Week two courses focused on 3D animation fundamental theory and practice. From the 12 principles of animation to bouncing ball animation training, my fundation was totally restrenthed. I researched some tips of 12 principles of animation and then took several notes, which helped me to memorize these knowledge. What’s more, based on what I learned on courses, I managed to design and make a bouncing ball obstacle course.
Frankly, practice is the best way to learn. During the practice, some of my weakness emerged. For example, my timing and spacing is not good enough to demostrate a realistic free fall. I remade the animation, paid more attention to my shortage and finally solved the problem.
I also did some research on bouncing ball and realized how important it is in animation training. Bouncing ball, which is one of the most important fundamental practices for 3d animation, is a good way to learn timing and spacing. By making bouncing ball animation we can learn how timing and spacing works, and why it’s so vital to our animations. Not only are we learning how to animate realistic movements in a ball, but it’s teaching us how other objects or even animals and people should move. Bouncing ball is almost every animation’s fundation. When we animate human walking, the movement of hip is exactly the same way that a ball bounces on the ground because if we track the trace of hips we can find out that it is the same way that a ball travels. Therefore, the practice of bouncing ball is much more important than we think. No matter how complex an animation is, the basic of it is just the bouncing ball theory.