Bouncing Ball – Table Tennis Ball

I went through the same process as I did with the bowling ball. I made a reference footage of a table tennis ball being dropped from a height of 1 meter. Then went through the process of blocking out the key frames in Maya.

Bouncing Ball – Bowling Ball

I recorded the dropping of a bowling ball from the height of 1 meter onto a plank of wood (this was to represent the floor of a bowling alley)

Using the footage above as reference when animating in Maya.

Started with a blocking out of the key movements of the bowling ball. Leaving the ball rotation for later.

I then used the Graph Editor to work out the momentum of the ball, as it accelerates down and decelerates slowly throughout the sequence to a stop. Working out the timings of the arcs was a tricky in places of high speed, as it was coming across a bit jumpy. So for the purpose of having the movement clear for the viewers to register I smoothed out the pacing. Even though it was now not following the speed of the reference footage.

Satisfied with the movement of the ball bounce so far, I then went into blocking out the rotations. Considering the weight of the object and the speed it is traveling, I worked out that there would be a limited amount of rotation occurring. After this I went back into the Graph Editor, this time adjusting the rotations, to help give the sense of the ball rolling rather that gliding across the screen.