Overlapping Animation

I had a more difficult time coming up with what kind of scene I wanted to animate for this project than I did with the bouncing ball animation, most likely because both the subject matter and action were entirely up to me. I decided on having a character, which at the last minute ended up being a bird, ride upon a ski lift that malfunctions and speeds off for added comedy. Originally, I planned on having the lift slow to a regular stop, reverse backward for a bit, and then stop again before speeding off back up the line, which I thought seemed simple enough to do. I ended up shortening the sequence to only coming to a single stop before speeding off, as it took me quite a bit of time to adjust the velocity of the lift peg to my liking. To achieve the constant slow speed at the beginning, I ended up starting the peg very far off to the left, whereby the time the peg would enter the frame, it would be moving very slowly. It also took a bit of time and patience to adjust the movement of the lift jostling after it came to a stop, since it wouldn't be realistic to have it remain completely still when it stopped. This was also true for the character, as I had to be mindful of even the slightest movements of the head, body, and legs at each point of the lift's movement.

Because I did the last project in black and white, I decided to work with full color and a background for this assignment, which I very much enjoyed. The bucket tool was especially helpful when filling in tighter spaces that required color. The only trouble I experienced occurred when importing the background, as it imported into Harmony smaller than I expected it to, and thus lost quality when I had to resize it to fit the frame. Overall, I ended up enjoying this project more than I expected to, as I was at first dreading having to finish it, mostly because I was having issues figuring out the right velocity for the peg.

Ball Animation

To give the ball some character in my animation, I wanted to have it interact with the space in a way that addressed the viewer, which is why I chose to have it crash into the screen. When initially planning the path that I wanted the bouncing ball to take in my animation, it seemed simple enough. However, as I was sketching the ball in motion on the path, I had to remember to utilize the squash and stretch of the ball at the appropriate times as well as make sure the spacing and timing made sense. The first time that I sketched each position of the ball, I figured I was set to draw the final version. But once I pressed play to preview the animation, it was all one jumble of movement. Therefore, I had to go back to several places to extend certain frames, such as when the ball landed on the trampoline and when it was in the air but out of the frame. Overall, I enjoyed working on this animation, as although it may seem simple and straightforward to animate a basic object such as a ball, there are many intricacies involved in the movement of the object that you become aware of once you are the one tasked with bringing it to life.