Arcs - Ball

Critical Evaluation

This is the Arks - 01 Ball exercise playblast, using Autodesk Maya.

Initially, the main theme of this project was the Arcs principle. In order to make the ball squashing, I applied a squash deformer to the mesh and created set drive keys, connecting the Factor with the Squash attribute of the controller. I believe that the anticipation is efficient, because it depicts the energy that is necessary for the object to gather, in order to make this leap. I set the keyframes, but the arcs were straight lines. However, by adjusting the curves in the Graph Editor, the arcs had a more curved shape. Additionally, I used the Motion Trail. moved its points to enhance the curvature of the motion. I believe that the arc is successful, because it makes the motion more believable and not linear.

Furthermore, I assigned another squash deformer, created a new attribute in the controller and set driven keys to make the ball squash and stretch in the end. I could not use the previous deformer, because the sphere rotates as it jumps. In my opinion, the follow through, depicted by the squash and stretch as the object lands on the surface again, is very efficient for the animation. The ease in portrays the power due to this great leap.

However, I believe that the spacing is not very successful when the ball falls on the ground. I used the Graph Editor to adjust the spacing, and also ghosted it to view the distribution of the frames, but, the fall seems a little bit linear. This problem could be probably caused by the timing for this action.

This exercise was a great opportunity for me to be occupied with the Motion Trail editing for the curvature of the action. Plus, I was also occupied with the concept of arcs, and had a clearer image of what this principle is.