Pong

Figuring out how to tell a story between two immobile lines seemes like a daunting task, but in order to get over the first hurdle I had to lay the foundation through storyboarding. Inspired by the flow of a tennis match, the concept settled on became a short game of pong where the winning shot is made due to a missed block/return.

After laying the framework for the initial design, rigging and animating began. The first step was creating the path for each line to follow using anchor points. Adding methods of precise speed control through the graph editor, puppet pins for flexibility/sense of movement, and slight motion blur for smooth transitions gave the extra push to bring the visual to life.

Aside from learning the importance of storyboarding and sketching, rigging and animation takes a lot of fine tuning and precision. Each story can come to the same conclusion, but the journey itself will always be different. I thouroghly enjoyed experimenting with different movements  before settling on a story that was both fun an engaging.

Below is the final visual utilizing different animation and rigging methods to illustrate a new take on the nostalgic game we all love.