Mulligan.

Ok, so that first pass wasn't exactly breathtaking. Agreed. But it gave me a jumping off point, which was exactly what it's purpose is. Scott gave me some really great tips. We changed the camera angle. Tried to build more of an arc into the set up for the swing. I pushed those poses more, and adjusted the timing to really build some tension before he swings through. We also added some time for him to follow the path of the ball before reacting, which I think really helped. I'm now up to about 225 frames, still manageable. I've decided that, given the other demands on my time, 200-250 frames is about what I can get in and really make it polished animation. We'll see!

Click on image to see latest pass...