#bouncing ball project

Bouncing Ball Part 5

Right! Here is my final ball assignment, I used most of the features that I have learnt so far, I did not use squash and stretch because it was not applicable, but I did use and imported image sequence and a reference for both balls. The Ping pong ball was filmed by yours truly but due to a personal lack of bowling balls, a problem which I cry about everyday, and a lack of funds to by one then drop in on my pristine kitchen floor, I just used a reference I found on YouTube.

Bouncing Ball final from Badly Spelt Animashon on Vimeo.

Bouncing Ball part 4

Oh "Graph Editor" you are oh so useful!  The Graph Editor is a feature in Maya that allow the user to edit the ease in and ease out motions of their animation along with the general speed. It does this be displaying the motion as editable line graph. The longer the line, the longer the distance/time between the keyframes that connect to it.  It think the technique is called splining....on sec, I'm just going to check..( 2 mins later)... Yeah it's called splining, and is a feature in a lot of digital animation software ranging from 3D (Maya) toStopmotion (Dragon Frame).  Anyway, I combined this with the image sequence import tool, I don't think that's what's it's actually called, but you get the gist of what it does. This allowed me to use footage of a bounding ball, that I had split into separate frames in After effects, as a template for the bouncing motion.

All the keyframes such as when the ball is highest in the air on a bounce, and when it impacts with the ground, were replicated with my 3d ball. I then used the graph editor to position the significant inbetweens to create a smoother ease in and ease out motion, thus creating a more realistic bounce.  

Image ref ball test (gragh editor test) from Badly Spelt Animashon on Vimeo.

Bouncing Ball Part 3

After finding some ball references, mainly for the ping pong ball, I set about making my first test animation. After my 1st and 2nd Maya lectures I had learnt the very (very) basic methods of key frame ball animation in Maya. (It was so confusing at first though, I miss flash and after effects). Anyway, after creating Test animation #1 I thought about other methods of making the ball have more fluid motion.

Using the "Shape" tool and keyframing in After Effects, I quickly ran through a few basic 2D bouncing ball principles, so that when I mirror the potion in Maya, I will encounter less mistakes in timing.

Ball#1 motion 2 from Shadid Muhammad on Vimeo.

I started with a red ball bouncing across the screen, then I added some squash and stretch to the motion.

Ball#1 motion 3 from Shadid Muhammad on Vimeo.

I experimented with different balls of varying speeds and weights, eventually adding more hard surfaces for the balls to bounce off and featuring the 2 balls that I plan to animate in Maya, a Ping Pong and Bowling ball.

Ball#1 motion 4 from Shadid Muhammad on Vimeo.

Bouncing Ball Part 2 

For the Bowling ball I referenced live action footage from Youtube and also some clips for the animated TV show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, episode: The Big Lablooski. The animation is quite exaggerated and it is only 1 second long but it may still come in useful.

Bouncing ball (an introduction to Maya)

  The aim of this project is to create 2 bouncing ball animations test in the 3D modeling software Maya. The 2 ball must have a contrasting weights and also sides. The 2 types of ball I have decided depict are a Ping Pong ball, for its lightness and bouncing style on solid surfaces, and a Bowling ball for is rigidity and interaction with solid surfaces when dropped.

Before I started the animation process, I had to find references to how the 2 different balls bounced. I was very interested in Ping Pong ball trick shots such as bouncing the ball of the floor then the wall and into a cup. This fast change in direction while bouncing may make the animation more appealing. For references I went to Youtube to find video that my help me.

  Other Ping Pong Ball reference videos: *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6I3JI4vJv0 *https://www.youtube.com/watch?