How to Create a Bouncing Ball in After Effects
- 1). Download or create a ball picture with a translucent background. Open Adobe After Effects, go to the "Project" window, right-click somewhere in the blank space and select "Import." Navigate to where you saved the graphic and import it.
- 2). Go to the "Composition" window and right-click somewhere on the blank space. Select "New Composition" and set the amount of time you want for your video. Click "OK."
- 3). Click the layer containing your ball and drag it to the "Composition" window. You will see it in the "Preview Monitor" window. Scale the ball to a proper size by holding the "Shift" key pressed and dragging the margins. Go to the "Effects" menu, click "Keying" and select "Color Key."
- 4). Load the rotation settings by pressing "R" while on the ball layer. Click on the start of your video to place the timeline scrubber. Activate the key-frame animation by clicking on the small "Key Frame" icon. Pick a point from where the ball will start rotating.
- 5). Click on the end of the video to place the timeline scrubber there. Set "360 Degrees" as the "Rotation" and enter the number of rotations for your ball. Five to 10 rotations should be sufficient.
- 6). Load the "Position" settings by pressing "P" in the ball layer. Click on the start of the project to place the timeline scrubber there. Drag the ball to a point on your workspace. This will be the starting point of your animation.
- 7). Locate the "1 Second" mark and position the timeline scrubber on it. Position the ball at the bottom of your screen. This will be the "floor," the point off of which your ball will bounce.
- 8). Go to the "2 Seconds" mark and position the scrubber on it. Position the ball up on the screen. Note that the angle at which the ball hits the floor must be approximately equal to the angle at which the ball bounces from the floor. You can approximate the angles by looking at the lines connecting the various positions of your ball.
- 9). Create other positions until your ball bounces for the entire duration of the video. The lines you see on your screen show you the exact movement of the ball throughout the animation.
- 10
Go to "Compilation" and click "Make Movie." Click on "Lossless" in the "Render" queue and select the format and video settings. Pick a location to save your new animation and click "Make Movie" to save it.
Source...