Bouncing Ball
Create the Scene
Create the Scene
- Add a Floor object to your scene.
- Add a Sphere to your scene.
- Set the Sphere's radius to 50.
- Move the Sphere to 0,50,0.
- In the coordinate tab of the sphere, twirl open "Freeze Transformations" and choose "Freeze All". This will make our sphere think that 0, 50, 0 is actually 0, 0, 0 which will simplify our keying.
Key your animation
Key your animation
- Go to frame 0.
- Set the sphere's position to 0, 300, 0.
- Add a keyframe by pressing the red record button, or by tapping F9 on your keyboard. This is the high point of our bounce.
- Make the following keyframes
- Frame: 20, Position: 0, 0, 0
- Frame: 30, Position: 0, 150, 0
- Frame: 40, Position: 0, 0, 0
- Frame: 45, Position: 0, 75, 0
- Frame: 50, Position: 0, 0, 0
- Frame: 53, Position: 0, 40, 0
- Frame: 56, Position: 0, 0, 0
- Frame: 58, Position: 0, 15, 0
- Frame: 60, Position, 0, 0, 0
- Play your animation (you can do this earlier if you like)
Key your animation
Key your animation
- Change your layout from Startup to Animation (pull-down is in the upper-right corner of your interface)
- Select all of the keys where your object is resting on the floor ( 20, 40, 50, 56, 60 )
- Set the length of the handles to 0 (press the L key) to make the motion more sharp at the point of impact.
Suggested Reading
Suggested Reading
John Lasseter, "Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation" (pdf), Computer Graphics, pp. 35*44, 21:4, July 1987 (SIGGRAPH 87)
Michael Comet, "Character Animation, Principles and Practice" (.zip tutorial)