Just Ball

I've started the animation with the ball only. It will help to estimate the total time of the animation, pace and spacing. It will also save me a lot of time in case something goes wrong. I won't have to redraw whole character with tail and face. I've added a lot of stretch and squash to exaggerate my character and to help the anticipation.

Research

I've researched some squirrels looking at their tails. My ball will behave a little bit like a squirrel so I think looking at their tails will help me understand my character. I've tried to look at their tails at different situations. Whether they are relaxed, scared or active. Squirrels use their tail to help them keep the balance. So the tail is constantly moving.

Here are some images of squirrels. I will use these images as a reference for the key poses of my character.

Character Design

Here are some sketches I've done for character design. The tail of the character will be long and quite thick. Similar to squirrel's tail. I think the longer tail will more challenging as there will be much more movement. I've decided to add some facial features to my ball. This will give more character to the ball and make it more convincing.

I've drawn the ball in many different positions. This has helped me to discover the character and see what it is capable of doing. I want the ball to make certain poses and I found some of them quite difficult to make without loosing the roundness of the ball. There will be a lot of squash and stretch, which can affect the ball's facial features. So I had to manipulate it so the face stays the same.

Animation test

I've done a simple test of a ball with tail bouncing in one spot. The ball and the tail are very simple, I just wanted to start feeling the tail. How it moves according to the movement of the ball. It wasn't as easy as I expected. I had to redraw the tail many times to get smooth animation. I also had a problem with keeping the length of the tail the same.

I've done this simple test with my storyboard in mind, thinking about my final character. I gave the ball some personality with anticipation. I'm happy with the result, even though the position of the tail isn't perfect in some frames, the ball feels alive.

Animation Path

Here is a path that the ball is going to follow. It might be bit confusing as the ball will go forward and backward couple of times.

Second Test - Storyboard

I have created a storyboard for my second test animation. I want to work beyond the brief and add more character to the ball. I want the ball to move like a squirell or a mouse. So there will be a lot of fast moves.

I've also changed the height and lenght of the steps. So it's going to take two bounces for each step. The top step will be much higher than the rest of them, so the ball will need to take an extra effort to jump that high.

I've shortened the steps on the way down. I want the ball to fall down these.

The animtion will start and end the same way - the ball bouncing happilly. The steps will be a little adventure that will happen to the ball.

2D_FINAL_BOUNCING BALL

For the final test I've decided to add some rotation by draw a little cross on the ball. I was quite afraid that it will be very difficult to make and I will mess up whole animation. But after I've turned the onion skin on I could easily see me previous frames and I was able to do the spining without any problems.