How To Animate A Bouncing Ball

by Joelle · Published January 15, 2016 · Updated January 15, 2016

I’m currently taking the free online course Explore Animation on the online learning platform, Future Learn.

Developed by the internationally acclaimed National Film and Television School (NFTS) and Creative Skillset, the course is spread across four weeks.

Week 1: Stop motion or stop frame animation.

Week 2: 2D or cel animation.

Week 3: Big-scale animation in the real world.

Week 4: CGI or 3D computer animation.

For the first task in Week 1, we were asked to make a ball bounce in a flipbook animation. The video above is the one I made.

Here are the tips NFTS gave us to make the animation.

Material Needed:

a packet of post-it notes or a pad of paper
a sharp pencil
good quality black art pen (optional)
colored pens (optional)

Instructions:

Take your post-it note or pad and turn to the last page. Draw the ball in the first position, you may also like to draw the horizon. Make sure your images are in the bottom third of the page.

Turn to the next page. You should be able to see the previous image through the page. Draw the next image of the ball a little further on. Keep turning the page and drawing the ball.