Final 3D Ball Animation Submission

Final Ball and Tail

I found this quite difficult using a rig for the first time and the ball and tail was more complicated. If I was doing this again I could do it much better as I am more familiar with the software. I didn't use the graph editor very well , but now I understand how it works, I putting too many keys in, I could have used a lot fewer keys and concentrated more on the graph editor.

I don't really like the animation it is quite rigid the way it moves and it lacks character.  I tried to make it look hesitant and I think this comes across, but could be improved.

I have started to enjoy using Maya but getting very small things wrong has been very frustrating.

3D_FINAL_BALL AND TAIL 

  

Final ball across the screen

Here is my final ball across the screen animation. I had a few problems producing this animation. I created another animation before this one. The first mistake I did was I forgot to change the frame rate to 24.I had difficulties rendering it and would have then had to fix the key frames. By the time I realised this I had already done my ball and tail so I understood the software much better. SoI decided to start this animation again. When I created the second one it was a lot easier and quicker and I understood better how to use the graph editor.

Conclusion

I am pleased with the work I have done but I know that I have learnt a lot and could now produce a better more creative animation and use the software more effectively as I would be able to think more about the creative aspects and less about using the software.

3D_FINAL_BOUNCING BALL

MAYA

Now I have completed my 2D ball and ball and tail we are going to move onto 3D ball and ball and tail using Maya.

We had some tutorials learning how to set up the defaults correctly. This took a little while to get used to.

Here is a ball test I did in Maya. I have used 3Ds Max before but not really for animation but it useful because I understood the basic principles of 3D.

Ball Test

Final 2D Animations

Ball and Tail (2D_BOUNCING BALL AND TAIL TEST)

This is my ball and tail final animation. I am quite pleased with the final result but I found this test much more challenging. This was different exercise as the ball and tail had to have character and did not obey the laws of physics. I had to use stretch and exaggeration. I feel I am still developing these skills and that I did not use them to their full potential. I found the tail quite hard to get the angles and keep it a consistent size. After completing the final animation I consider that there are still areas where the tail is too stiff and rigid.

When the ball and tail lands on the second step it still look a bit wrong, the tail does not flick round quick enough. I have tried altering it but it still does not look quite right.

If I was doing this test again I would concentrate a lot more on timing and pacing, maybe having the character stopping and thinking more and exaggerating  the movement more.

Again this was a very useful exercise and fun to do, it gets you to realise how much thought and detail goes into just a ball and tail. I found it very frustrating trying to draw the tail, this took much longer than I thought it would. What I have learnt from this I can take through into Maya.

Final Ball Across the Screen  (2D_FINAL_BOUNCING BALL)

I am quite pleased with this animation , since it is the first proper animation I  have done.  It was about as difficult as I thought it might be since I had to get used to the software. Toon boom is quite easy to use software once the buttons are explained and you get used to using it. Getting the arcs of the bounces is difficult. I am still not quite happy with the first arc because of the spacing. I also feel that my arcs are too 'pointy' .

Overall I am pleased with this it was a good initial introductory exercise.

Bouncing Ball Video

  Here is my ball bouncing video. It has been checked and tweaked so hopefully this is the final result!

I looked at squirrels as examples of animals that use their tails./ Here is an example that I found.

Bouncing ball and tail video

I got a bouncy ball and pinned a tail onto it. I dropped straight down and filmed the movement of the ball and tail to give me an idea of the changes in  movement that the attached tail caused. 

This is the rough plan for my ball and tail animation. 

Ball and Tail Rough

This is my rough ball and tail animation. I am waiting to get feedback next week, before I continue to develop this animation. I think that getting the tail to look right is not going to be easy.

Bouncing ball animation practice

 Animation Techniques

In this project I am going to learn the fundementals of animation. 

First I am going to research and practice the software and learn the basics of animation for example timing and spacing.

For this initial animation I am just using a ball, I will develop this more later with the ball and tail. This will be more fun as I will be able to give it character, emotion and even a short story.

After this we are going to repeat these exercises in Maya.

I have looked at the 12 principles of animation.

Squash and stretch

Anticipation

Staging

Straight ahead action and pose to pose

Follow through and overlapping action

Slow in and slow out

Arcs

Secondary action

Timing

Exaggeration

Solid drawing

Appeal

Because my project only involves bouncing a ball the most important principles will be squash and stretch, timing, ease in and ease out and arcs.

Here is a picture I found that shows squash and stretch.

I have done some tests and practice of using the software in Toon Boom.

 

Now I have done some research into ball bouncing I selected two different balls one quiet a bouncy rubber  ball and one hard wooden ball to bounce on a hard tiles surface. I decided to use a hard surface to get maximum bounce.

I filmed this many times and took the best two of each videos of each type of ball and  put them into two separate video clips.  

I timed how long each bounce was and measured the heights the ball bounced to. I did this several times to work out an average. By doing this I could work out how many frames there should be in each arc of the ball bouncing.

This is a rough working of the timing and spacing, but from my research I have worked out that I will need to put a few more frames in.