Task Five: Bouncing Ball Animation (with Travel)
In the process of this task, I was introduced to a new element in Maya known as “Motion Trails”: showing the path the object follows in the set key frames. This really helped with my Animation since I could visualize the Arcs which the ball followed. An additional function was the Locators which marked the location of each time the ball hit the ground. If at times I would accidentally alter the Translate Z values of the Motion Trail, the Locators would not line up and I would immediately recognize this.
An additional lesson was using Slow In & Slow Out. I found the ball would stay on the ground for the same amount of time as it would in the air, which after close analysis was untrue. A Ball stays up in the air for a longer stretch of time, and quickly fall to return back up to the air. After altering the Translate Y values of the ball when it touches the ground, it worked very well.
Principles of Animation Recognized: Squash & Stretch, Keys & Breakdown, Pose to Pose, Timing & Spacing & Easing, Slow In & Slow Out, Arcs.
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