Ball Squash and Stretch

Last week we were using flash to create some squash and stretch animations, but Phil told us that we could create them using Maya instead. So i went about creating my basic ball animations. My first ball was a soft foam ball. I chose this because i knew i could demonstrate a better squash and stretch than with a harder ball.

I left the classroom with a stopwatch and timed the points where the ball bounced and the time inbetween bounces. From these times i then blocked out the animation by putting in basic movenment keyframes and began adding the right level of squash to the object. This was a little harder, as the ball was too fast to see the proper thickness of the squash so i had to estimate as close as i could.

   

For the second ball, i used a basketball bounce reference which i found on youtube. Compared to the previous ball, there was alot more resistance and very little room for the squash mechanic, however i followed the video reference and create a very brief animation, using the end of the internet clip as my main focus.

Here is the final animation.