Project 4 : Basic Motion
Date Assigned: Wednesday, February 11
Tutorials Due: Wednesday, February 18
Project Due: Wednesday, February 25
Reading: |
Kerlow, Chapters 9 and 10, Section 11.1 |
Learning Alias Lessons 15 and 16: (Learn about the Action Window.) |
This assignment is about timing, weight, and squash-and-stretch.
Your task is to animate a bouncing ball three times, emphasizing the
difference in weight between each of three types of ball. You will
work in a new group, giving each other
feedback as you go. By the date this project is due, everyone in your
group should be comfortable with Alias' keyframe animation interface
and the basic principles of cartoon physics.
What to do
- 1. bouncing ball
- Create a sphere with the default shading and lighting. Create
three similar short animations (less than 4 seconds each) that show
the difference between the following types of balls bouncing:
- A normal rubber ball.
- A beach ball.
- A bowling ball.
(Each group member should animate one of the above.)
- 2. expressive motion (optional)
- Turn one of the balls above into a character with intent.
Have the ball change its mind about what it's doing.
Convey that mental decision using only the ball's motion.
What we're looking for
- This is a warm-up to get you thinking about weight, timing, and
squash-and-stretch. Each animation should unmistakeably convey the
type of ball using only its motion. Each of you should choose one
ball to animate. Compare notes with your teammates as you go: discuss
the different kinds of motion, and try to figure out the single most
important aspect that distinguishes one ball from another.
You will be turning in a flipbook of the bouncing ball with both
shading and wireframe turned on. However, do NOT create any textures
or render your scene as anything other than a playblast! The
resolution should be low: around 360x240 pixels. The animation
should play back at a rate of 24 FPS: be sure to set the frame rate
every time you start Alias!
- For this part, try to think of a reason for the ball's
action. If it suddenly decides to bounce in another
direction, is it because it sees something it likes, or something
it's afraid of? Also, think about how the ball feels about what
it's doing. Is it excited, bored, exhausted? You may use a
simple set for this part if it helps tell the story, but
again you may NOT use extra lights or textures.
Turn in
Before class on Wednesday, February 25, make a group directory in
/home/cse458/critique/basic_motion
and put the
following in it:
README
file.
- Animations of bouncing balls:
rubber_ball.bk,
beach_ball.bk, bowling_ball.bk
.
- Animation of the expressive bouncing ball:
living_ball.bk
(optional).