Ball Bounce Animation... My First Attempts!

 Hello World!

So, I've been hard at work learning all there is to learn about 3D... Well not ALL there is to learn, but a lot! It's been fun bringing extra dimensionality to my work! 

I'm hoping that 3D will be as natural as 2D is for me, but that will definitely come in time. Until then, I'm going to keep studying and practicing. 

One of the things I've been studying is animation in this mythical Third Dimension. 

I'm starting with the absolute basics here... You heard me right-- I've done a Ball Bounce!

The Ball Bounce animation is like a rite of passage for animators. Many people start with it because it beautifully demonstrates some of the principles of animation, while showing animators the ropes of their respective programs. 

Heck, I started my 2D journey with a Ball Bounce or two... Check it out! 

So, it only makes sense that I would start my 3D journey with a Ball Bounce, too!

I technically started this project BEFORE starting all of the other stuff I've shown on Maya... But I wanted to show my progress through the animation itself. 

Also... My computer had to be reset and I'm just re-downloading the files now... But that is neither here nor there. It's fixed now and I'm thankful for that! 

So, without further ado, here is my work-in-progress Ball Bounce animation! 

As you can see, there are no bells or whistles... Just a bouncing ball! And a plane!

The ball moves kind of slow, as I'm not all too familiar with the Graph Editor yet. But it's definitely a work-in-progress.

Now, check out my second attempt! 

This one was supposed to roll at the end, but I was having trouble with the keyframing. I managed to rotate and scale it a bit to give it a more cartoony effect than the first attempt. But, it's still definitely a work-in-progress. 

I added some color to it, though! I think that makes it look really nice! 

These are the three attempts I have for now. Again, I'm still working with Animation in Maya, so I have a lot to learn. I'm just going to keep at it and continue to post updates here. 

Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me! I'm going to be so excited to get this down, especially since animation is one of the things that excites me the most.