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Maya Complete 4.5

Animation - Bouncing Ball
This term we' ll be concentrating on animation using Maya. The principles of animation,
regardless of whether it' s 2D or 3D, are the same in terms of motion, fluency and
smoothness for an action. Therefore there is a difference between something in motion
and something that just moves; the former is the art of animation, the latter is just an
event over time. As with any project, planning is essential and this is done with
pen/pencil and paper, i.e. storyline, script, numerous character development sketches
and storyboards until it reaches approval (either the clients or your own) before we even
turn on a computer. Without clear direction and understanding of the unfolding events of
an animation you won' t produce any work of substance and this will be evident in the
final result.
If animation is the area you wish to specialise in then I suggest you read as much
usefull information as you can and put it into practice in addition to watching a lot of
animation, but don' t passively just watch, actively observe the dynamic, expression,
gestures; The characteristics that are forming the mood and relating the context of the
story, scene and characters.
Animation Controls
Below is the default layout of Maya' s animation controls (if your layout is different go to
Menu Bar > Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences. On the left handside under
Categories click UI Elements and in Preferences Menu Bar click Edit > Restore Default
Settings).

Time Line Current Frame Playback Controls

Range Auto Keyframe

Animation End Time Button
Start Time
Range
Animation
Animation End Time
Range Time
Animation Preferences
Button

The controls may look complicated but as we go through successive tutorials they will
become more familiar.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
We' re going to make a Keyframe animation of a ball dropping down, bouncing and
coming to a stop. Keyframe animation is a traditional method that employs setting an
objects beginning position at a point in time and setting a Key, then for every motion,
whether it' s Moving, Scaling or Rotating, setting keys at other points along the Time
Line progressively, to the end position in time.
Open the file Bounce001.mb from the Mac server and copy it to your desktop.

The scene has been setup showing the

ball in it' s start position, note the Black
rectangle (Playback Head) in the Time
Line is at Frame1. Select the ball then
press "S" on the keyboard.

You' ve now set the first (beginning

position) Key which designates the
balls height ("Y" axis) and its point in
time. Next to the Playback Head is a
blue line which marks this information
on the Time Line.

Move the ball to the left of your view in

the "X" axis and down in the "Y" axis to
the end of the grid. Left click on the
Playback Head and slide it to the end
of the Time Line (Frame 72) and press
"S" on the keyboard.

You' ve now set the last (end position)

Key. As before a blue line marks the
positional changes that have been
made, when the animation is played
the markers will turn red to signify the
Keys are set.

The Playback controls located at the end of the Time Line function in the standard way.
Step back one Key. Play/Pause
backwards.
Step back one
Frame. Go to end of
Playback range.
Go to start of
Playback range. Step forward one Frame.

Play/Pause Step forward one Key.

forwards.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
Play the animation using the Playback controls. The ball descends in a diagonal line,
from top left to bottom right coming to a halt. The two keys were set control the ball; If
you move the ball or make any other changes and then hit the play button it will jump
back to the keyed positions as it' s locked to the Time Line, therefore to make further
changes other Keys have to be set.

Maya has worked out the in-betweens so that the ball travels in the direction specified
otherwise when the animation is played the ball would stay in its original position until
the end Frame and flick to its last position.
Once the beginning and end Keys have been set there are two ways to add Keys, either
move the ball into its Key positions setting a Key for each one or by adding them in the
Graph Editor. We' ll be positioning the ball manually and edit the Keys in the The Graph
Editor.

Menu Bar Tool Bar

Outliner

Graph

When an object that has been animated is selected - its motion values over time are
shown as bezier curves (if you' ve used Adobe Illustrator these will be familiar to you).
As you can see there aren' t any curves at present because the motion is linear
(Straight), all axis and transform (Move, Scale, Rotate, Visibility) are displayed in the
Outliner left of the graph, above is a Menu Bar, below which is a Tool Bar that contains
the most commonly used tools that sit inside the Menu.
As just mentioned all the motion curves are at present linear, axis "X" and "Y" though are
travelling diagonally which is the motion of the ball; Any motion curves that are flat
(lying horizontal) aren' t doing anything.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
Now that the beginning and end Keys have been set we' ll start positioning the ball and
setting Keys along the path we want it to follow.

With the Move Tool position the ball down

in "Y" axis and a bit to the right in "X" axis so
it sits on the Plane, slide the Playback Head
to Frame6, press "S" on the Keyboard.

Then move the ball up again in "Y" axis but

not as high as its original position and right
in "X" axis, slide the Playback Head to
Frame14 and press "S".
This primary bounce should be the biggest,
as the ball bounces a second time its
energy is decreasing and every time it hits
the surface (Plane) we want to give the
impression that its momentum is
diminishing.

Repeat the process to continue the balls

progress, moving it to the right and back
down to the surface. Slide the Playback
Head to Frame24, press "S".

For the second bounce reduce the height

and distance the ball travels, when you' re
happy with the balls position, slide the
Playback Head to Frame31, press "s" to set a
Key.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball

This is the third bounce, as you' ve done for

the previous Frames position the ball. Slide
the Playback Head to Frame36 and press "S".

Each successive bounce should reduce in

height and distance as the energy is
dissipating and as this is the last bounce so
should be the weakest. When you're happy
with the position slide the Playback Head to
Frame39, press "S" on the keyboard.

Position the ball for the final landing and slide

the Playback Head to Frame42, press "S".

From this point, Frame42, hit the Play button.

The ball will continue to travel along the
surface as the end Key was set earlier. The
basic motion, shape and direction have now
been estabilished. What we' ll need to do
next is edit the Keys attributes in the Graph
Editor, if the animation is played back now
the ball will travel up and down in an arcing
motion which won' t look like it' s bouncing.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
As you' ve seen the timing and motion are completely wrong, the ball is moving too
fast, looks like it' s waving through the air and it' s not spinning. We' ll make a change in
Animation preferences,

Click here to access Animation Preferences.

Change the Playback Speed

to Real-time (24 fps). This
window contains the
Preference settings for all the
features in Maya and this is a
quick way to access the
Animation Preferences
directly. If you don' t want
the Playback to run
repeatedly click Looping >
Once.

The Graph Editor has updated

with the new positions and
shows the "Y" axis as an
oscillating curve, "X" axis is the
same diagonal line and the
other attributes are flat. These
flat, horizontal lines are termed
Static Channels, if they aren't
needed they can be deleted to
help tidy up the graph.
Selecting any individual item
in the Outliner will display that
curve only so you can more
easily affect changes.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
In the Graphic Editor click on "Translate Y" to highlight this curve only, press "F" on the
keyboard. The curves at the bottom of are undesirable because they' re causing an
arcing action making the ball slip along the surface so these will have to be changed,

With the Translate Y curve

selected marquee select the
bottom Keys. The bezier
handles become visible, then
in the Tool Bar click on
Break tangents.

This allows you to move a

handle individually without
effecting its opposite partner.
They now become
separately coloured to show
they' re no longer unified.

Select the first handle, hold

down the Middle Mouse
Button (MMB) and drag the
handle so it makes that
section of the curve into a
straight, diagonal line. then
select its opposite and MMB
drag this handle to form a "V"
shape. This will create a
sharp action as opposed to a
smooth curve which will give
us the impact we' re looking
for.

As you can see the other Keys have all been treated in the same way so continue to
perform the same attributes to the rest of the Keys at the bottom of the curve and then
hit the play button. The motion now has a point of impact and looks like it' s hitting the
surface.
Remember that to move Keys or handles that have been selected you must hold down
MMB (Middle Mouse Button) and drag. I' ll be using the MMB abbreviation when editing
in the Graphic Editor.
If the ball is above or below the surface or it' s too high in successive bounces, it can be
moved by holding down MMB and dragging. Holding down Shift will limit the direction
either up or down, left or right depending which direction you initially choose.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
With some more editing the curve starts to create the motion we' re looking for. By
adjusting the spacing of the arcs we can change the frequency between each bouncing
motion and so fine tune the timing.

To get an even arch at the top of the curve select one or however many you' d wish to
affect, in the Tool Bar click "Flat tangent".

When you think the curve is

performing the correct motion
close or hide it and de-select
the ball then reselect it. Bring
back Graph Editor we' re going
to remove the flat curves
otherwise termed Static
Channels. To do this go to the
UI Menu, click Edit>Delete by
Type>Static Channels. Look in
the Graph Editors Outliner, the
only items displayed are Active
Channels, the curves that are
affecting the motion of the ball.

When we deleted the Static Channels we removed Rotation Channels, however as soon
as another motion is created Maya will recall the previously deleted channels so you
can delete the Static Channels as often as you wish. We need to make the ball spin and
this can be done quickly and easily.

Using the Rotate Tool select the

ball, make sure the Playback
Head is at the beginning of the
Time Line (Frame1) click on the
Z axis (blue) ring but don' t
rotate it, press "s" on the
keyboard. As before we' re
going to set a begin Key and an
end Key.
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball

Slide the Playback Head to the

end of the Time Line.

In Channels type in -1440 in Rotate Z value box, this will

make the ball rotate four times (1 revolution=360 degrees,
therefore 4X360=1440) from the beginning (Frame1) to the
end (Frame72). Right click over the value -1440, highlight
Key Selected and release the mouse button. The reason
why we want the value to be -1440 is so that it spins in a
forward motion relevant to the direction the ball is
travelling in. A positive value would make the ball spin
backwards. Hit play to see the results of the changes that
have just been applied.

Experiment with the curves in Graph Editor and Channels

Box values to see how it affects the balls behaviour over
the Time Line. Don' t worry about making mistakes, you
can always delete the file, reload it from the server and
start again. Animation isn' t easy or quick and takes alot of
practice so the more time you put in the better you' ll get
not just at using Mayas animation tools but at thinking like
an animator,
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Maya Complete 4.5
Animation - Bouncing Ball
When you think you' ve reached the point that is good enough to render, go to the Menu
Bar in the UI and select Rendering (F2). first you' ll need to set the rendering output file
type which for this exercise is Quicktime.
Click on Render Globals

Name your movie

(e.g. Bouncy_0000)
Make sure the Start
and End Frame
match the Time Select: name.ext (single Frame)
Line

Select: Quicktime Movie (qt)

Select: persp.

Click to turn Z
Depth on Select: Medium Quality or
higher

When you' ve setup the rendering output file type go to the Menu Bar, click
Render>Batch Render. Maya will save the movie in the images sub-folder in the project
folder Bounce001. If you going to render more movies to compare settings you' ll need
to add put a digit in place of the last zero e.g. Bouncy_0001.