Flippin 'eck: Flipbook Session 3

I managed to create a further three flipbook sequences. I was still looking at bouncing balls, but had them moving in different ways. In the first book of the day I was still focusing on squash & stretch and timing, and I simply wanted the ball to slowly lose momentum and come to a holt, as I hadn't been able to do so with my other flipbooks as I didn't have enough pages. This time I planned it out so that the ball would stop moving. To be honest, I would have liked the ball to roll a bit at the end to show that it had actually finished bouncing, but I think the sequence is pretty solid as it stands. I think I did a good job at keeping the volume of the ball constant, and I think the sequence is pretty realistic, so I am pleased with it.

 

Sequence One

In the second flip book I thought I'd try something a little different. I was still focusing on a bouncing ball, so consequently squash & stretch and timings, but this time I wanted the ball to bounce away from the 'camera'. I planned it out first, and decided that the ball would start of quite large as it was close up, and would get smaller the further away it went, so because of this I was also focusing on the "arcs" principle. To begin with I didn't add in the ground which it bounced on, as I was unsure where/how to draw the ground line so that it would look realistic. This resulted in my sequence looking quite unrealistic and made it seem that the ball got too small way too quick, and that there was no depth to it. I then decided I would add in little lines as the ball got "closer to the ground" and it improved my flip book massively, and for a first attempt I don't think it's bad at all.

Sequence Two

In my final flip book I decided to give my ball pig tails, and so i was focusing on the "secondary action", "squash and stretch", "timing" and "follow through action" principles of animation. I found this the hardest to do out of all the flip books I have done, as I didn't have a reference for the hair. I knew it wouldn't be dragged upwards as soon as the ball reached the ground, but I had to guess at what point it actually would start to. On the other hand I also had to guess when the hair would start to fall when the ball reached the maximum height of it's bounce (This is probably worded extremely poorly, but it's the best you're going to get). 

To say this sequence was a complete stab in the dark I don't think I've done bad. Granted, it's not the most realistic sequence in the world, but at least it's believable (in my opinion anyway) and that's good enough for me. In the future however, I may want to think about collecting references, whether it be photographs or watching people jump up and down if I am wanting to create a more realistic animation.

Sequence Three