Ball with Tail animation test

Another animation test.
Ball with tail. Worked mainly on the overlap on the tail.

Rig from bender007. This is a very flexible and user friendly Rig. Check it out!
Downloaded from Blendswap: http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/71130

Critique and feedback welcome.
Thanks

The tail is pretty good. It’s hard to give critique because the ball bounce itself isn’t quite right. Your stretch phase is very short and I think in the wrong place. It’s hard to tell with youtube video but it looks like the ball is round for about 90% of the frames, then very quickly stretches just before it hits the ground, squashes on contact, then stretches again as it lifts off. You want the stretch to take place while the ball is rising and falling, easing into a regular ball shape near the extremes, then squashing for the contact (and maybe slightly less for the apex of the bounce).

then very quickly stretches just before it hits the ground,

I managed to freeze frame the vid, and it does stretch before hitting the ground. It should remain round until impact.
The squash phase also looks wierd. It’s overdone and too symmetrical. Mainly it would be the bottom of the ball that would do the most squashing.

Steve

I disagree with Steve S ^^^ the stretch before the impact is good, it’s just overdone.

The main problem here is spacing in the Z axis. The up down motion is too tick-tock. I suggest you examine the spacing of a bouncing ball; accelerate on the way down into the impact (which should have a sharp curve with non aligned tangents) decelerate on the way up. The overall path should be parabolic, rather than the sawtooth zigzag it’s describing now.


Frame 17, the tail is perfectly straight…that should not be there as your in-between. pm sent.

Yes, I agree with Freen. Keep the stretch prior to contact and work on the spacing. Excellent start, keep going!

(And thank you for the kind words on the rig.)

Thanks for your feedback guys. Excuse me for not replying sooner. Worked on the ballrig walkcycle.
Will do some more tests on ball with tail. Want to add some personality to this test.
Hope to post some new tests soon.

Thanks

Remember to use the basics of animation for your ball (slow in, slow out). The use of exaggeration when it hits the ground will make the animation look much better as well. As for your tail, the tail looks too rigid. The tail needs to flow with the wind and, at some points, overlap the center of the circle.