Hello One and All -

I have recently completed TAoA:M and I am now undertaking DAS BOOTCAMP! Attached to this post are exercises 1-1 and 1-2, bouncing ball cycle and two balls bouncing and coming to a stop. Comments would be delightful. I will begin the non-alive balls bouncing across screen shortly.

Thank you.
- Michael

As Sergeant Dhar might say... "You messed up when you enlisted soldier. But now that you are here... get down and give me 20!"

I like your first exercise. Nothing says 'out of place' to me there.

Exercise 2 seems pretty solid especially the solid ball.
The soft one hmmm...

Given the amount of squash on the way down it seems like the ball would bounce back up and out of frame.
You've got one really flexible ball there but the physics don't seem to work.

A rather piddly addition (and a personal favorite that is expected to be heard from me):
I would have the ball make contact with the floor on the frame prior to impact.
In some cases this might make you adjust the starting position of the ball to prevent excessive stretching but it can clue you in to the speed of the ball (without measuring). Stretch the ball until it touches the floor on the frame of impact and then work in reverse to adjust the stretch of the other balls.

Hope that makes sense.

Now... quit your slackin' and get back in formation!

Thanks, Rodney for your fast reply! I just posted these today !

I'm not sure if I fully understood your comments. But I did adjust the squetchiness of the bouncy ball to better match the height of the bounce. I hope that works better.

Thanks again for your comments.

- Michael

Alright. Moving along here. Here are two balls, one rubbery and one not-so-rubbery. This is the 3rd exercise from Level 1.

I've been tweaking this but I'm now at a point where I could use someone else's eyes.

Thanks.
- Michael

Looks pretty good, Michael. You've got the aquashes in their right places, just watch the timing. The ball needs to slow down as it reaches the high point and speeds up on the way down until it hits the ground, then speeds up off the ground only to slow down again as it reaches its highest point.

You're off to a great start.

(Who is this Sergeant Dhar? What a grouch)

Don't let him here you say that or its more exercising for all of us!

Michael,
I was channeling Robert Holmen just the other day...

He said,
'Michael is going to post an animation that defies gravity.'

I asked for more information in the form of a video critique... but... silence was his response.
I think he did that for dramatic effect personally.

At any rate... he meant that the balls must fall at the same rate even though they are made of different materials, have different weights etc.

If you frame by frame the balls as they are falling the heavier one outraces the bouncy one in your last.

Robert... am I on the right track? Hummmmm... <insert transitional trance here>

Thanks, Dhar! Thanks, Rodney!

Dhar and Rodney - are you commenting on Ex.1-3 or Ex. 1-2?

Rodney - regarding the weights of the two balls, I may be misunderstanding. If you were to toss a rubber ball and toss a bowling ball in the air at the same time, the heavier ball (bowling) would fall and hit the ground first. How could they fall at the same rate? Robert, can you help?........<ooooooommmmmmmmmm>

Speaking of Robert - I checked out his website. He has brilliant animation on there! I better keep practicing!

- Michael

I wanna see timelines! From the moment I started posting my timelines and getting tips on it, I haven't been able to let them alone! Michael, great work so far. Glad another one joined the camp!

Thanks, Daniel! I'm browsing your Bootcamp thread. Holy monkey, these look great! I should probably have commented directly in your thread .

Anyway, I will post the timelines and show. Thanks for the tip, I greatly appreciate it.

- Michael

Would it?

Consider this question then:
A bullet is fired from a gun barrel parallel to the ground.
At the same time the bullet leaves the muzzle of the weapon another bullet is dropped from muzzle height.
All things being equal (level ground... no friction) which bullet would strike the ground first?

Try the same thing with a marble and a bowling ball.
Which hits the ground first?

Think carefully before answering.

As far as what post I was resonding to it was your last up to that point (I can look it up) but *all* exercises are subject to the laws of gravity *except* where you break them. Hopefully its by choice and not oversight that you break them.

Edit: Attached an image to illustrate the concept

I can't wrap my tiny bran around this at all. But reading further I see that weight has no bearing on the rate of fall. It should be the same for both balls. Sure, it's in writing, but I still don't get it. It doesn't make sense. If I dropped a rubber ball off of a building and at the same time dropped a bowling ball, that bowling ball, in my mind, would hit the ground first. I guess I'm factoring in wind resistance, I don't know. It's got me a bit perplexed. I suppose in a perfect vacuum, both balls would fall at exactly the same rate. Heck, all objects would fall at exactly the same rate. Well, I guess I'll have to do more studying before I continue with this exercise. Heh - you learn something new every day - who'd a thunk it would be Physics 101!

- Michael

OK, Michael, listen up, in animation, there is no weight. What we're trying to achieve is the illusion. Even though you wouldn't notice the acceleration of a falling ball in real life, but in order to make your animation believable, you'll need to exaggerate. Just as there really isn't that much noticebale squash and stretch in reality, we exaggerate them to give that believability factor.

It is not physics 101. It is all about the illusion, the feel, not the reality.

Thanks, Dhar. So in your opinion, what you would you recommend I change to better create the illusion that the ball bouncing to the right is made of rubber and the ball falling/bouncing to the left is a bowling ball? Of course the splat in the middle was just for fun .

Thanks.
- Michael

...and once you get the laws of physics and principles of animation locked down you can go out and have a whole lot of fun breaking them.

All things equal these objects would indeed hit the ground at the same time.

There is a reason these ball exercises are used and reused so much in teaching animation.
The exercise sets up the basic premise. From there you get to decide what the action will tell us. As we don't know all the variables in your animation we have to make assumptions. The illusions of shapes, paths of motion and weight provide visual cues that inform those assumptions.

It has been said that animating weight is the key to animation.
Traditional animators stress weight above other technical concerns.
As a product of gravitational pull on a body a basic understanding gravity's effects in conveying the illusion of weight can help.

The fact that one ball outraced the other to the floor implies acceleration.
In other words... we are being told they were either not dropped from the same height or we've missed something off screen.

I don't mean to belabor the point. Most people wouldn't even notice this.
Its a subtle thing to consider but may be worth your time to take note.

As your instinct has already told you even physics has a hard time finding a comfortable hold in reality. All other things being equal a feather and a bowling ball would hit the ground at the same time too. It'd make a really poor looking animation though.

SIR! Private Fortunato requesting your approval to move on, SIR! I believe I understand what you have been trying to drill into me, Sir. With your permission, please view the attached file and give me your impressions. Speaking freely, sir, I know I'm a greenhorn, but I can take the criticism, sir. Tell me if I have to drop and give you 20 more and I will do it, SIR!

- Michael

I'm not in the habit of making deals on company time but in your case... time to grant an exception.
ON ONE CONDITION THOUGH!

Do not, under any circumstance, ever bounce a ball above ground again unless (or until) you establish someone has placed an invisible box or plane there first!

Translation:
At full speed the balls seem to bounce really well (so the eye is happy enough to call it a success).
On closer view it appears the ball on the right bounces without ever touching the ground.
(See attached impact frame. Note that the ball on the right is not impacting the ground plane)

One thing to ask yourself in any action/animation sequence is this:
If there is any 1 single frame in the animation that would be considered 'the most important' frame which one would it be?
My answer (for most ball exercises): The frame where impact/contact occurs.

You've been doing great thus far Michael.
Thanks for keeping your sense of humor along the way. That makes it fun for us too.

Thanks, Rodney! How can I not keep my sense of humor? This stuff is fun. And I can't thank you enough for your willingness (and patience) to guide us n00bs and help get us through.

Regarding the 2nd ball not hitting the ground, I must have accidentally selected some points on that curve when I was moving other points and dragged them up. I corrected this and have reposted. Don't know how the heck I missed that one - I must have been tired .

- Michael

By George, I think he's got it.

Waves hand and says: "You don't need to see his identification"
He repeats: "We don't need to see his identification"
"Move along"
"Move along....move along"

Thanks Rodney and Dhar! This bootcamp is fantastic! I finished TAoA:M but I didn't feel satisfied with my animating skills. I'm not saying I'm even near satisfied yet, but this has really helped me to begin to hone my skills.

So now I've started working with the tail.

I'm going to keep tweaking and working on this. But once I do, I think I might try the Pixar lamp. I want to model it first and rig it from scratch to practice my modeling and rigging skills, since they are so important to animation.

- Michael

RE: Ex.1_4_TailBall.mov

Love it! As I watched I said to myself, "Nice."
And I'm sticking with that.

You've got a very natural flow and follow through with the arc or the tail.


RE: Ex.1_5_TailBall.mov

Something seems off to me but I'm not smart enough to figure it out. HELP!!!

Edit: Watch it frame by frame backwards and see if you don't agree.
(You could try this standing on your head or while doing pushups but I don't recommend it)

Edit 2: This may be a limitation of the rig.

Thanks, Rodney. I'm actually working on a 3rd Tail bounce animation. While I was doing the 2nd one, I goofed and liked the way the tail looked (I won't spoil it - I'll post it up here later today). I like happy accidents.

Yeah! I think it's finally all sinking in. Regarding the 2nd tail item - I watched it backwards and forwards (which is what I do with all animation - it's the same thing I do with 2D art, in a way - I look at it from different angles and reversed to see if it holds up). Anyway, I can't see anything out of place (which is why I'm still a Private ). Perhaps someone else will peruse this thread and offer up a 3rd point of view?

I'm off to finish the tail and model a lamp .

- Michael

HAHA! I like the sound of what's coming!

Oh, and I like what I'm seeing right now, too! Great work, Michael. Keep it up!

Thanks, Daniel! I'm currently dividing my time between the tail-ball exercise and modeling a Luxo lamp. The modeling is coming along fairly well considering it's my first attempt to model something without a tutorial . I'll hopefully be posting the model up tonight and will have the tail-ball animation up this weekend.

- Michael

Magnificent stuff, Michael. I see what Rodney's talking about, though. It seems more like the tail is a whip than a muscle that is letting gravity take hold of it. I am in no position to cast stones, and if that doesn't sound right at all, disregard it, but for some reason it feels like it is accelerating to the point of striking speed at the top, which should perhaps be like the apex of a bouncing balls journey (it depreciates speed as its height accelerates, and gains speed as it falls.) That's just my humble, meager 2 cents.
Peace!
J Man

Thanks, J Man. I really appreciate the insight. I'll take a close look at it and see if I can improve it. There's nothing meager about your 2 cents. I'm grateful that you took the time to comment .

- Michael