Probably one of the first thing all young animators are tasked with is.. “How to animate a ball bouncing”.
In this tutorial, I go over creating a basic rig to control the squash and stretch of a sphere as it’s bouncing, and also demonstrate a bounce cycle.
Oh Man! I was just about to release my tutorial on the same subject… lucky for me it will be in Spanish… OK, I’ll enjoy yours! Cheers!!!
Be sure to link it here in the comments, might be good for other users to know!
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OK, just finished watching your tutorial, was interesting! Your rig setting is pretty much like Wayne Dixon “Dougie” character, and I found really interesting the way you used the segmented b-bone for cartoony results!!!
Only thing is that with this setting you cannot change the “Squash/stretch axis” without changing the ball rotation. Doing some research (Google
) I found JiriH Ball rig (in BlenderArtists), which can do this by a couple of rigging tricks (you should whatch it, it’s too long to explain).
Apart from that, I would avoid that top squashing and change a bit the F-curve to ease out the fall, and then ease in the bounce to the apex… then you can also take Ken Harris advice by adding a contact before sqash!!!
I’m not trying to be a nitpicker prick!!! Sorry if it sounded that way. Just sharing some of the things I’ve learned about the subject. Great tutorial! Thanks for all the amazing work you’re putting into Blender education!!! It’s been really awesome being a citizen this year!
As a rookie, this tut helps plenty. I was wondering if you can do an animation on flipping a book with 2 or 3 pages + cover. I’m asking coz thats my next project.
Thanks, your work we appreciate.
Boing boing boing – like that.
Great tutorial, dave! I love your rigging tutorials.
A great 101 tutorial, I think this site is the most complete resource tutorials!.
Thanks Dave!!.
You’ve got to walk.. er bounce before you can run!
I learned a lot by doing this simple exercise. Your other tutorials are a bit intimidating for a non-rigger. This may just give me the confidence to give them another go.
thanks for all your great tutorials.
Blender Cookie is great!
I like the simple controls on this ball, and it is a good rigging exercise when you are new to rigging.
One problem though: It’s not possible to roll the ball and still get the deformations you want.
But as i said before, i like the simple controls and the general idea.
Please keep up the good work
sure, you can roll the main controller bone, and the ball will follow
Offcourse you are right…
My point is that you can’t make the ball bounce on its side.
.
That would be possible if you used a lattice to deform the ball, but that’s a whole other ball game
(I mean no offence BTW. Hope i don’t come across as rude or as a “know-it-all”.)
if any one wonder you could add a floor constraint to the bottom bone and easily get it to automatically squash on a object
waiting for more animation tutorial
Thanks David
shift + c snaps the cursor to center also
Love it! Can’t wait for some more stuff for budding animators!
Never thought to use bones on a bouncing ball. Nice approach.
Awesome tutorial. Never really thought of rigging the ball, but it makes sense…especially if you’re learning the ropes of rigging.