I recently found out, by searching through the recent student threads, that boot camps were the new hip thing, so I figured I'd give it a try! After all I am a newbie trying to learn the ropes, so here goes!
Feel free to critique wherever necessary; I'd rather hear It's awful than to falsely believe It's good.
J Man

Hi J Man,

First thing I notice... the ball is leaving the ground still squashed. that's very odd.

I didn't realize it wasn't supposed to do that at the time - but your right... that doesn't make any sense at all!
Thanks for the tip!

I tried removing the squetching from the beginning of the bounce - it still doesn't look quite right... it's a bit too jerky. I think I'm just going to have to tweak it in the dope sheet. Oh well, here's the progress so far.
Enjoy! (By the way Robcat, thanks for critiquing)
J Man

Hey J man show us a screen shot of your timeline ( y axis )

and don't forget to use your bais handles to help out you ease in ( slow up the upper arc )

and on the timing of the falls look at my bootcamp ( post 12 ) is the total layout of my first bounce

just a note about the 3 points in the valley ( in my bounce ) the points were pecked ( if your right click or control click for mac ...you'll see options for that and the short cuts for them )

just my 2cp

keep trying ( took me over a week of trying before Robcat dropped me the answer on my lap )

Robcat is GOD in the student forum ( i'm not kidding )

Steve ( out )

Thanks Steve! I don't think Windows can't do a "screen capture", can it? I'm still working on the next version, but I promise it will be here soon.
J Man

PrintScreen will capture the whole desktop, ALT+Printscreen captures the current window.

Then paste into a paint program to see the capture. resave as a JPG or PNG (good for interface screens)

Hi guys, I know I haven't posted on this in FOREVER; I've had a lot of technical problems with my computer, and I just now got around to getting back to the ol' boot camp. Anyway, I think I'll just start over. This is Alonzo's first assignment, the bouncing ball. Watch if you like, and critique however you like. Thanks!
Peace,
J Man

Hey J Man -

From what I can tell, you've got the squetch down pat! That looks fantastic.
The ball feels a bit floaty after it reaches the top of the first arc. It stays up at the top a little too long after that first bounce. And then after the third bounce, it suddenly falls too fast. I think if you adjust your arcs on those, you'll have it !

- Michael

Hey J Man -

From what I can tell, you've got the squetch down pat! That looks fantastic.
The ball feels a bit floaty after it reaches the top of the first arc. It stays up at the top a little too long after that first bounce. And then after the third bounce, it suddenly falls too fast. I think if you adjust your arcs on those, you'll have it !

- Michael

Hey Michael, thanks for replying. I agree with you that the differentiation of the two bounces was too much, now that you mention it. I'll get to work on that.
Peace,
J Man

Click to view attachmentHere you go, a revised version of the previous video; hopefully, it looks more clean.
Any and all replies would be appreciated. Thanks!
Peace,
J Man

The attached may be hard to understand as it may disorient you but it hints at some problems that you should be able to see in your timeline. This should be 'jumpball_2.mov' unless I accidentally grabbed the wrong one.

In particular (assuming my evaluation isn't flawed*) there is some acceleration and squash and stretch that could be adjusted yet.

I'll let the data speak for itself.
Note: If you scroll up you get the same frame orientation as your ball dropping down.
In other words, the last from it at the top.

The image will be a very thin strip in the middle of the black space below. Not a lot to click on!

*Edit: It was flawed. I was getting 25 frames per second here which appended 1 extra frame for every 24.
Adjusted to 24 frames per second and that seemed to do the job. (Note to self!)

One possible interpretation of the data?

Concentrate on the squash.
There doesn't seem to be enough of it (or not held long enough to suggest its happening as it should).
The frame of contact doesn't count as a frame of squash for our purposes here so you should have squash... a little more squash and then either recovery or launch depending on acceleration factor.

Hope this makes sense.

Hello Rodney,
thanks for the feedback. By the way, I right-clicked the attached image and it allowed me to see the "expand" button. I understand what you're saying, and (thank god) it'll be a quick fix. If I interpreted it right, you want more squash before and after the trough of the bounce; instead of a short, quick squash, you want a more drawn out squash to match the stretch in the ascent and descent. If I'm wrong, please correct me. I'll work on that though. Thanks again!
Peace,
J Man

Okay, here we go. This is the bounce sequence involving more squash; I hope that's what you asked for.
Thanks again for critiquing Rodney and Michael!
Peace,
J Man

Whoops! I accidentally rendered it in AVI form, so it didn't attach.
Oh well, it is fixed. Sorry about that.
Peace,
J Man

Looking good J Man.

A couple of observations, but before I do that I'd like to ask you if you have Richard Williams' "The ANIMATOR'S SURVIVAL KIT"? In the book it will explain, in detail, this exact excercise.

The two observations I have are 1) the speed at which the ball falls to the ground. It needs to accelerate as it falls to the ground, bounce back up and slows down only as it reaches the high point. The way you have it now is it has the same speed going down and going up which is why it doesn't look believable

2) The ball is staying way to long on the ground (I counted 9 frames). The way this exercise goes is that the ball touches the ground fully streteched on one frame, then fully squashed and still on the ground on the next frame - then off the ground and fully stretched on the next frame on its way up. So, the ball can touch the ground for no more than two frames.

Hello Dhar,
first off thanks for taking the time to comment. Secondly, whoah I was holding the ground part too long. I exaggerated the squashes (apparently far too much, see earlier sequences) in order to meet the advice, which I may have misinterpreted, from Rodney's comments. However, I will definitely shorten that. It seems like if I shorten the squash, I will inevitably have to shorten the bounce itself. If this is untrue, please correct me, but from previous experience, it seems out of place if the squash is less that 4 frames. I'll see if I can make it look right. Also, I do not have the Animator's Survival Kit, but I will try to find a copy of it, at a local library, perhaps? On the note of the acceleration in the fall, I understand what you are saying. I actually do have it speeding up through bias handles on the keyframes, but apparently it is not enough. I will fix that as well. Thanks again!
Peace,
J Man

Hello again, here's the newest animation with Dhar's suggestions (which I hope were applied properly). Thanks again to all who reply.
Peace,
J Man

Click to view attachment

That looks good. Please, don't be shy You can move the camera closer or make the ball bigger. It would also help to keep the default chor so we can relate the ground to the ball.

Move on to the next one.

Hello again Dhar, and thanks for critiquing. I figured out why it's so small- I rendered it from the front view, not the camera. Sorry about that. Anyway, on to the two bouncing balls!
Thanks again!
Peace,
J Man

Hello one and all, sorry for the 2 month hiatus (ISP troubles). Anyway, I have finished a first draft of the second tutorial, two bouncing balls. Thanks for taking the time to critique and help.
Peace,
J Man

Jman!

I'm liking what I'm seeing here... with two small observations.
See what you think about them... accept/reject as necessary.

The background (black) interferes with the ball on the right.
It gives the impression of the ball gaining mass suddenly.
If there is any way to isolation that... I think that (the perception of) continuity in mass distribution would be maintained.
You may just have your Alpha Channel on and that is why the background is rendering black. Turn that off and we'd be seeing the default light blue.

The ball on the right (more solid, heavier) is falling with more acceleration than the one on the left.
This is okay if you want that effect but not if they are falling from the same height.
The two objects should fall at the same speed even though one is heavier than the other.
Again... accelaration being the same... that is.

Fine work Mr. Jman.

Thank you very much, Mr. Rodney
Sorry about the Black background, I posted a fixed version. As far as the heavy ball falling faster, They both reach the ground at the same time on the first drop, they are dropped from the same height, and the bias handles on the fall are fairly similar. Maybe I misunderstood you, but it seems like they fall at the same rate. If you meant something else, then I'm not sure I understand what it is.
Oh, and I've posted a timeline chart of the two balls just for clarification; hopefully it will make things easier.
Thanks Again!
Peace,
J Man

I might be jumping the gun by beginning work on the next exercise, but when I plotted out the course of action for completing the third assignment, a problem came to mind. It appears to me that a ball moving in the X or Z dimensions should bounce towards the direction it is going, and the easiest way to go about that seems to be using the squetch slider, and then rotating the ball as it travels. However, the root bone rests on the bottom of the ball, making rotation inaccurate. Should I move that root bone, or is there a way of doing this that I am missing? Thanks again for any help!
Peace,
J Man

Nah... press on! press on! Those are fine ball bounces.

The appearance of acceleration is mostly due to the black background in the first take.
The easiest way to see this is to hold a straight edge up to the screen on the leading edge of the left (or right) ball. Make sure the straightedge extends to the second ball and arrow through/progress through the animation.
They should stay in line as you go if they are accelerating at the same rate.
Any stretch seen should trail from the leading edge not advance in front of it so... don't use the squash and stretch defense!

Note: Framing through backward might be easier to see the effect as the straightedge will cover the evidence of acceleration.

In the second take its not clear whether its acceleration or the ball moving toward the camera.
I believe you've touched on that aspect.

Keep in mind that the view from the camera is extremely important.
If there are no cues to tell us there is movement in 3D space the eye/brain will jump to its own conclusions.

The shadows on the ground plane tell the story and clue us in to the fact that both balls are not at equal distance from us.

By all means.... Move On!

You may want to create a new Bone to get proper rotation from the ball.
It's been so long since I looked at the rigging on the models created for ABC I forget what is there.


Edit: As you've got two straightedges built into your sequence you don't have to hold up anything to your screen.
Things to note:
- The ball appearing first is the left one.
- When they reach the ground plane note where each one is
- When they both strike the ground they do so at the same time.

Conclusion: One of these balls is either accelerating or their distance from us (the camera) is contributing to that effect.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

I think those bounces are pretty good and within limits for a early bouncing ball exercise.

The first drop for both balls is very linear. They are just barely accelerating on the way down.

I also think you have the white ball goint to "stretch" too soon on its way down each time. I'd save it until about halfway down.



actually pivoting at the base will be most useful since a ball that makes a moving bounce will "sort of" turn about the point where it contacts the ground. Any mid-air inaccuracies caused by the squetch-at-base will hardly be noticed and can be solve by moving the ball slightly

Remember, you can keyframe that ball to any spot on the screen you want on any frame you want. If the rig makes something be in the wrong spot... just move it to the right spot.

There are lots of times in animation where you have to counter animate one thing to fix a position problem caused by animating something else.

Hello again!
I tweaked the 2nd assignment, and I attempted to fix those problems with the accelleration and rate of squetchiness. Unfortunately, somewhere in the process I accidentally moved the root bone on the ball model, and the balls don't quite touch the ground in this example.

I have also begun work on the 3rd assignment, with the balls bouncing across the screen, and I have the first draft finished.
Thanks as always!
Peace,
J Man

Once again, I might be jumping the gun by planning the next exercise , but another problem has come to mind. I don't really know how to go about planning the three frames of impact with a Tail-ball. Should the first (stretched) frame show the tail in the air, the second (squashed) show the tail pointing downward, and the third (stretched) show the tail in the air again? I tried this, and, despite the fact that it seemed logical, it didn't look right. I guess I was making the tails position match the squetchiness of the ball, and I don't really know the correct way of going about that.
Peace,
J man

One thing that strikes me as odd is where the stretch (on the fall) is almost the same for both balls.

The ball on the right loses this stretchability upon the first bounce which is rather odd.
I think this was there before but I just didn't see it.

As far as tweaking the acceleration I may have to supply an over lay to demonstrate what I mean as the acceleration seems to be even greater now.

The balls not touching the ground isn't too distracting. Still works for me.

I'm at a loss to really critique tail movement as I haven't done many of those myself.
If you post an example I'll try to dissect it however.
There are several schools of thought with respect to secondary action that can work well with tails.
In general lead with the main action and follow up with the secondary.
Allow for follow through and carry the path of the tail through in arcs and/or waves.
There are some theories of C and S shapes that I'd like to investigate further myself.
(clear as mud I know... sorry!)

I believe there is a tutorial linked here in ABC called 'The Walk and the Whip' that should serve you well.
Richard William's has some really wonderful examples in his Animator's Survival Guide too if you have a copy of it.

As far as 3 frames of impact goes with relationship to the tail keep in mind they need not impact the ground at all.
I you imagine the end of the ball following along after the main body in something of a Sine wave (S Curve) that might help.
Come to think of it there may be info online from Preston Blair on that.

Okay, I've got my dictionary out, and I'm ready to decypher your message, Rodney . Seriously though, I understand the part about arcs and waves; but I didn't find the Walk and The Whip, and I couldn't find anything of Preston Blair's online. I think I'll just start experimenting, and see how it gets critiqued. Oh, and I haven't gotten around to redoing the third assignment. I'll do that too. Thanks for responding!
Peace,
J Man

Preston Blair's book is here (but supposedly his bouncing ball is out-of-date):

First part:
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/me...tion-first.html

Second Part:
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/me...mation-1st.html

The ASIFA site is a joy to look through.

It probably is true that Preston Blair's ball bounce is out of date (its been around for a very long time!)
But its the earliest Preston Blair bounce that went out of favor and was replaced by Preston Blair himself.

The mystery of the bouncing ball deepens even further as on the page by page examples of the original and latter day Preston Blair Animation book the the bouncing ball examples... ARE MISSING!
<cue mysterious and suspenseful music>

According to Richard William's in his book, 'The Animators Survival Kit', Preston Blair's bouncing ball had become the defacto standard in animating bouncing balls. Upon seeing the sequence however, legendary animator Ken Harris is alledged to have said, "Yeah sure, but wait a minute - never mind that. We can make this much better. We need to have a contact in here before the squash".

According to Richard Williams Preston Blair's bouncing ball example was corrected in the next edition.

So... conspiracy? Has to be!

The truth is always more simple than that of course... and yet even more complex.
Preston Blair's bouncing ball has been the most widely accepted form for bouncing balls everywhere.
But it is quite odd that the bouncing ball examples would be the only missing pages in the comparison.
Someone is out to keep us from discovering the secret of that bouncing ball! The ultimate conspiracy of conspiracies!!!
How the heck should we bounce that ball?

I hope to put together an overarching theory that encompasses the various techniques that people have championed over the years but really it mostly falls to the artist. If the bounce looks good to the viewers eye... its a pretty good ball bounce.

The missing Preston Blair ball bouncing comparison could be a random and most unfortunate ommission.
It could be the blogger's attempt to avoid confusion. (if Preston Blair would change his mind... other animators might too!)
Or maybe Richard Williams just reported the whole thing wrong from the beginning and Preston Blair never changed a thing?
Hmmm... the mystery deepens.

I know who has the answer... yes... its that guy that's always involved in these mysteries, Martin Hash.
Martin has several copies of the original Preston Blair's book.
Quick... hide them books Martin... there's bouncy ball conspiracy afoot!!!


(I'll try to post some examples of tail animation from Preston Blair's book and hunt down that elusive 'Walk and Whip' thingy too.)


References:
Variations on a Theme - A comparison of the original versus latter day edition of Preston Blair's animation book.

Preston Blair Book - First part:
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/me...tion-first.html

Preston Blair Book - Second Part:
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/me...mation-1st.html

While I look for the "Walk and Whip" thingy here's an example from Preston Blair's ball bounce page.
This is reportedly the original and is what you'll see presented in most ball bouncing exercises on the internet.

Note: This example is missing the contact point that Richard William's says Ken Harris suggested adding to 'make it better'.
Notice the same thing in the frog. Richard Williams includes his version of the frog hop in 'The Animator's Survival Kit'.
The main difference? The frog's arms stretch out and make contact with the ground on the contact frame.

In my opinion Richard's example of stretching to contact is a great application of the principle of squash and stretch.
The more realistic the character the less exagerated the squash and the stretch of course.

Found the link in my 'annotated' Art of Animation:Master thread.

Learn more about the study of walk cycles with:
The Walk and the Whip by Andrew Jaremko

This is more of an introduction to walk cycle studies but that is what tail animation is designed to prepare us for in the first place.
That and arcs... and secondary action... and follow through...

For Preston Blair's examples outlining the basic process see below.

Don't neglect going back through other's Bootcamp efforts here in the forum.
There are some great animation examples (from intial attempt to refinement stages) and commentary to go with them too!

Thank you, Caroline and Rodney, for your invaluable help. I love watching the old fashioned 2D animators at work, and seeing their techniques. I think I could look over those few online pages of Preston Blair's work for hours. . I can't thank everyone enough for their responses and help with this bootcamp. There's no way I could have made it this far without you. I have finished a first draft of the tailball exercise. I still need to go back and tweak the third exercise, which I will do, but I figured I should go ahead and post this anyway. Feel free to judge wherever necessary. Thanks so much.
Peace,
J Man

First off,nice try!
Some minor points-in frame 16 the tail gets left behind when the ball moves to the squash - I think the tail should move in the sqaush position as well as the main body, as you have it the tail is left hanging as the rest of the ball squashes. On the frame after this, the ball seems to bounce up to meet the tail, rather than have the tail follow the ball. I think if you imagine a line running through the tail- the line of action- in a whip like motion,and have the tail follow that this would help. I would look to getting a reversal in the line of action here.

Chris

Nice crit Chris!

Many have probably already visited this site... it acts as a great intro into a lot of the basic concepts and principles of animation.
Don't spend to long there though... keep animating!

Of interest are the general tail swings and line of action/arcs (most I believe taken from Richard William's book).

http://www.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/04_walkcycle_project.html

A few quick references taken from the above link.
I believe this is Preston Blair animation...

Three attachments:
1 - The bouncing ball w/ tail cycle (See the .MOV file)
2 - Side by Side view of bouncing ball w/ tail cycle
3 - My interpretation of adding a contact frame, adjusting the previous frame back w/ adjusted tail movement following Richard William's technique.
Note: If a set number of frames is desired more frames would have to be adjusted and the unnecessary removed.

Hello, hello, one and all! I have revised Exercise 4, and I tried to get it to resemble (but not copy) Preston Blair's example that Rodney posted. Although the channels for the tail bones look sporadic and misshapen, I am content with the finished result; I've spent about four hours out of the past two days tweaking little things to make it as good as it is right now. Obviously, it isn't perfect, and it probably needs significant work- which is why I am posting it on this forum .
I haven't quite gotten around to tweaking Exercise 3 again, but I will start on that now.
Thanks to everyone for helping!
Peace,
J Man

Hello again! Rodney, I was looking over the quoted portion of your post, and at the same time looking at exercise 3 (the balls bouncing across the screen). Of course, it took me a good 1-2 minutes to realize you were talking about the vertically bouncing exercise (exercise 2). After I got past this blatant mistake, I began looking over the material you were actually talking about. While I understand what you are referring to with regard to the ball on the right losing stretchability, I'm afraid the rest of it is Greek to me. I decided it would be better to first understand exactly what you meant about the acceleration changes and so on, instead of only fixing the one thing I did comprehend. If you could clarify these suggestions a little that would be great.
Thanks so much!
Peace,
J Man

(It should be noted... I am not the best one to discuss physics, animated or otherwise)

Walt Stanchfield said this about falling objects:


The basic idea is that of the law of gravity.
All other things being equal two objects will fall at the same rate.
A bowling ball and a marble dropped from the same height will hit the ground at the same time.
Where things start to get interesting is when you add things like air resistance... and acceleration.

I'm not sure how far you want to explore.
Its easy to dig deeper than you need to reach a satisfactory conclusion in your exercise.
It may be enough to understand that where objects DO NOT appear to fall at the same rate acceleration or wind resistance will be implied. Of course its possible that the two objects didn't start falling at the same height too.

One of the reasons the dual ball falling exercise is a good one is that it is one of the most simple exercises that can be used to demonstrate the principle of the motion of falling objects:

http://www.vias.org/physics/bk1_05_01.html

For some additional information on acceleration:
http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia...gal_accn962.htm
http://www.astro.washington.edu/larson/Ast...ty/gravity.html

So... how to demonstrate the principle?

Assuming the balls are falling from the same height, they should continue together until they impact the ground. Once they contact the ground the force from the balls will be transferred. How much force is transferred will be determined by the density of the objects involved(both moving and static). Objects with more density/mass will tend to absorb more of the energy. In the case of a rubber ball versus a bowling ball then the rubber ball squash more, transferring kinetic energy that will in turn launch it with considerable acceleration. The bowling ball would not squash and stretch in most cases (cartoony animation notwithstanding). The energy still must be transferred and may variously be absorbed by the ball or the ground depending on their density/mass and material qualities. In the case of a glass marble the impact could shatter or chip the marble. A bowling ball might leave with a dent. The ground might have a crater.

(Exploration interupted by my daughter requiring access to the printer)

More random nibblets of interest from the internet:

QUOTE

Falling objects: When you drop a pen and a piece of paper at the same time, it seems to confirm the commonsense expectation that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. But now crumple the sheet of paper and drop them again. What happens?

Steven Pollock
University of Colorado at Boulder
Ph.D., Stanford University

Hello again!
Rodney, first of all, I really appreciate all of the media resources, and to be honest, it's a bit overwhelming. I think you hit the nail on the head by saying it's easy to get too far in depth. I am working on another run of the two bouncing balls exercise, which will hopefully incorporate some your myriad of suggestions correctly. It's a lot to think about, but it's fun. Sorry I haven't gotten that done yet; it seems like a small project- however, working this around exam studies and the pounds of work my teachers are throwing at me, I don't get very much time.
Thanks again!
Peace,
J Man

To us as individuals it will be overwhelming but where it might be too much to take in for me, you or someone else will be able to fill in the gaps.

Likewise, working through these exercises helps us separate the wheat from the chaff.
Not all ideas are good ideas, not all ideas are bad. Some might even be implementable!

There are objectives to these exercises just as there are to any lesson.
Once we learn those we can build upon them.

I think we stand at something of a crossroads here. Unfortunately, the creator of ABC, Alonso Soriano, isn't here. So we may have to interpret a little as we learn. Last I heard Alonso was working at a game company... and studying his way through Animation Mentor. Sadly, his main website is down. Anyone heard from him lately?

Who knows... maybe when he finds some time he'll drop back in.
Its be great if he came back to see ABC thriving.

Here's what Alonso had to say about Level 1:

Level 1 BASIC MOVEMENT
Goals: You should have read about the 12 principles of animation. And you should be getting the basics of animation; moving things around, setting keys, controlling channels, stopping float, having arcs instead of lines. Basically making the computer do what you want, and not the other way around.
Final Project: 2 balls of different materials interacting, one of the balls should have a tail.
Exercises: involving bouncing balls, balls with tails, juice box, Pixar Lamps, simple stuff

So... progress check anybody?

What have you learned about the Principles of Animation?
Are there 12? What are they?

How easily can you move things around in Animation:Master?

How familiar are you with the Timeline? (Robert Holmen has an excellent primer HERE)

Are you able to set keys efficiently, control them and stop that floating?

Do your animated objects move in arcs or lines?

Is the computer still getting the best of you or have you become its master?

Is one of those balls your animating bouncy (super rubbery)? Is the other heavy?
What about that ball with a tail?

Still a bit overwhelming for just Level 1!
But I think we are up to it.

Level 1 BASIC MOVEMENT
Goals: You should have read about the 12 principles of animation. And you should be getting the basics of animation; moving things around, setting keys, controlling channels, stopping float, having arcs instead of lines. Basically making the computer do what you want, and not the other way around.
Final Project: 2 balls of different materials interacting, one of the balls should have a tail.
Exercises: involving bouncing balls, balls with tails, juice box, Pixar Lamps, simple stuff

Level 1: Basic Movement
Final Project: 2 living balls of different weight/material interacting. 1 ball should have a tail.
Excercises
- Make a cycle of a ball bouncing in place.
- Drop two balls of different materials/weight, let their bouncing come to a stop
- Bounce two not alive balls of different materials across the screen (watch your arcs)
- Drop a ball with a tail, let its' bouncing come to a stop
- Bounce a not alive ball with a tail across the screen
- Bounce 2 alive balls across the screen
- Bounce an alive ball with a tail across the screen
- Make a bounce cycle for an alive ball (like a walk cycle but bouncing)
- Make a hop cycle for a Pixar lamp
- Make a pixar lamp jump over a chasm
- Make a juice box shuffle
- Make a juice box hop
- A piece of seaweed in the tide (just make a chain of bones, and attach some primitives to each segment)
- A cycle of a whip (invisible person doing the whipping)
- A pendulum of a clock
- A book's page turning (some rigging trickiness maybe)

Note: If you don't want to spend the next 20 years in Level 1 you want to work through these as quickly as possible.
Learn from your mistakes and try again. Each time you should see improvement.

For lack of an established place to post this in ABC I'll add this here.

Note to J Man:
If you look at the two bouncing ball examples below can you see the effect they would have on the movement of the ball.
In the first example could that timing and spacing be used in a lazy frog's jump?
In the second could it be used to move a grasshopper quickly from place to place?
Ultimately these aren't balls we are bouncing but full fledged characters performing onscreen.
Can you see them?

My rediscovery of Preston Blairs second book on my shelf (my favorite of the two for several reasons) helps resolve the mystery and deepen my interest in the history and practice of animated ball bouncing.
Its reassuring to know that there isn't as much a right way to do the ball bounce as there is a need to explore and find that action that works for the movement you need. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston have a short discussion on the ball bounce in "Disney Animation, The Illusion of Life" and it provides insight into the reasons we should explore such deceptively simple things.

I've attached a compilation of Preston Blair's ball bounces from two of his books.
It wasn't until I pulled his book 'Film Cartoons' off the shelf again that I was reminded of the importance of Preston Blair's 'other book'.
I believe the current edition of 'Animation' incorporates elements from both books but it also leaves some out. I don't currently have that book in my library but should get it if for no other reason than it is a much more manageable size.

The mystery this resolves is that Richard Williams doesn't specifically refer to Preston Blair *adding* the contact squash but rather *correcting* his earlier bounce in the "next edition". I'm not sure that is the case. It's possible an earlier edition of 'Film Cartoons' has the earlier version of the bouncing ball but I suspect it does not. In any case, it looks like there is still more exploration and excavation of animated ball bouncing ahead.

Please note that removing the ball exercises from the animation examples surrounding it in the books loses much of lesson Preston Blair's was teaching. I post this here for those who like me are interested in animation history and how it has transformed over the years.

For those interested, a comparison of the ball bounce from Preston Blair's two seminal books:

Okay so what is a bootcamp... I still don't get it, is it just squish and squash?

Mohammad, if you click on Begin ABC at the bottom of Rodney's signature, it'll explain what it's about.

Briefly, ABC (Animation Boot Camp) is an advanced course after TAoA:M for anyone willing to improve their animation skills. The squishy squashy is just the beginning.