“Everything’s a Bouncing Ball.” I wish I fully understood exactly what this meant as soon as I started. This one hit much later than I care to admit when I first went to college. It makes so much sense to me now and why we all started with the bouncing ball when learning how to animate.
The bouncing ball exercise contains all of the foundations of animation and everyone knows that, but I didn’t realize it’s full application until way later on. The bouncing ball exercise shows you how the principles are applied in animation and because the subject matter is so simple it’s so easy to understand. But, as soon as the subject get’s a little more complex, than all of what we learned quickly goes out the window. When applying those things to more complex subjects, that’s where it becomes a challenge because it’s so easy to get lost in so many other different things. The same can be said for the transition out of body mechanics to acting, but that’s another topic for another time. The ball strips ALL of that away and really forces you to see those principles in action.
It’s a little frustrating hearing from other/newbie animation students and listening to them say, “I already know how to do a bouncing ball”, and yet it’s clearly evident that they haven’t applied any of the principles in their work. What I don’t think they understand is that it isn’t about the ball, it’s the principles behind them that are so important. Those same principles are what really makes animation sing and can be applied to all aspects of animation in one way or another. It’s the foundation. You don’t bake a cake by starting with the icing. Just as the saying goes in animation, everything really is a bouncing ball. Whether its the root of a character, the wrists on an arm, the ankles on a leg, or a corner of a mouth: Everything’s a bouncing ball.
Keep that ball bouncin’!
Stephen
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