[ p l a c i d c h a o s / A M ]

This week our lesson was on the principle of "anticipation," with an introduction to "squash and stretch."

Our assignment for the week was to animate a squishy ball that begins to bounce from a resting position, which means that we had to have the ball anticipate/squash before its leap to build up inertia to carry it upwards. The other obstacle is that while the ball has to have some personality to begin its jump, after it begins to move it had to retain the realistic presence of a rubber ball; in other words, it wasn't allowed to come alive and dance a little jig.

My first attempt

On this first revision I adjusted the spacing of the frames on the initial leap to make the ball look like it was shooting up with a lot of self propelled energy.

Here's the final.

In prior versions I had made a point to have the ball squash some at the apex of every bounce; thinking that momentum would continue to propel the bottom of the ball up even as the ball itself started to fall again. Jason said that while that was a correct way of thinking, the amount of squash I had at the top made the ball appear too malleable; more like a water balloon then a rubber ball. So I heeded his adivce and got rid of the squash at the top of the bounces and "poof" I had a rubber ball.

Along with animating the ball, we were also assigned a single pose of Stu appearing devastated. This was my initial attempt; looks more like a pose of subservience...

And here is the revised pose, much clearer, I think.

Doesn't he just break your heart?