Revised Ball + Squash & Stretch

[jpa]

Is there a reason my posts never get any responses until I post the first one? Am I doing something wrong? I don't want to look like an idiot...


jpa
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[gunslingerblack]

i wouldn't feel like an idiot, i would jsut say, it's only been 6 hours and you've only had 10 views. your load times are alittle long which may be turning some people away, i have broadband and had to wait at least a minute to even watch your animations which should have loaded in seconds being how long they are. now while your thinking a minute isn't that long to wait, in the age of instant internet people get bored waiting for more than 15-30 seconds to see what they clicked on, i do it too.

it's also good to post the original, so i can see what you were going for originally, just incase adding s/s has changed your animation.

i would say the bouncing looks good in the original, all the placement and timing is pretty on.

what bothers me is the squash and stretch, i think it may need to be alittle more exaggerated, depending on what feel your going for you may just want to leave it, however, right before the ball impacts a surface, that frame before should be keyed at the balls maximum stretch, what you have going on in alot of your beginning bounces is something i typically see with new ball bouncing animations, and that is the ball is moving to deform to squash against a surface, before it has hit the surface, so just keep in mind that you need to key the frame before impact at the maximum stretch. also you may need to add in a smear frame for the second to third bounce, in the s/s animation it looks like it jumps from one position to the other.

keep those things in mind and keep working, you've got a long way to go but we all walk that same road together.

keep going

[jpa]

Hey gunslingerblack,

thanks for your advice, and I know that I jumped the gun a bit with my reply, but I guess I was just really anxious to get feedback... I usually wait at least a day.

As for the large file size, what can I do to make it smaller. I am already compressing it to medium, and greyscale through the playblast, is this wrong? Is there an easier way?

As for your advice, thanks again. I do have a few questions though. I understand what you mean when you say to watch out for the ball moving from deform to squash before it has hit the surface but I can't see where I have done that... am I missing something?
I was also wondering if you could explain what you mean by "smear" frame?

Thanks again,

jpa
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[gunslingerblack]

As for your advice, thanks again. I do have a few questions though. I understand what you mean when you say to watch out for the ball moving from deform to squash before it has hit the surface but I can't see where I have done that... am I missing something?
I was also wondering if you could explain what you mean by "smear" frame?


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almost every hit goes back to a rest pose or starts to squash a frame or so before it actually hits the wall, because of the nature of this animation the ball shouldn't "slow in" to it's bounce, because it has just bounced off of something else and is now accelerating. therefore the frame before each "squash" frame should be the object keyed at it's maximum "stretch"

and a smear frame in this example is basically the ball stretched from bounces 2 to 3, instead of it returning to it's rest pose (stretch xyz to zero rotation xyz to zero) from and to said frames.

[jpa]

almost every hit goes back to a rest pose or starts to squash a frame or so before it actually hits the wall, because of the nature of this animation the ball shouldn't "slow in" to it's bounce, because it has just bounced off of something else and is now accelerating. therefore the frame before each "squash" frame should be the object keyed at it's maximum "stretch"


Ahhhhhhh! I see what you mean. I wasn't looking at the ball when it was bouncing off the walls becuase I thought you meant it was happening at the beginning of my animation, I will def go in and fix that.

As for the smear frame, I think I understand what you are saying. Instead of having it be stretched it should return to it's rest position inbetween bounces 2 and 3?

I will go back in and make these adjustments, as well as exaggerate the s/s.

I know I already asked this too, but do you have any suggestions for getting my file size down, or any tuts that explain how to?


thanks again,

jpa
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[gunslingerblack]

nonono it SHOULD stretch MORE inbetween bounces 2 and 3 lol sorry for the mix up.

[weakchild]

I really dont have any suggestion to add to your animation, seems that you're doing great. I terms of your posts, I notice that you start a new thread everytime you post a revision. I would just have one thread and post revisions there so that people can look back on older posts on the same thread if they have to, without hunting for the old threads that you posted. Then, it'll be some sort of journal that if you want, you can look back a year from now and review your progress...

In terms of keeping file sizes down, if you have after effects, convert your playblasts into Quicktime movies with a Sorenson 3 codec. If you can only post avi, then try converting them to Divx.

--Albert

[jpa]

Here is the updated squash and stretch. I tried to incorporate all of the suggestions you guys made, but I still have some questions.


http://babel.massart.edu/~jantonuccio/wallBounce5_stretchv5b.qt


First off I fixed the problem that I had of having the ball go back to it's rest pose before it actually hit the wall, but there is one spot in particular I think it SHOULD do this. The spot I was thinking should still do this is when it hits the wall on the left for the first time. Since it hits the where the ball would be starting to slow down and fall, shouldn't it be going back to it's rest pose? Right now I took your advice and had it be at its maximum strectch. Let me know which is the right thing to do.

The other problem I am having is that I am feeling that the stretch may be too much, what do you think? I tried to make the ball's width thinner as a stretched the ball longer, is this right?

Any feedback is much appreciated, and thanks for all your help so far!


jpa
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[gunslingerblack]

the squash and stretch should decrease slightly towards the end of the piece, as the ball is travelling faster, but not travelling such long distances anymore you dont need to stretch it out quite so much, i think after you revise that the animation will look quite nice.

keep going

[jpa]

the squash and stretch should decrease slightly towards the end of the piece, as the ball is travelling faster, but not travelling such long distances anymore you dont need to stretch it out quite so much, i think after you revise that the animation will look quite nice.

keep going

Can you explain this a little more? Are you saying that the stretch is dependent on how "far" a ball is traveling? For example, the longer the distance the more the stretch, and the shorter the distance the smaller the stretch? I thought the stretch was dependent on speed?

Anyway I took your advice, as I assume you know more than I do as I am still lerning, I would just like to know what the relationship between the stretch and distance/speed of a ball is for future reference. Here is the updated file:

http://babel.massart.edu/~jantonuccio/wallBounce5_stretchv6c.qt



jpa
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[gunslingerblack]

basically squash and stretch depend on two things that are up to interpretation by the artist. one is the speed that the ball is travelling, and another is the distance travelled. how i came to the conclusion that you should change the last few bounces were, i watched the animation, and those bounces popped that is it didn't seem that they fit with the rest of the animation. if u watch ur old animation you'll see it too.

really it's up to u to interpret what it should look like or what the right amount of s/s to use is.

edit: the animation is looking very nice now i would say your ready to move on to your next exercise.

[jpa]

Hey Gunslinger,

thanks for all of your help thus far, you've really been a great help. As for my next exercise, what would you recommend? I am thinking maybe some more bouncing balls, maybe of different weights and some poses expressing different emotions. Then on to simple walk cycle (I am VERY eager to do one of those) with just legs attached to a ball for a body?

Thanks again,

jpa
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[gunslingerblack]

i would say do a walk with a bouncing ball, that is, bounce the ball but add personality to it. make the bouncing ball seem as though it thinks and lives. then after that, do a thinking bouncing ball, maybe he has to solve a problem etc then after you've gotten those done, move on to simple walk cycles with nothing but a pair of legs.

[jpa]

Will do, hope to have stuff soon!


jpa
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