There are many benefits to animating a ball in Blender. It is a simple and easy project to get started with, and it can be used to practice the principles of animation, experiment with different animation techniques, create a variety of different animations, and create assets for other projects. It can also be a fun and rewarding way to bring emotion to a scene!
At its basics, animating a bouncing ball in Blender involves creating keyframes for the ball's position and adjusting its movement over time. Here we'll go step-by-step on animating a bouncing ball in Blender while also giving it that squash and stretch look:
Create the Ball and Assign the Material
To kick things off, let's begin by adding the ball to the scene and then applying some paint to make it resemble a beach ball. Take a look:
Skinning the Bone to the Ball
Now, let's incorporate an Armature into the scene and then attach the beach ball to the skeleton, allowing it to deform while retaining its volume. Let's get to it:
Make it Bounce
No need to worry, as it's time to work our magic. With the volume constraint in play, we simply need to establish a few keyframes to achieve the desired effect. Here's how effortless it truly is:
Adding Arc to Keyframes
Something appears rigid about the previous keyframing, and now we need to modify the curves to resemble a more natural arc. Changing the interpolation type makes this adjustment a breeze:
Play and Refine
Now for the payoff! We've come so far and have been rewarded with a well-executed bouncing ball animation within our scene. To add an extra touch at the end, we've introduced some simple rotation to the ball, causing it to spin towards the top:
Remember, this is a basic guide to get you started. Blender offers many tools for more advanced animation techniques, such as shape keys, secondary motion, and more complex physics simulations. As we become more familiar with Blender, we will explore these techniques to enhance your animations and showcasing these dynamic effects directly inside of Sceneri.
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