The Famous "Ball Animation Test" - (25/09/2025)

For our first class of the term, we were tasked to get into the swing and rhythm of animation by performing the timeless animation exercise: BALL. Rather than dive head-first into 2D hand-drawn animation, the medium we were tasked to use was stop-motion animation. I was initially surprised to be returning to stop-motion animation considering it was a medium I had practised most during all my education, but this turned out to be a fantastic way to switch my brain back on and re-enter the animation field.

For this animation, I used:

• Blu-tac to stick the paper onto the surface.

• Glass pebble that would act as our ball.

• Glue streak which would be used for "squash and stretch" frames.

• Graph Paper for measuring arcs and writing notes on the movement of assets.

• Cardboard fruit box with a window cut at the top

• Stop Motion Studio (iOS) locked at 12FPS

I wanted to take the opportunity to stretch my animation skills as far as I could within the two hours we were being taught through, so I experimented with the style and progression of the animation by including my own hand as an asset within the animation and by toying around with the weight of the ball itself by making heavy and weighted when it "drops", to then immediately changing it to be kinetic and stretchy. The impact-frames before I flick the ball was my favourite touch!

One area I fell short in was conveying acceleration with the cuboid in the third shot. I had intended for its speed to be gradual, but I distracted myself with the animation of the ball too much to pay proper attention to the block. If there is one thing to take away from this lesson, it's to learn how to better divide my attention between two moving assets sharing a scene as I always struggled with it.