Weighted Balls - Project Completion

The two bounces that I decided on animating were a Bowling Ball and a Tennis Ball.

 I believe I achieved the different feel in weight, and the squash and stretch for the tennis ball. Also, I gained more experience in Maya during the animation process.

  Below are the two playblasts of my animated bounces.

Bowling_Ball_Bounce from Nicholas Callow on Vimeo.




Tennis_Ball_Bounce from Nicholas Callow on Vimeo.

Weighted Balls - Reference

I found it surprisingly hard to come across any good reference for a light ball bounce. However, after much research and time wasted looking through low quality video footage I have found two really great videos. The first video is reference for the distance, height, timing, and spacing for a light weight ball (tennis ball).




I also found a great video to incorporate squash and stretch in my ball bounce animation!




Finding reference for a bowling ball drop and bounce was much easier than the tennis ball. I came across this video where he drops a bowling ball onto a hard surface.

Timing & Spacing Research

http://www.algarcia.org/AnimationPhysics/Timing_Tutorial.pdf

During my research I came across this amazing pdf of the physics of timing and spacing. It goes in depth about many different points about animation. Check it out if you are interested in learning more, just click the link above.

I learned a lot from reading the pdf, and most of the information was new to me. They talk about the different ways of measuring time. Therefore, with these measuring techniques, you can understand how to time out your animation.

1.) Frames 
2.) Keys
3.) Clocks


Although there was a lot of new information, they also went over many of the basics of animation. Such as, uniform motion and slowing in and out. However, they did mention a VERY interesting formula to determine the distance when something is dropped from the apex. The apex is your highest point during the animation. The formula is listed below...

(Distance in inches) = (1/3 inch) x (# of frames) x (# of frames)


Using this formula will not only give you more realistic animations, but a better understanding of distance and spacing.

Ball Bounce - Completed

Here is the updated playblast of my ball bounce. I created this after listening to Brandon Perkins lecture, and watching his demo. My first attempt at this turned out to be too light and floaty. After learning some more things about the graph editor, I was able to create this in less than half the time! I am happy with the results, and we will critique them next class.

Ball Bounce - Progress

Here is my progress achieved on my current project. We are tasked with using video reference to create a bouncing ball animation with the weight of a basketball. I believe that I achieved a pretty good ball bounce using the graph editor. I had a bit of trouble with the rotation, and I had to do some extra adjustments to the X movement. Other than that I think that this project turned out pretty well, and I will most likely update this post in the near future.

Victor Navone Spline Tutorials

Victor Navone

 Tutorials

Spline Tutorial 01

Spline Tutorial 02

I have to admit that I was a little worried when I began reading the first tutorial. However, after exploring the graph editor within Maya for myself, everything started to click. The first tutorial talks about the basics of the graph editor and how powerful it can be. Victor Navone then explains that it is best to favor one side in your animations. He also explains ease in and ease out which gave the ball animation a nice transition. He then went over Anticipation and Overshoot which make your object seem "Alive" & "Resilient." I found this point to be the most interesting, because when he animated the ball it seemed as though it was running into a wall by itself.


In the second tutorial he goes more depth into the use of splines. He first talks about having good spline hygiene, because you don't want your animations to appear choppy and dirty. However, if you intentionally want your animation to be that way, there are exceptions. After spline hygiene, he went into talking about having a spline based work flow. Using splines makes it easy to adjust and fine tune if you keep them clean, you can also transfer keys to other tools. (Ex: Translate Y to Rotate Z)

After he talks about keeping a clean work flow and using splines effectively, he begins to talk about keeping a smooth animation. I began to understand how important it is to use splines effectively, keeping them clean and manageable. Also, you should ALWAYS adjust keys yourself, because the computer does a terrible job at it.

Terms

Ease In - When an object gradually increases in speed at the beginning of an animation.
Fast In - When an object rapidly increases in speed at the beginning of an animation.
Anticipation - When an object springs back in the beginning of an animation, and prepares to move.
Overshoot - When an object springs back after reaching the end of the move as if it hit a wall.
 

View his work at www.navone.org