General Ball Bounce

Here is a short video explaining the motion of the Bouncing Ball.

Today when I met with Ben, he taught me the timing of the ball, the squash and stretch, and how to plan your animation before producing it.

With the timing and the motion of the ball, you can see in real life that objects accelerate downwards when they are in free-fall. In this animation, Ben told me it's very crucial that I create a larger distance in each frame as the ball begins to fall, showing that the ball will fall faster as it reaches closer to the ground. This means that it will fall slowly at its highest point and accelerate as it falls farther to its lowest point.

In the video of this Ball Bounce, you may also notice that the ball begins to stretch as it accelerates downward, and squash when it comes in contact with the floor. In real life, you would not see this happen as easily. However, exaggerating movements in animation is significant as it helps tell the story and give character. If this ball bounce was not very exaggerated, it would seem to be very dull and boring. This key animation technique is known as the "Squash and Stretch".

You may also observe in the video that the person showed a kind of "template" to the animation. In these templates, they include a motion line to aid the animator in knowing where the object will be in motion. This person also shows key frames which help establish the most significant movements in the animation.

These are all topics that my mentor went over with me today in order to help me get started with my project.