Animating a Bouncing Ball

Introduction

In this workshop, we will be using the fundamentals of after effects to animate a bouncing ball based on the research and insight we got on the 12 principles of animation.

To begin, if we double click on the tab on the left, we can open the import file.

Next, we have to create a new composition (Ctrl + N)

For our present, we are going to use HDTV 1080 25. This is because in Europe, we use 25 frames per second (PAL) as this was the standard fps that it broadcasted to TVs etc.

Down the bottom tab, we have the timeline. We are able to change the duration and frames of our animation here. The blue line also marks where in the timeline we are.

Hotkeys

Ctrl + N = New Composition
Ctrl + K = Composition Settings
Q = Select a Shape Tool
V = Move Tool
Y = Pan Behind Tool
Click + Drag + Control with Y actived = automatically centre pivot point
Click + Z = Zoom In
P = Layer position
R = Layer rotation
Ctrl + R = Ruler Guide
Spacebar = Play animation

When adding shapes onto one layer, we have to click off each shape before adding another, or it will keep putting the shapes on the same layer. This means that it will scale them all proportionately.

If I double click on a shape from here, I can select it individually.

From here I can scale it how I like, independently from the other shapes.

If we want to add something like a grass layer, we can position it and lock it next to the layer tab so that we can’t select it again. This is useful if we know we are done with a certain stage of the process.

Pressing Y, we can active the Pan behind tool. This lets us move the pivet point of a shape manually. If we use click + Z we can zoom in, as well as the scroll wheel.

If we click on the ball layer and use Shift + R and Shift + P, we can add Rotation and Position to the layer.

Each second, we move the blue time tracker line in the bottom tab and use P on the ball to add a movement path. We use Ctrl + R to add a ruler mark so that each time the ball bounces, it hits the ground at the same time each time.

Spacebar is used to play the animation.

If we shift + drag over the key points in the time bar, we can use alt whilst clicking on the last key point to move them in closer and make the animation quicker.

I also changed the duration of the composition to 5 seconds using Ctrl + K.

If I click on the ball and click on ‘Graph Editor’, we can see our key points in graph form.

In graph mode, we can select the Easy Ease in and Easy Ease out in the bottom middle right to add some curvature to the graph. Then, shift + dragging over the key point we want to edit, we can click on the squares of the curves and points where it lands to edit and move the steepness.

When opening the view window and going to ‘Show Layer Controls’, this enables us to see everything that is happening when it is active, and allows us to only focus on and see the animation when it isn’t active.

I have edited my ball’s pathway and referred to Gareth’s example on the teams meeting to try and give my ball the best and most realistic animation I can, despite being new to this software. The graph looks a bit messy but the animation isn’t that bad. In some areas it seems a little ‘choppy’ which can be improved by the graph.

In the graph, we deleted all of our key frames for the red line of the graph so that we have a constant line of just the green on the graph.

Gareth went a bit too fast more me at this stage and the squash and stretch section of the workshop was very confusing for me. I got a bit held back by the graph and it absorbed too much of my attention.

This is what the animation should look like. The frame rate isn’t great but the ball is acting upon the force of gravity, getting closer and closer to the ground each time it bounces off of it.

Conclusion

This blog post helped me learn some of the tools and basics of after effects and what it can be used for, how it can be used for animation etc. However this software was very new to me and I was a bit slow learning everything new. I also do not enjoy animation what so ever, so this workshop was harder to complete because of that. However, when I got stuck behind on the work I was able to watch Gareth and understand the objective of the workshop and how he achieved it.