2/18 - Bouncing Ball, Part 2

BOUNCING BALL Part 2

Objective: Using the ball rig, animate 2 balls bouncing across the screen; one very heavy and the other very light.

If you want to do this right—and you do—research and review!  Read Richard Williams’ book on the bouncing ball, and squash and stretch.  Where will you see squash and stretch in your bouncing ball animation?

           

            Squash is related to speed – the ball will stretch when it’s traveling with lots of speed

            Squash is related to impact – the ball will squash when it hits the floor

The better you’re able to correlate the amount of speed and impact with the amount of deformation, the more realistic your animation will feel.  Try to work with the nuances, make sure you tune up the deformations to be just right for the amount of speed and impact you’re giving it.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Shoot video reference and plan your assignment on paper before animating on the computer: consider how the shot will appear onscreen and compose it nicely before setting your scene in Maya.
2. Set up your scene with a camera and Resolution Gate and Gate Mask—keep your angle simple like an orthographic view.  Create background and floor plane; apply color.
3. In the same scene, animate two bouncing balls, making sure you show the difference of weight/mass between them: one ball should be very heavy and the other one very light.  Apply different colors to them.  They both should bounce across the screen, and they both should have squash and stretch.

Your first pass on this assignment is due Thursday, Feb. 20

For grades, please bring your video reference, a JPEG image showing your planning thumbnails, and a quicktime MOV with your final assignment. (Make sure all video files are properly formatted and compressed.)

* The Bouncing Ball, Part 2 assignment will be graded (20% of your total grades)

2/13 - Rigged Ball (2 Assignments)

TWO ASSIGNMENTS WITH THE RIGGED BALL

Objective: Learn how to animate with the new rigged ball!

It has two controls for the animation:

1.      The arrows are used to translate or rotate the ball.

2.      The ring by the center of the ball is used to squash and stretch the ball

To deform the ball, select the ring, and select the “squash-stretch” channel in the channel box.

Then press and hold the mid button of your mouse over the view window, and move it slightly side to side. You will see that the ball will change shapes. You can also choose the “squash and stretch” and enter a number. Usually you will need values between 1 and -1.

Assignment One: Bouncing ball in place

Start with the ball in the highest position, off screen.  Ball will enter the screen and bounce several times in place, losing height after each bounce until it stops.

Frame length should be between 80-160 frames long.

Your playblast should be clean (no grid etc showing, only the ball, the BG and the floor).

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.   Set up your scene: Create a camera.  Then create ground plane and background plane, and apply color to both. 

2.   Follow your planning for the Bouncing Ball Part 1 assignment, and start by creating the animation of the Y-translation only. Tweak the spacing of the ball by editing the tangents of your main keyframes. Use techniques such as breaking the tangents and freeing the tangent weights to get the best results.  Do not use squash and stretch yet!

3.   When you are happy with the translation and the spacing, add squash and stretch:

a.   First add the SQUASH at the contact position.
When you are happy with the amount of squash, set a key frame in all channels or the squash and stretch control.

b.   Next, you will add a STRETCH right before the squash.
That position should also be a contact position, with the lower tip of the ball touching the floor. Create the stretch first, set a key frame, then use the arrows to reposition the ball so it's touching the floor.

      Please note: there will be contact positions for each bounce: one squash in the impact, one on the stretch right before it. After the squash, it's better not to have a third contact position, or else it will look like the ball is sticking to the floor. So, after the squash, the ball will spring up, and the stretch will not touch the floor.

4.   When you are happy with the stretch, you need to work on the top part of the bounce, so the ball keeps its regular shape. Choose the parts of your animation where you want the ball to look like a ball with no deformations at all, enter zero in all channels of the “squash and strech” control, and set key frames on all channels or the squash stretch control.

5.   Keep doing the same steps above for all the bounces of your animation. Remember: the higher the bounce, the more squash and stretch we see. As the height of the bounces decreases, we will see less and less deformation on the ball.

Assignment Two: Bouncing ball across the screen

SAVE your Assignment One file.  Create a new scene, and follow the same steps above, with the following modifications:

1.   After you are happy with the up and down translation, add the side to side movement, setting one first key frame with the ball all the way to the right, and one last key frame with the ball all the way to the left. You will only need these two key frames for your X translation (front view).
Make sure the tangents for the X curve make sense in the graph editor. Think about what speed you want, and edit the graph editor accordingly.

2.   After you have the ball bouncing across the screen, add the squash and stretch. Follow the same steps you followed for the bouncing ball in place.

3.   When you are happy with the stretch and squash, you will need to lean the ball sideways on the stretch positions, so the ball in angled in the direction of the movement. You will need to rotate BOTH the squash and stretch control and the arrows in order to have a proper rotation. Make sure that your stretch positions follow the angle of the movement!

The frame range for the ball across the screen is the same as it is for the ball bouncing in place:

Minimum of 80 frames and maximum of 160 frames.

Before shooting your final playblast, make sure you clean the view window (no grids, numbers and other artifacts should be visible on your playblast.)

2/11 - Ball Bounce Across Screen

BALL BOUNCING ACROSS THE SCREEN

Objective: Make a ball bounce from one end of the screen to the other (no squash and stretch)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Shoot video reference and plan your assignment on paper before animating on the computer: consider how the shot will appear onscreen and compose it nicely before setting your scene in Maya.
   
2. Set up your scene with a Camera and Resolution Gate and Gate Mask (remember to set Render Settings to HD720)—keep your angle simple like an orthographic view.  Set up geometry; I suggest using color for the ball instead of a distracting texture.
   
3. Animate a ball bouncing across the screen WITHOUT using squash and stretch.  The ball should enter the frame from off-screen, bounce across the set, and exit the frame on the opposite side of the screen.  Make this believable using what you know of Weight, Timing, and Spacing.
   
4. Playblast your scene from the Camera view.

Due Thursday, 2/13 on the server before class

2/6 - Bouncing Ball, Part 1

BOUNCING BALL Part 1

Objective: Animate a ball bouncing in place for a seamless, looping cycle.

This assignment involves translation only.  Don’t worry about squash/stretch or decreasing height of the bounces—your assignment is to use and further polish what you’ve learned about controlling curves in the graph editor. 

Watch for Weight, Timing, Spacing, Arcs, Ease-Ins and Ease-Outs. Work on making it believable.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Plan your scene on paper.  Thumbnail the timing you want your bouncing ball to have, and refer back to it as you animate your scene.
2. Set up your scene (should be in ORTHOGRAPHIC view: Side or Front)  Create geometry, apply color and texture, position everything in the frame, and stage it so there is enough space to view the full bounce.  Not too far, not too close.
3. Animate full bounce using translation on Y-axis.  Tweak the curve in the graph editor.  Use what you know of traditionally animating a ball bounce to determine where it should accelerate and decelerate.  (Remember the tangent options at your disposal.)
4. Timing of your bounce may be any speed you like—you only need to export one full bounce.  When the movie is set to Loop, it should appear as a smooth cycle with no “hiccups” or unintended delays in the animation.

Due on the server before class on Tuesday, February 11

2/4 - Controlled Rolling

Controlled Rolling

Objective: Controlling curves in the Graph Editor

• You will animate a ball rolling on the floor and coming to a stop.
• This assignment involves translation and rotation, and the rotation needs to feel real – we need to believe the ball is really rolling on the floor.
• Your scene should be in between 60 and 120 frames long (no shorter than 60 frames and no longer than 120 frames)
• You need to create a floor plane - use a cube or a plane. Scale it to the desired size and add color to it.
• The ball should have a checker texture applied to it
• The assignment should be done in the front view only

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Plan your scene on paper
2. Set up your scene – create the geometry, apply color and texture, position everything in the scene, and stage it so that there's enough space for the ball to roll, and also so that we can clearly see the ball (not too far and not too close)
3. Animate translation first
4. Tweak the curves in the graph editor in order to have a nice slow in at the end
5. Once you are happy with the translation, add the rotation.

Due on the server before class on 2/5/14

Tutorial: Saving MOV for server

If you’ve exported a Playblast from Maya on a home computer and wasn’t given an encoding option (Encoding: none), you can use Quicktime Pro to shrink the file.  You can purchase Quicktime Pro online or use a free edition on the school computers.

1. Open your hi-res AVI or MOV file on Quicktime Pro.
2. File > Export
3. Make sure Export is set to "Movie to Quicktime Movie", then click Options button
   
4. In the Movie Setting window under Video, click the Settings button
   
5. Selection "Compression Type", set desired "Compressor Quality", and confirm
   
6. Confirm Movie Settings. Hit Save to finish exporting.