Through the bouncing ball animation making, it’s important to keyframe the controls of the ball and not the mesh. The main control should not be animated either. Different controls have different functions, some of them control the heights and locations, and others can do the squash and stretch. The difficult part is the arch angle of the ball’s motion trail and how to make it look smooth. The arch should look smooth and round.
Pendulum animation:
Firstly, I make the pendulum waving animation. The pendulum swings and keeps cycling.The second animation is about the pendulum sliding and then stopping. I think the challenging part is the anticipation of the pendulum. Also, each part of the pendulum is dragged by another part that connects with them. When it begins to move, the pendulum should move slower than the whole animation, like behind it.
Ultimate tailed animation:
For this animation, I made the bouncing part first, just like the bouncing ball animation. Then I made three steps to let the ball can fall on them. The difference between this one and the previous one is this one has a distance, like each time when it falls, it should go further. Also, the tail has three sections and each section should move slower than the one which connects to it. The anticipation is very important in this animation and it will make the whole movement looks balanced.
Flour sack animation:
I animate the flour sack to show different emotions and movements.
say hidepressed moodjumpfalling
Walk cycle:
final outcomeBefore the walking starts, the body should incline a bit as the leg is going to stretch out. When making this, the body should move up and down a bit as the legs are walking. These two legs animations are like the mirroring effect, like the right leg’s movement is opposite to the left leg’s. After making the whole animation, I select all the curves and make them into a cycle. The legs look rigid at first, then I improve the height keyframes and use auto tangents(Ease) to smooth the animation.
Full body animation:
In this walking cycle animation, I add more details. For example, the up and down movements of the body and the waist rotation add more personality. Also, I add small details on the fingers to make the gestures naturally.
