Animating a Bouncing Ball in After Effects

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Introduction: Animating a bouncing ball is a classic exercise in animation because it teaches the basics of timing, spacing, and the principles of motion. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to animate a simple bouncing ball using After Effects, focusing on creating realistic motion with ease and exaggeration.

Steps:

Creating the Ball Layer
Begin by creating a new composition. Use the Ellipse Tool (shortcut: Q) to create a circular shape for your ball. Make sure to hold Shift while drawing to keep the proportions equal. Once you have your ball, you can adjust its color and size using the Fill option in the toolbar.
Setting Up the Ground Layer
To create the appearance of the ball bouncing on a surface, create a new solid layer (Layer > New > Solid) to act as the ground. This layer should be placed beneath the ball in the timeline.
Animating the Ball’s Position
Select the ball layer and hit P for Position. Set your first keyframe where you want the ball to start. Then, move the timeline indicator to the point where the ball reaches the ground and set another keyframe. At this point, adjust the position of the ball to touch the ground.
Creating the Bounce
After the ball hits the ground, it should bounce back up. Move forward in the timeline and create a new keyframe for the ball’s position at the peak of the bounce. Repeat this process for additional bounces, but decrease the height of each bounce progressively to simulate the diminishing energy of the ball as it hits the ground.
Adding Ease to the Animation
To make the ball’s movement more natural, apply Easy Ease to the keyframes. Right-click the keyframes and choose Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease In or Easy Ease Out. This will make the ball slow down before it hits the ground and speed up after each bounce, simulating real-world physics.
Refining the Bounce with Squash and Stretch
One of the key principles of animation is squash and stretch. To make the ball’s bounces more lifelike, you can animate the ball’s scale. When the ball is squashed against the ground, animate its vertical scale to shrink (e.g., 50%). When the ball is at the peak of the bounce, animate it to stretch vertically (e.g., 120%) before returning to its normal shape. This exaggerates the movement and adds realism.
Adding Motion Blur
To enhance the feeling of fast motion, enable motion blur for the ball layer. This will give the animation a smoother and more dynamic feel, especially when the ball is moving quickly between bounces.

Conclusion: Animating a bouncing ball is a great way to practice timing, spacing, and animation principles. By applying keyframes for position, scale, and using easing, squash and stretch, you can create a realistic and engaging animation. This exercise is perfect for understanding the basics of animation that you can later apply to more complex projects.

Image to Accompany Article: A dynamic image showing the bouncing ball animation in the composition panel. The timeline should display keyframes for the ball’s position, with the ball animated to bounce off the ground. The scale property should also be visible, showing how the ball squashes and stretches with each bounce. The motion blur effect should be applied to the ball to emphasize fast movement.