Bouncing Ball Animation Exercise.

For this part of the unit, i was introduced how to make a simple 2D animation on Photoshop. The task seemed relatively simple to start with, as all i had to do was make a small 1-2 second animation of a ball bouncing. However, from the first two animations i produced, i began noticing that there were elements that were stiff, unrealistic and didn't comply well within the true physics of a bouncing ball. It took me roughly around 5 attempts of playing around with the structure until i began to understand the statistics that helped me refine my animations.

First off was to understand the importance of speed, trajectory, gravity and forces. When  a ball bounces, it is based on how it was thrown, at what rate of speed it was thrown at and how the object reacts on impact from the rate of that force. As i began playing around with different paths for my bouncing ball, i began noticing patterns in where to go to make the animation look more realistic. Of course the ball's main focus of bounce is depending on what material it was made out of, whether hard or soft etc. For example a tennis ball bounces, but an actual bouncy ball would bounce higher and more rapidly. So different bounces can be based on imagining the material in which the ball was made.

When planning out my animation, i used guidelines in where my ball would bounce and the angles. These angles look like curves/bounces which mimic the course in which the ball will follow. This was 50% of the difficulty, as creating the right amount of curves had to be completely accurate based on how the ball was falling and at what speed. Another important element was understanding how speed worked within the sketches. The more drawings in a section of the animation would slow down the process, whereas less drawings would make the sequence faster. So for example, drawing the sketches for a bouncing ball, there would be less drawn balls when the object is falling to the ground and then there is more balls at the heights of the bounce (where it would slow down) to decrease the speed. In doing this, it adds more realism to the idea of force, gravity and weight.  Here is what i figured out whilst sketching the curves and arcs for my ball's trajectory:

. The thinner the arcs (closer together) = The slower the bounce.

. The wider the arcs (further apart) = The faster the bounce.

. Thinner arcs = More balls = Slower speed

. Wider arcs = Less balls = Faster speed

. More balls = more frames of balls = takes more time (slower)

. Less balls = less frames of the balls = takes less time (faster)

 Here is an image showing an example of what i mean:

In this image you can see where the ball is at it's fastest and slowest. As previously mentioned, to add the effect of speed as the ball falls to the ground, there are less drawn balls. Whereas, enhancing the slowing down of the ball adds more drawings. The basics in this drawing are evident of the ball slowing down, with the height in which the arcs drop. Also the appearance of more drawn balls highlights the speed reducing which is very visible in this image. As the ball slows down and reduces height, the balls are drawn closer together, which if you think if more frames are drawn the same way would emphasise the stationary appeal of the object, instead of being more spaced apart in the previous arcs.

Here is  one example of my animation, where i tried to get to grips with speed, trajectory and force. I didn't pay to much attention to the physical changes of the ball at this time, as i wanted to pay more attention to the directions and heights in which the ball followed. Although the first few bounces seemed pretty accurate, there was no sense after of the ball reducing speed. My arcs reduced height but not width, so there was the error of the ball not slowing down sufficiently after the forces of the bounces. As the ball loses speed, there are more bounces towards the end, which previously stated highlights the visual effect of reducing speed. Also from the first bounce, the ball gradually loses force, which also shows the impact of reduced speed. In this animation, there is no evidence of that after the first bounce.

Here is another example from my test animations. I paid slightly more attention to the physical alterations of the ball, so i had better practice of what the object would look like from the impacts of force and speed etc. I think this animation is good in terms of reduction of arcs and height etc, However, it is far to slow in it's peaks. My error here was that the arc in which the ball initial fled from would of had more speed. I also added more FPS because i wanted the animation to look smoother. However, in doing this it was evident that it slowed down my entire animation because of that factor. It should have been faster to start with, then slowed down, but i misjudged the effects of the guidelines i drew for the balls bouncing path.

I went back to not focusing so much on the ball's appeal this time. As from the previous error, i needed to re-focus on the trajectory of the ball's path etc. I think i did a lot better this time around, as the ball has the correct amount of speed and width of arcs. However, the only element i got wrong, was after the second bounce, i didn't reduce the width so much on that third arc, which would've highlighted the ball slowing down much better. It seemed to wide for the path in which it was taking, but everything else i believe went according to plan. Although truly this is a simple task, it does take a lot of focus to understand the true physics of a ball bouncing. I have probably made about 7 animations now in order to obtain the right idea.

Programmes used: Photoshop CS5 Extended, Quicktime Player 2011

Bibliography:

. Google Images