I chose the third rig and built a obstacle course and animated a bouncing ball navigating its way through it.
Before starting to make this animation, I designed the obstacle first. I wanted the ball acts more like a charactor and can intereact with the environment around it. I decided to let the ball jump from buttom to the top, then go through a slide, fall off to the ground, hit the seesaw and finally stop on the ground.
Then I started to build the scene based on my design. I build some staggered stairs so that the ball can jump from oneside to another. I also added some cubes on the seesaw so when the ball hit that seesaw, these cubes will be throwed out and hit other objects.
Then comes to the animation part. I animated the ball based on what I learned this week. Adjusting timing and spacing took me a lot of time to get a fine result. What’s more, I put a lot of effort to make the scene follow physics rules. For example, the left cube on seesaw will be throwed out just after the seesaw becomes vertical to the ground. I also followed squash and stretch rules to make the ball looks softer. Several anticipations were added to make the ball humanic. When the ball recieves a bigger force or it decides to jump to a further target, it will take more time and “energy” to squeeze.
Finally, I added some lights to make the scene looks more three-dimentional and clearer. I used three area lights and a directional light to illuminate the environment. I also adjusted my side camera a bit to get a better result.
Here is the playblast:
Reflection：I think the timing and spacing of this animation can still be improved and adjusted a little bit. The design of obstacle and the reaction between ball and environment can be more real and interesting.