

Exercises

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INSTRUCTION

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Exercise 1-Bouncing Ball Animation

We do this exercise in class. We must draw a short bouncing ball animation using Adobe Animate.

In week 2 class, we try to use Adobe Animate by creating a bouncing ball animation. In this class, we learn frame rate, timing & spacing, slow in & slow out, timing chart and arcs.

First, we create 3 layers: ball, arc, and floor. 

Fig 1.1 Layers

Next, we draw the floor and the arc.

Fig 1.2 The arc and the floor

After that, we add the ball frame by frame.

Fig 1.3 The ball frame-by-frame

Fig 1.4 Timing & Spacing

The animation that I did in class 

Fig 1.5 Bouncing ball animation done in the class

After I go back home, I have done a second version of the bouncing ball. I added the squeezes element for some balls like when the ball goes up, goes down and hits the floor.

Fig 1.6 added squeezed version layers

Fig 1.7 Screenshot of the Adobe Animation 

Added squeezed version bouncing ball animation

Fig 1.8 Sqeezed version bouncing ball animation

Self-reflection

In this class, I learned the basics of animation. In this bouncing ball animation, I explore more basic elements of animation for example the squeezed element to make the animation look smoother. In this class, I also learn the slow-in and slow-out. I learned that if you have many frames the speed will be slow and if you have fewer frames the object will look like moving at a faster speed. The timing & spacing is also important. It makes our animation look more smoothly.

Exercise 2- Bouncing ball with tail animation

In this task, we need to continue to improve our animation by using Exercise 1- Bouncing ball animation to add squash and stretch in this exercise. We also need to add a tail to the ball.

Here the layers of the tail look weird so I changed it a little bit

Fig 2.1 Some layers of tail

Fig 2.2 The tail after the change

Layers of ball

Fig 2.3 All layers of the ball

Layers of tail

Fig 2.4 All layers of the tail

Layers of tail and ball

Fig 2.5 All layers of the tail and ball

Final output

Fig 2.6 Final animation of bouncing ball with a tail

Self-reflection

In this task, we built on our previous work with the bouncing ball animation by adding squash and stretch effects and a tail to the ball. These additions helped bring the animation to life and made it more dynamic. Adding squash and stretch taught me how to enhance the sense of weight and impact in the animation. The tail added a new layer of complexity, as I learned how to animate it to follow the ball's movement naturally. This exercise improved my understanding of timing and motion in animation, making it a fun and valuable learning experience. Overall, I’m pleased with how my animation skills have developed, and I look forward to applying these techniques in future projects.