Layering is a key aspect of drawing flipbooks. The real secret is to draw the flipbook in parts, and not to draw the entire picture one page at a time. Planning each layer in your timeline makes it possible to draw a complicated flipbook. Getting better at this will greatly increase your flipbook ability.
These are the objects of Flarfball. As you can see, the parts are clearly identified as having certain dimensions which stay the same over the course of the animation. Animate the bouncy element underneath the trampoline after drawing all of the other action, accounting for the "sinking" feature of the person that is bouncing on it (indicated by the indentation to the underside of the trampoline).
Also mentioned in this page is the concept of the circlehead. That's a method of drawing characters that involves drawing a circle, which is the head of the character, drawn as the first layer. It becomes a reference point to the location and position of that character, as it changes throughout all of the animation's frames. The additional parts to the circle are what make it into a character, and not just a circle, but those can be added later once that "layer" of the circlehead has been drawn.
That's a technique that can help you out with yours.
Here are some strategies for winning Flarfball. Actually, these are more like configurations of positions of people. The "Diameter-Radius" tactic is one where you must pass the flarf to your temporary team-mate on the other side of the trampoline. That's a diameter. If you connect, that's a radius. This technique demonstrates why basketball and other sports keep records of a statistic called "an assist."
Another technique, the high bounce, involves getting on the trampoline with the other player and bouncing up there with them, trying to throw their timing somehow. It certainly changes the rules around a little bit, and every group can decide on their own bunch of rules.
When a Flarfer gets off the trampoline without getting hit by the flarfball, that's a time-out. This can be used if the flarfer is getting too tired to hop around. Time-outs can last 2 minutes, or a water break, a swimming break, an hour, or maybe even a day or two. Hey, these are just the rules.
Flarfball: How to Draw the Flipper
This is how I drew the flarfball flipbook. As you can see by the lines on the page, note how the detail is added in layers. That's a common technique described in the section on layering, here on Flipbook Island, and I suggest you give that a read-through, if you would like to draw your own to teach your friends how to play Flarfball.
Flarfball: A guide on how to play
And these are the rules. They're the only rules that can ever exist about the game, because the rule-making days of game development are over. All you Flarfheads out there can improvise from these guidelines that have been given, but you must not waste your afternoons writing elaborate rules everyone must follow. -Dunka
