Animation 101: Bounce This..

I hate the bouncing ball in a mechanical sense.. animation is about feeling, NOT mechanics.. I know I know.. it's a necessary thing in order to understand Squash and Stretch, Timing, Slow in/out, even arcs.. BUT.. to see the bouncing ball as just a ball is a mistake. It's a living breathing being! So, instead of animating a bouncing ball, animate a bouncing ball FROM A RESTING POSITION and see the ball as AN EMOTIONAL BEING. Furthermore, give the ball a REASON to start bouncing, give the ball EMOTION and PURPOSE. Mechanical animation exercises are just that.. mechanical, boring, un-natural. Stay away. Tell this to the next professor that makes you animate a pendulum (barf). funny thing about the image below, it's not even correct in the mechanical sense, for it's physically impossible for a pendulum to surpass the angle it began without a push. furthermore, the image below doesn't follow arcs, the string actually shrinks during the tweens.. haha.. useless image below.My point is this. ALWAYS think of the emotional state of what you're drawing. Even backgrounds and trees have emotion!