After feeling more confident with the bouncing ball, I wanted to try another beginner animation exercise: the pendulum swing. 

I began by drawing a simple pendulum: a stick with a ball at the bottom. I created a new animation folder and planned for about 20 frames at 12 FPS—enough for a full swing from left to right and back again.

Before drawing anything, I sketched a motion arc using a curved guideline to follow. This helped me keep the pendulum’s path realistic instead of just moving in a straight line. In Clip Studio Paint, I used the ruler tool to create the arc and kept it visible on every frame.

At first, I spaced the frames evenly along the arc. But when I played the animation, the swing looked mechanical. It moved at the same speed throughout, which didn’t feel natural. That’s when I remembered the principle of easing in and easing out.

I also added a slight delay at each end of the swing by holding a frame for two drawings. This pause gave the pendulum some "weight" and emphasized the easing. Without that, the motion looked too quick and robotic.

I finished the exercise by exporting it as a GIF. Watching it loop back and forth smoothly felt like a big step forward. 

This exercise helped me understand how motion works in the real world, and how to translate that into drawings. It even made me understand concepts such as time and spacing, weight and natural movement.

I also included a time lapse of my process of this animation.

After setting up Clip Studio Paint, I wanted to try my first real animation. I chose the bouncing ball exercise because it’s a classic way to learn timing, spacing, and squash and stretch. It looks simple—but I quickly found out there’s a lot more to it than just drawing circles!

I started by creating a 24-frame animation at 12 FPS. That gave me two seconds to work with, which I thought would be enough for a single bounce. I drew each frame inside an animation folder and used onion skin to guide the movement from one position to the next.

At first, I just copied and pasted the ball down the screen in a straight line. But when I played it back, it didn’t look natural at all. That’s when I realized I needed to pay attention to timing and spacing.

To fix it, I redrew the frames with closer spacing near the top and wider spacing near the middle. This created a sense of acceleration as the ball fell and deceleration as it rose again. I also added squash at the point of impact and a little stretch just before it hit the ground.

Adding squash and stretch made a big difference! The ball looked more elastic and alive, even though it was just a simple shape. I used the transform tool in Clip Studio Paint to slightly stretch or squash the ball while keeping its volume consistent.

One thing that confused me was the timing of the bounce back up. I kept forgetting to add a slight pause at the top of the arc before the ball dropped again. Without it, the motion looked too rushed and unrealistic. I eventually added an extra frame at the top, and it made the movement feel more natural.

Another small mistake I made was not keeping the ball’s shadow in sync with the motion. I added a little grey oval at the bottom to show the shadow, and when it grew smaller or moved inconsistently, it broke the illusion. I had to go back and match the shadow’s position and size carefully.

Once I was happy with the animation, I exported it as a GIF using File > Export Animation > Animated GIF. Watching it loop smoothly made me feel really proud—it wasn’t perfect, but I had created motion from still images.

I learned how to get started on animation even if it's just simple as a bouncing ball. I learned all the basics such as frame rates, animation timelines, and the key principals when it comes to animating. I aim to get better with time and practice.