k,got my uniform,boots and crew cut. just starting abc1...who knew balls could be so much trouble.

I was just going to comment and run but thought I might look closer.

Richard Williams comes to mind...
He outlined a technique that works well for exageration.
This may not be what you want so feel free to disregard.

In the frame prior to impact consider stretching the shape to touch the surface (in this case the floor).
If the acceleration is the same or increasing on the downward fall this will help sell the stretch effect.
Some people take this technique farther and have the frame after liftoff stretch back and touch the surface too. That part is not suggested in Richard William's book but you'll see it suggested often.

Frames 39 and 64 (if my framecount is correct) can benefit from this 'stretch to touch' technique as well.

This will in turn allow you to squash at least a frame earlier (and in your movie it would do exactly that... allow a squash 1 frame earlier). The delayed squash upon impact doesn't read quite right. Frame 7 and 8 seem to be identicle/frozen in time when they should be reacting to the impact.

Sorry if the attached image is confusing.
The reddish balls are meant to demonstrate the position over time that the ball falls.
Green is the suggested change.

At first glance the ball bounce looked good.
Maybe someone else (one of the 13 other downloads as of this timehack!) might care to comment further.

Great to see you posting again Pengy!

Welcome to Bootcamp Pengy - enough with the pleasantries, this is a bootcamp, soldier

So you got your boots, your crew cut, your rifle (that be your computer), now all you need is some ammo. And that'd be in the form of, as Rodney mentioned, Richard William's "The Animator's Survival Kit". I believe it's on page 92 where you'll find the bouncing ball exercise.

One point I'd like to mention is that the ball first touches the ground while in maximum stretch, next frame it should be in maximum squash while on the ground, and then in the next frame it is in maximum stretch and off the ground. So no more than 2 frames does the ball actually touches the ground.

Now drop on the floor and give me twen........ I mean get back in there and tweak it

"an animating i will go...what i'm doing i do not know..sound off 1 2,sound off..." thank you very much for the input hopefully i've implimented it right.

Looks like you hit those marks.
You'll be an animator yet son.

I'm not looking at Richard Williams book for my crits but I am a fan.
I realize a lot of people don't have his book. Others still just choose to reference him and move to their own methodologies.

In the same vein as my first post this looks like a good opportunity to toss out another area that can be problematic to animators; Strobing. I'll throw in a little thought on acceleration too.

In the attached are three paths you can take as an animator.
The first (on the left) is the path you are on.

The second (in the middle) addresses the issue of squash present in the first that really has no reason to be there. Squash generally indicates the ball has been effected by some object (or gravity) to the point where the object's mass must distort to compensate.

The third (on the right) addresses a possible problem with both the first and the second; namely that of a potential strobing effect caused by objects that do not overlap from frame to frame. If the second had an additional frame added to create an overlap that would address the problem.

The third also adds some stretch with the overlap to indicate the velocity of the fall.
One must consider whether the ball is falling from just out of frame or the camera has just picked up the shot at that specific moment in time where the ball had already been falling. I like this take because it implies that action is ongoing and the ball is continuing its movement.

There are then these three paths you can take... as there are others.
Choose your path wisely my friend.


*Added: A discussion on the comparison/contrast between stretch and blur would be an interesting one.
In ways they address the same issues but they have their own benefits as well.

HI Pengy, Welcome to the boot camp.

I like the behavior of the ball during the squash. 8 frames (!) is a lot of frames to be on the ground during a squash but you did succeed in making it look like a very squishy ball. I also like the way the ball contracts a little on the way down before stretching; that also makes it look quite lively.

I've marked up your animation with some comments. as you frame thru it you'll see I'm tracking the leading edge of the ball rather than the center. The leading edge, the center and the trailing edge are all important at different times, but for now I'm just doing the leading edge.

[attachmentid=18629]

mostly i'm pointing out spacing issues. Falling balls must accelerate on the way down and decelerate on the way up. gravity gives them no other choice. If the ball doesn't do those things then it looks like gravity is absent.

I just pointed the specifics out thru the first bounce, look at the remaing ones and decide if they have the same issues or not.

the blurry note on frame 15 reads: "... it can't go this bigger distance when it has nothing to push against. Once it leaves the ground its spacing should get smaller and smaller and smaller."

Rodney brings up a n interesting point about strobing. Mostly I think strobing is a losing battle without motion blur, but for the purposes of our boot camp exercises we're avoiding motion blur to make the motion easier to analyze.

i understand what you guys are saying now i hope its gone from my brain into practice. i'm glad the really squishy ball came through.

Pengy,
At a cursory glance it looks pretty smooth.
On frame 16 there seems to be a pop where the ball goes back to regular shape.
This is from after a stretch on frame 15 which has the ball streching past the limit set by frame 16.
If the ball was going back down at that point it would work but (as the line in the attached image attempts to illustrate) the ball is rising.

I'm confusing myself here... the image probably will be no better.
Hopefully you see what I mean.

If you adjust frame 15's stretch that would address the issue.

Note: That the point I'm talking about just happens to fall on the horizon line is surely coincidental.

thank you Rodney. i've added the heavier more solid ball to really confuse myself

Looking good Pengy,
I was going to suggest moving on.

I like this one.
Soft Ball bouces nicely (haven't tried to dissect it just looking at whats there).
Heavy Ball I'd add just a bit more upward bounce but hey... its your ball. You are the determining factor in how heavy it should be.

Unless Robert or others looking in want to make suggestions I'd call this one complete too.
There's a lot to like in the Soft Ball's bounce (that tiny little bounce around 49-50 for instance).

Added: Robert is right about the strobing etc not really being part of the lesson.
I just saw a chance to sneak it in.

this is harder than it looks,i first thought, ya bouncing ball how hard can that be. boy was i fooled! i can see where these foundation exer. will help build a strong base for the later stuff.

Hi Pengy,
We'll be fine, we'll just go through this together!
I saw your thread and it was kinda like a kick in the rear
for me to start one as well!
I thought that I would jump in here and get started so I could go
through boot camp with someone!
I have already learned so much from just a day of boot camp!
I think we're in for a heck of a ride!!! This is way too much fun!
I don't know if I'll ever sleep again!

hey Teresa, i thought it was about time to get off my duff too. just the ball exercise has caused me to rethink some of my own animation. and i think i can finally look at the graph editor and not just see spaghetti

These are definitely going in the right direction Pengy. Give a shot to taking all squash and stretch off of the heavy ball and add one or two tiny bounces on it.

The light ball looks good but has some extreme s&s as well, which can really mess with your timing. Try cutting that back a bit and see how it looks. Nice work so far.

So cool to see something like this on the forum... three big cheers for Rodney!!! Having everyone start at the basics is so smart and will make things run smoother as it gets more complicated. Woooo!!

Hey Pengy,

Definitely some extreme S&S. Maybe try it again thinking of a ping pong or golf ball with a side or front view so that you can see more time in the air. It is sort of hidden in the S&S but the spacing is a little even and you spend a little too much time in contact with the ground as you squash. The heavy ball looks good. Keep going, it's going to look good.

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!
Credit where credit is due here.

It ain't me. Animation Bootcamp is Alonso Soriano's baby.
He created and refined it long before he headed over to Animation Mentor where he's still exercising *his* principles.

I'm just an enthusiastic supporter.
If Alonso has an alpha (military speak for 'backup') it surely would be Robert Holmien.
Thanks to Robert and everyone for keeping Bootcamp going.

Duly noted!

I had no idea Alonso was behind it, big cheers to him then. And as for Robert, we were both in AM at the same time so I got to see first hand how talented he is. Honestly seeing his work with Animation Master was half the reason I upgraded to the latest version! So 3 more big cheers for him as well!!

And then lastl but not least, HUGE cheers to everyone participating in this. You don't see this kind of thing enough. Fantastico!! I know once I get reacquainted more with A:M I will be much more vocal (I can just picture Robert screaming, please no, not more vocal! LOL) and involved. Great community!

You have to take some credit here Rodney, you certainly have kept things moving.

Fair enough. I thank you for that.