Timing and Squash and Stretch Test: Week 2

Timing variations:

There I played around with the timing of the bounce of a hard and bouncy ball to get an idea of how the weight of the bounce is affected. I made the bounces longer or shorter in frames by selecting all the key frames in the time slider and used the side arrows moving the keyframes. I then used the snap tool to place the the key frames on to frames.

For the Hard ball the best test was 44 frames and 37 as they keep the weight of the bounce. Where as the 66 frames bounce looks like the ball is flouting and the ball has no weight.







For the Bouncy ball test I thought that the best was the 101 frames as it didn't flout but still had more bounce that the 73.  These tests where useful to understand the importance of timing and how it can effect the weight of a bounce.

Squash and Stretch using Deformer:

Before adding a squash and stretch to the ball bouncing I referenced this video to understand the bounce of a ball with a material quality that allows a lot of squash and stretch.




I added a deformer to the ball to create a squash and stretch. this was a lot of fun to do and the bounce of the ball was achieved using key frames and not the graph editor. Because of the stretch of the ball at different points in the arch it looked like the ball had the right spacing in the arch.  I also experimented with a jiggle deformer to make the ball look like it was full of fluid.

A Ball Bouncing Across a Room:

the next stage of my experimentation is to get the ball bouncing across a flat plane which means that not only do i need the correct timing and spacing but the shapes of the arches need to be correct too.  i had to use reference material of a bouncy ball where i looked at spacing and the arches to understand the correct movement of this particular type of ball.

Ball bouncing across screen Maya Tests:

For these test I decided to go about it using two different approaches; pose to pose and straigt ahead animation. I used the Ghost affect when animating so I could see the path of the archs reacted by the ball's bounce.

Straight ahead animation:

This I did by moving the ball every frame to the next positing in its arch. the problem with this is that it's very time consuming and if i wanted to change one of the fames I then had the change all the ones following which isn't particle. Also using the graph editor is very difficult due to all the key frames.

Pose to Pose Animation:

With this technique I made key frames at the top and bottom of the arches, mapping out the path of the bounce. Before using the graph editor the ball moves in straight lines creating v shapes. Then using the graph editor I could create the spacing of the arch and change the straight lines into curves.

The first coin has even spacing which is what Maya creates: linear spacing. the coin below has the same timing (key frames) but the spacing is different which in Maya is created by using the graph editor and manipulating the arches and curves between key frames.
(Diagram from 'The Animators Survival Kit' by Richard William)

Also by doing this I could alter the key frames more easily than the straight ahead animation. This experiment has taught me to use the graph editor more effectively and with less key frames.

Image Plane Reference video: 

Here I used an image plane in maya with a reference video of a basket ball bouncing. I also used key frames at the top and bottom of the arches to block out the animation. I then did the same for the balls rotation once I placed a ram labert on the ball. then using the graph editor I edited the bounce of the ball's arch and it's ration. Once having polished that animation I removed the image plane. Also experimented by adding a slight squash and stretch to the ball. Unfortunately I couldn't key frame the rotation of the deformer so as the ball rotates the squash and stretch couldn't follow and squash in the correct place.