Happy Ball and Stuff

My first solution for a happy ball in 2D is ready. I tried to make a ball that jumped fast and kept it's momentum, thus giving it some autonomy. 
I used some keys, mostly to keep myself from doing whatever came to my mind. But I do forced myself to work on a straight ahead way, that is, solve from the first to the next key without inbetweens, just one after the other. It seems this approach gives more flow.

The other stuff has to do with a random animation I began working on today. Again, keeping the straight ahead animation idea, I figured out the movements of this guy, now without keys. I hope to develop a better understanding of succession here :P. 
Oh, I'm trying out backgrounds and places for my characters to play in here! 
Here is the work in progress:

Also, another ball, this time turning around. 

I wanted to see how a squashed ball will look when going in front of the camera. It seems that squash gives the ball more speed, or more mass. 

The bottom one is just a ball without any deformations at all. 

aaand just to finish, I did this simple test on how does a head looks when it turns, paying special attention to the blinking action.