This April vacation I got a lot done on my senior project applied piece. I dove into the project head first, without much planning. This method is known as the ‘straight ahead’ approach. I favor straight ahead even though it has distinct disadvantages. According to the Animators Survival Kit disadvantages include but are not limited to:
• Things start to wonder
• Time stretches and the shot gets longer and longer
• Characters grow and shrink
• We tend to miss the point of the shot and not arrive at the right place at the right time.
• It can be hard on the nerves

While straight ahead fits my personality and work habits, it isn’t the ideal way to build a proper animation. The opposite of straight ahead is ‘pose to pose.’ This is when the animator carefully plans out the animation. “First we decide what are the most important drawing-the storytelling drawings, the keys- and put them in. Then we decide what are the next most important positions that have to be in the scene. These are the extremes and we put them in- and any other important poses. Then we work out how to go from one pose to another – finding the nicest transition between two poses. These are the breakdown or passing positions.”

The best way to animate is a combination of straight ahead and pose to pose. There is a lot of emphasis on planning and improvising. Sketches are the foundation for the final product but there is plenty of room for improvisation. You get that spontaneity of straight ahead with the coherency of pose to pose.
My biggest adversary in making my bouncing ball animation was the lead in. I had no idea how I was going to create an affect that prepares the audience for the balls motions. I did some research on fading in and out, and it’s a perfect way to create a title screen. I simply drew a black square covering the entire stage, added a title over it, and faded the box to be transparent after 10 seconds. I still have a problem though, after the box would fade the animation would start abruptly and there was no time to absorb what was happening on the screen.


A light bulb went off in my head. I decided to prepare the audience by spawning the ball through a tree. I animated rainclouds which rain on soil and give life to a tree. This tree rabidly grows and gives life to the ball, which falls from the tree and bounces on the ground, the precursor to the obstacle course.




While I’m pleased with my progress and creativity I am dissatisfied with the Microsoft paint –esque look my animation has. It is also very choppy because it is done in 12 frames per second instead of the industry standard 24 frames per second.
To enhance these flaws I’m hoping to add a virtual camera which will allow me to zoom in and out and pan across the screen. Without the virtual camera my animation becomes confusing because when the ball has bounced to the other side of the screen I can’t pan the camera to follow the ball I have to create a new stage which makes for a choppy animation.