Creating an orignal character for After Effects

In this lesson we were tasked to create our own character in Illustrator that we could animate in After Effects.
I created a bearded character with a basic frame for a body and a base with wheels. I did this so I could just start learning some basic movements with the head, arms and base. I was introduced to the puppet pin tool as a way to make lines move as I want them too, which made me able to make the arms wavy.

In this gif pictured you can see multiple actions my character is doing. The left and right movement, the head moving up and down and the arms waving about.

Creating a bouncing ball in After Effects

In our first lesson with After Effects, we were taught how to simulate the effect of a bouncing ball. 

The gif featured is a final animation of the bouncing ball, using the "Squash and Stretch" technique was very helpful to provide the convincing effect of the ball hitting the ground. We were also taught the "Easy Ease" which softens the movement of an object.