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Countryballs have no arms, no legs and usually no mouth. Everything they feel has to come through how they move: a hop of excitement, a slow sink of disappointment, a quick shake of anger. That makes them one of the best characters to learn animation with, because you can focus on movement itself.
This tutorial walks through a single shot, a ball hopping across the screen and reacting, and uses it to explain the ideas you'll use in every video. The steps use keyframes, which every mainstream 2D animation program has, from Moho to Adobe Animate.
Three ideas before you start
- Frames and frame rate. A video is a series of still pictures. Most countryball videos run at 24 or 30 frames per second. Pick one at the start and keep it for the whole project.
- Keyframes. You set the important poses, called keyframes, and the software fills in the frames between them. Animating with keyframes is fast and keeps your drawings consistent.
- Timing. The number of frames between two keyframes decides how fast something happens. Fewer frames feel snappy and light; more frames feel slow and heavy.
Step by step: a hop and a reaction
Step 1: Set up the scene
Create a 1920 × 1080 project at 24 frames per second. Import or draw your countryball (see how to draw a countryball) and put a simple ground line under it so you can see contact with the floor.
If your program supports rigs, rig the ball first. In Moho, a single bone that controls the whole ball is enough for this exercise; the Moho bones tutorial shows how.
Step 2: Block out the hop
Set three keyframes for position: the ball on the ground at frame 1, at the top of the hop around frame 7 and back on the ground, a little further right, at frame 13. Play it back. It moves, but it looks like it floats on a string.
That's normal. Blocking is about where the ball is, not how it gets there. Fix the timing first: if the hop feels slow, move the keyframes closer together.
Step 3: Add easing
Real objects slow down as they rise and speed up as they fall. Set the keyframes at the top of the hop to ease in and out, and the landing to a sharp, linear arrival. In Moho, right-click a keyframe to change its interpolation; in Adobe Animate, use the ease settings on the tween.
Also check the path. A hop should follow an arc, not a triangle. If the ball moves up and across in straight lines, add a keyframe or adjust the motion path so the top is rounded.
A hop follows an arc. The ball moves slowly near the top (frames close together) and fast near the ground. Step 4: Squash and stretch
This is the trick that makes a countryball look soft and alive. Just before the jump, squash the ball: wider and shorter. As it leaves the ground, stretch it slightly in the direction it travels. On landing, squash it again for two or three frames, then let it settle back to round.
Keep the volume the same: when the ball gets wider it must also get shorter. Exaggerate a little, then dial it back until it looks natural.
Squash before the jump, stretch on the way up, squash again on landing, then settle. Step 5: Anticipation and follow-through
Before any big action, move a little in the opposite direction first. A ball that is about to jump right first sinks and leans left for a few frames. This anticipation tells viewers what is about to happen and makes the action land harder.
After the action, let things overshoot and settle. Hats, flags on poles and objects floating beside the ball should arrive a frame or two later than the body.
Step 6: Act with the eyes
Now the reaction. Hold the landing pose for half a second, then swap the eyes to a new expression. Countryballs have no pupils, so they look around by shifting both eyes towards one side of the ball. A blink is two or three frames of closed eyes.
Holds are as important as movement. A ball that never stops moving is tiring to watch. Give important expressions at least 12 frames (half a second at 24 fps) on screen.
Making countryballs talk
Without a mouth, dialogue comes from text or voice plus body movement. Most channels use speech bubbles or subtitles, often in the deliberately broken English the Polandball comics made famous. If you record voices, make the ball bob slightly on stressed syllables and change expression between sentences rather than on every word.
Practice exercise
Where to go next
Once a single ball moves well, put several in a scene and give them a story. The guide on making countryball videos covers scripting, voices and publishing, and animating a map shows the classic territorial expansion shot.
Learn it step by step in the Beginner's Course in Countryball Animation
Eleven chapters that take you from installing the software to a full scene with flags, backgrounds, movement and a boat trip. No animation experience needed. Just curiosity and a mouse.
- Set up the software and find your way around it without panic.
- Draw clean, consistent countryballs, including tricky flags like the UK and USA.
- Rig characters with bones so one drawing can move a hundred ways.