Keyframe Only: Bouncing Ball.

For the following tutorial exercises I looked at areas for the 12 principles of animation, this included squash and stretch, anticipation, follow through and
overlapping, slow-in and slow-out, arcs and secondary action. Within these exercise I notice a lot of overlapping of each principal in order to form an effective
piece of animation. For this particular exercise I looked at a ball bouncing on the spot; to start with I put in the main up and down movements of the ball and
keyframed them onto the timeline.
Form there I then went into the graph editor and looked at making the curves a spline tangents, meaning an animation
curve that is smooth between the key before and the key after the selected key. Here I also made sure the top and bottom
key frames in the graph editor lay flat, to do this I used the flat tangents, thus enabling the ball when it reaches its next
point to ‘hang’ in the air for moment before starting again.
I then went back
and started to add
in the squash and
stretch to the ball
using the scale
options in the
channel box.
 Bouncing Ball: With Rotation & Travel.

To start with I put in the

main up and down
bounce movements of
the ball and keyframed
them onto the timeline
making sure the curves
are linear in the graph
editor.
 1. 2. 3.

I then added in the slow in and slow out for the balls bounces (1) and then looked at making the
curves spline (2); as well as looking at the top and bottoms points to ensure they were laying
flat.

I then made the bottom contact points on the ball linear (3) on one side so that it make a hard
contact with ground as the ball comes back down again
 I then added some travel to the ball by
key framing the translate Z channel in
frame 1 and then in frame 30, thus
allowing the ball to bounce whist
moving instead of just on the spot as
seen in the first tutorial.

I then made the animation curve

linear so that there was ni slow-in and
slow-out as it moves from one spot to
the next.
I then looked at adding a rotation to the
bouncing ball sequence by rotating the
ball 90 degrees clockwise each time at
its peaks and contact points
I then proceeded to add in the squash and
stretch points to the ball. This being just
before contact, contact and after contact,
here I also had to bring the ball back down
to the ‘ground’ in the transition Y axis due
to how the squash and stretch affected the
geometry of the ball.
Made new material in hyper shade nodule.

From there in then duplicated the ball and

looked at making a new material in the hyper
shade nodule (this being a clear texture), then
looked at assigning it to the original ball
animation. From there I then took the two balls
and parented the duplicate to the original ball
animation. I then rotated the duplicate to give
more originality to ball bounce and so it
seemed more natural as it transitioned from
one spot the next. Through parenting the ball it
mean I could alter the duplicate without it
affecting the original animation.
Dynamic Simulation (Keyframe Baking).

Setting up the scene:

Red objects in the scene are known as dummy objects,
they are low resolution and have simpler geometry so
will calculate quicker during the simulation. The high
resolution version is parented within dummy objects.

The playback rate is at ‘play every frame’ – meaning

Maya won’t be allowed to skip any frames within the
animation. This is important in dynamic simulation as it
needs the last frame to calculated its next move. To
make this work effectively it needs to be in the FX
window.
I then needed to make objects dynamic so that they move to
do this they will need to be active. So I selected all objects
except the fixing in which the chain swings from. I then went
to the menu bar and went to Fields/solvers > active ridged
body, this allowing the links and ball to become active. I then
looked at adding in the gravity to the chain and ball through
going to Fields/solvers > gravity.

The ball and chain dropped from the fixing so to fix this I
select the fixing went to Fields/solvers > passive ridged body,
this then allowed the chain and ball to stay attached to the
fixing. Meaning it’s going to be locked in place so chain and
ball won’t fall when the simulation is run.

The playback is slow at this stage as it’s uses a lot of memory

and uses calculations to create the movement in the
sequence.
Setting up some preferences for the active bodies in the scene.
The chain:
1. Bounciness at 0.2
2. Mass – similar to weight at 2
Weight – Ball:
1. Bounciness at 0.2
2. Mass – similar to weight at 5
Fixing:
1. Bounciness at 0.2
I then select all objects and went to edit > keys > bake
simulation and left it as default. This will create key frames
for every movement the simulation makes on the timeline.

I then deleted simulation (yellow marked boxes) after the

bake simulation had finished, leaving just the key frames
(red marked boxes) in place so I can then scrub through
the animation. To do so I went to edit> delete all by type
> ridged bodies. From there I then changed the animation
preferences back to 25 fps x 1 so that it plays back in real
time.
Finally I then turned on the high resolution objects and selected the dummy chain link, from there I then opened the
attributes editor and found the dummy texture and set the transparency to full. I then play blasted the animation to get the
final outcome.
 Settle & Rest.

For this exercise I looked at at the settle and rest of the pendulum above, this consisted of using rotate Z to ‘swing’ the pendulum from one side
to the next going down in intervals of 5 each time till the pendulum came to a stop.
I then went back and added further keyframes to the sequence to add in that slow-in and slow-out as it reached it’s next point hangs for a
second and then drops back down to go back up.
 Secondary Action & Overlap.

Here I looked at primary and secondary action. For this I animated the top orange link so that it swing from one side to the
next; much like the pendulum animation. This link is the primary action of this sequence. From there I then copied the
animated set and then applied it to the remaining links using the paste connect option so that it followed on from that last
link. In addition to this I then delayed each links animation by two frames to help create the follow on action from the prior
link. This I secondary action.
 Squash & Stretch.

Then next exercise consisted of focusing on the squash and stretch of a object (toadstool). To start with I gave the toadstool the basic motion of
a jump using the translate Y in the channels box, with the addition of some slow-in and slow out as it reaches the height of its jump. From there I
then add in the squash and stretch using the top and bottom controls on the toadstool with the use of translate Y again; this creating two
different animation curves that when combined together create a jumping squishing toadstool.
I then made the animation repeat its self by going to the graph editor > View > Infinity then Curves > Pre Infinity > Cycle
> Curves > Post Infinity > Cycle
 Anticipation & Follow-Through.

From there I then looked at Anticipation & Follow-Through action as a hand comes down and picks up a can. To start with I got the motion of
the arm swinging down and up, from there I then went back to reposition the hand and fingers to appear open as they swoop down to the can. I
then adjusted the wrist and shoulder as the hand holds the can up toward its shoulder.
I then got the can to follow the hand up
as it grasps it, to do this I turned the can
switch from 0 to 1 to allow the can to
lock into place of the hand. After this
was complete I then want back and
tidied up the graph editor and looked at
getting rid of any inconsistencies in the
flow of the curves.