Bouncing Ball Tutorial

For the Bouncing Ball Tutorial, we learned how to create basic 3D shapes, add character and movement to those shapes, assign different textures and materials to the surfaces, and finally add special particles to the animation.

The first lesson was fairly simple. We created the required shapes for the animation such as the sphere, torus, and plane. The size and dimensions of each shape was better created by turning of interactive completion.

The second lesson was a little bit harder because the concept of movement and time was introduced. We learned about the ability to set the ball at different locations during different frames. Though I think moving the ball was fairly easy, the hardest part (and maybe the hardest part of the whole project) was getting the ball to bend and squash. I'll probably have to look back at my notes if I want to work with tangents and the deform tools.

The third lesson was actually easier than I thought as well. Adding textures and materials to each shape's surface was fairly simple. This was especially the case if you were using a simple colors and designs. Adding an image file to the sphere was probably the trickiest part since you needed to rotate and scale the image for the sphere to look right.

The last lesson was the hardest overall. We learned about how to add special particles and create different lighting for the animation. Though it's simple to create each effect, I can see the amount of depth and potential when it comes to fully fine-tuning each effect into the way you want it to appear.

Overall, I think the Bouncing Ball Tutorial helped me greatly with my knowledge of Maya and knowing where to find the basic tools to help me with my 3D modeling and animation.