My 10 Strengths Video Animation

The Process

First, we put our 10 strengths in the side gadget on our blog. Then, we got a picture (copyright free) off the Internet and put in Photoshop as the background. We added a text layer for each strength on top of the background (using typeface, colors, sizing, etc.). This step took a while because we had to arrange the words in a somewhat good order. We also had the option of changing the image with brightness, contrast, and hue. Then, we started animating the words on the video timeline. To start off, the "fade with black" tool was used for fading in the opening image (without words). The words were animated using the "transform" keyframes, where Photoshop automatically animated the word movement from start to finish on each word layer. Pretty cool! The ending also had a "fade with black" added on.

What's New?

The new tools that we used in Photoshop were the video timeline, fade with black, and transform keyframes. The video timeline was different than last project's frame animation timeline. To start off the animation, we used fade with black to gradually bring in the scene. This was similar to the "tween" tool used in frame animation. Finally, we used transform to set certain keyframes that moved a certain way. Photoshop animated the movement in between your start and end frame! The animation could have been flying in, fading in, shaking, going in a circle, and so on.

Next Time

I would make better animations for the text frames next time. Some of my animations were not very smooth, or looked out of place, so I would make them better if we did this again. Yet, I would still keep the same layout and background because I liked how the words were arranged around the field. This would be something that I would the keep the same next time. 

Here is the video animation of my 10 strengths! (Like, subscribe, and share of course.)

Bouncing Ball Animation Using Arcs

The Process

For the first part of the project, we created layers such as our name, the ground, the sky, and the two types of balls. You know, the basic stuff. Then, we made drew an arc layer to use as a guide for the animation. After that, we created endless layers of bouncing balls, using ease in and ease out and squash and stretch. That was the longest part of the project! Then, after the long process of the creation of the ball layers, we made a "curtain" using the paint bucket tool to slowly fade in the scene of the bouncing ball. This layer went on the beginning and end of the animation. Just like the last project, we used the timeline to animate the bouncing ball, and used the "tween" tool to slowly fade in the scene. Finally, we saved for web, and got to post it down below!

New Things in This Project

In this project, we learned the arc principle of animation and the "tween" tool in the timeline of photoshop. For starters, the arc was used as a guide to help the bouncing balls stay on some sort of track. It helped map out the animation. We drew this by making a new layer and drawing the arcs using the "paint brush" tool. The ball had to bounce it little lower each time in order for the animation to look somewhat realistic. Then, when finished creating the layers, we slowly faded in the bouncing ball scene by using the "tween" tool for the "curtain" (paint bucket-filled layer). These few new tools and principles helped make the animation better than last time, and they looked more real!

Next Time?

If we did this project again, I would probably mess around with the "no dither" when saving the animation for the web. The options, such as "selective" and "adaptive" could have helped the animation colors look better, since it doesn't blend very well. I would also try to get the bounce to stop sooner so I could add some other cool twist at the end.

Overall, the results were better than last time!

Here is a video to learn more about the animation principle of arcs:

Bouncing Ball Animation Project

The Project Overview

Over the past week, we have been animating a bouncing ball using Adobe Photoshop. We created layers such as the ground, sky, and ball and added gradients to them to make it look more realistic. We then created ball layers to make the ball look as if it was moving, using animation principles such as squash and stretch and ease in and ease out. Then, we used the timeline to actually make the ball bounce, cutting some duplicate layers to make the animation look smoother.  After we successfully made the ball bounce, we changed the file to a GIF file so we could post it here!

Have I Learned Anything?

Yeah, you could say I learned a little about animation and Photoshop. To start off, I hadn't ever used Adobe Photoshop. I'd used photo editing apps that used layers and cool tools like that. But nothing like Photoshop. While animating the ball with the "timeline" in Photoshop, I learned about some basic principles of animation: squash and stretch and ease in and ease out. Squash was used to show the impact of the ball hitting the ground, and stretch was used to make the ball look as if it sped up. Ease in and ease out was based on slowly spacing out each ball frame to make it speed up or slow down. Regarding the layer editing part of the project, I learned to add gradients to the ground, sky, and ball to make them look more realistic. I also learned how to draw shapes such as the ball, and make a perfect circle (using the option key).

 Next Time

If we did this project again, I would probably focus more on the gradients of the layers and making a better background (clouds, sun, etc.). I could probably touch up the animation's frames as well. You know, to make it look smoother. Finally, I would make the ball start higher in the air so that I could get at least 7 or 8 frames of the ball before it hit the ground. The color and gradient of the ball is one thing I would keep the same though, because it looks 3D enough. I'd also keep the placement of the ground the same, because it should probably take up 1/3 of the portrait. The overall design of my project looked good, but some little things need tweaking to make it even better.

Eventually, the ball will turn purple, I promise. Make sure to look out for it!