Flash Slime Ball Animation

We want to make a slime ball anticipate; make one jump forward, and land, wobbling back into shape.

Notice the little highlight and shadow on the ball; this helps convey the sense of volume.

On a locked layer, we can make a little curve to let us imagine the trajectory of our slime ball. You might want to make a horizontal guide while you are at it.

We’re going to make all the key frames fiirst, then motion tween them and adjust as needed. The action will be between frames 12 and 60.

Keep in mind maintaining the volume of the ball with your squash and stretch ... think of the ball as being filled with a liquid, so the ball skin can deform, but the interior volume remains basically constant.

Anticipation forward

Frame 15 with onion skin:

Relax back

Frame 16 without outline onion skin

Frame 18 squashes down:

Frame 20, even more, plus a slight rocking back:

Frame 23 it reaches up for the jump [notice I added a vertical guide to help with the landing wobble coming up]

Frame 31 the height of the jump

Frame 35 stretch out for contact ...

Frame 36 whammo we hit ...

The rest of the frames are wobbling into shape and a balanced position

Frame 41

Frame 45

Frame 49

Frame 55

Frame 60 ... come to rest.