Stop Motion - Ball Throw

This week I had to make a puppet appear as if it was throwing a ball by highlighting key poses such as anticipation, a pause, and the moment when the ball is thrown. I had already struggled to get a good head turn with my puppet, so I was worried how this task would go.

In my first attempt I found I hadn't set up right, I should've adjusted the white balance and focus. When I started animating this scene I had an idea of what to do, but I was still very unsure. There was lots to think about and consider: all the joints (neck, arms, shoulders, hips, back, feet, ankles, legs, hands), the anticipation, how powerful I should make the throw, how to make it mimic a real life ball throw. Therefore, I made many mistakes. I needed the feet to go back for the puppet to lean on, yet it looks as if the feet are sliding back. Additionally, the weight should transfer from one side to the other, but I didn't manage to achieve this.

I did a second attempt and the first thing I did was adjust my white balance and focus. Furthermore, I found that my some of my joints were facing the wrong way in the first attempt, so I aligned everything up in this attempt. As I had done an attempt, this version was much better in terms of fluidity between frames. On the other hand, I was so determined to make sure the feet didn't slide, that they looked like they were frozen to the ground. I think if I had moved the right leg back with the anticipation then this could've been a final attempt. I ran out of time today to do another attempt, but I will do one soon to try and perfect the movement. There are still things I could fix, such as having a longer pause for my anticipation, and making sure my puppet doesn't rock backwards too far as it looks like it should fall over.