Animation Fundamentals / Exercise 2

 28 /04/25 -  05 / 05 /25 ( Week 2- Week 3)

Kek Kai Wei, 0363513

Animation Fundamentals / Bachelor of Patisserie Arts ( Hons)

Exercise 2

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INSTRUCTIONS

Module Information:

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LECTURES

• This week, we will be learning the 2nd and 3rd principles of animation: squash and stretch, and drag, follow through, and overlapping action.

• Squash and stretch creates the illusion of elasticity in materials and adds flexibility and life to motion.

• Drag: When an object moves, softer parts lag slightly behind the main motion, creating a dragging effect.

• Follow Through: After the main action stops, attached parts continue to move for a while .

• Overlapping Action: Different parts of the body or object move at slightly different times, not all at once, making the movement more natural.

The video that provided in google slide:

Squash and Stretch:

Drag , Follow through and Overlapping:

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Exercise 2- Bouncing Ball with Tail

Task Assigned:

• Using Adobe Animate, you are required to animate a bouncing ball by applying squash and stretch principles that show elasticity of the material and giving it a life as a character through pose to pose animation method. Attached to the squashy and stretchy ball is a tail which you need to show its flexibility of motion by applying the principles of Drag, Follow Through and Overlapping action through a straight ahead animation method.

• Applying the animation principles that you have learned on Week 2, Timing, Spacing, Slow in & Slow out and Arcs is required as part of the process.

•  required frame rate is 24fps, 16:9 aspect ratio with resolution of 1280 x 720 (HD 720p)
•  final animation should be animated on ‘2’ with clean up stroke and output as .mp4 video  format.
• Deadline: 12th May 2025

PROGRESS:

I continued the ball from Exercise 1 into Exercise 2, first applying the principle of squash and stretch to make the ball’s fall and bounce look more natural. Then, to demonstrate the principles of drag, follow through, and overlapping action, we were asked to add a tail to the ball. The first step of the assignment was to apply squash and stretch.

1. Squash and Stretch

Figure 1 Process：Stretch ( 8/5/2025)

Figure 2: Progress : stretch (8/5/2025)

Figure 3: Progress: stretch (8/5/2025)

Figure 4: Progress : Squash (8/5/2025)

At the beginning of the animation, I used the Selection Tool and the Free Transform Tool to stretch the ball in the 3rd frame, because when a ball moves up or down quickly, it usually becomes elongated to show the sense of speed. I also used these two tools to stretch the ball in some of the middle frames. When the ball hits the ground, it gets squashed to show the impact and reaction force from the collision.

Figure 5: The whole frame (8/5/2025)

Video of Squash and Stretch:

2. Drag, follow through, and overlapping

Figure 6: Progress of tail (8/5/2025)

Figure 7: Progress of tail (8/5/2025)

Figure 8: Progress of tail (8/5/2025)

Figure 9: Progress of tail (8/5/2025)

Figure 10: Checking the frame that unnatural ( 8/5/2025)

The part I found most fun and interesting was adding the tail to the ball. Mr. Kamal asked us to make sure the tail stays connected in every frame, so the animation looks smooth and natural — otherwise, the movement would look stiff. To do this, I first created a new layer just for the tail. It was actually quite challenging, because I had to check frame by frame to make sure the tail was connected properly and didn’t look off. I kept drawing, checking, and making changes until everything looked smooth and felt right.

Final Outcome:

Video final outcome , (8/5/2025)

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REFLECTION