For these weeks, one of our tasks was to create 3+ animated ball tests. I chose to animate a tennis ball, a yoga ball, and a canonball. After watching the lectures I gathered reference videos to study the movements of the balls I chose:
These videos fascinated me as I discovered that canonballs actually bounce. Huh.
Animating the tennis ball was definitely the easiest ball to animate due to how similar its movements were to the balls in the examples shown. Timing was initially difficult and I had to rework my brain around Toon Boom Harmony again after not having used it for several months. Eventually after moving around some frames, I achieved a nice result!
The yoga ball was probably the hardest to animate due to how I planned on exaggerating its movements. From observing the yoga ball we have in the house, its definitely more jiggly than most balls. I wanted to really emphasise this which lead to challenges in animating npot only the timing but the ball's quick changes in shape - from circles to a jiggly mess. Regardless, I think it came out well!
Originally I had planned to animate the ball crashing through the floor but after learning that canonballs do indeed bounce, I decided to change that! The movements on this ball type were definitely not easy to nail down either, as the reference video wasn't too clear on what said movements were. To me, it seemed as if the ball was acting like a pebble being skimmed over water - so I emulated that. As the ball would be so heavy I figured it would also have to be thrown very fast to even bounce. I additionally animated cracks forming where the canonball landed to emphasise weight. I was perhaps the most impressed with this test, as I didn't have to touch up the timing at all.
Alongside this: we had our one-on-one sessions with our lecturers! Overall, I'm really suprised and happy with the ball tests I produced! Especially with the yoga ball, I was worried about being able to properly translate the distinct movements of each ball type. In the end, I believe I produced