Bouncing Ball - Diagrams.

Since i wrote up my last post i have been working on the spacing for my ball bounce. When i timed it the ball bounce was around 1.6 seconds long. I have been working out how to draw the ball bounce, when and where i should draw the individual frames etc. I know that to make a second of footage you need 25 individual frames, and to make 2 seconds worth of footage you need to have 50 individual frames.

Therefore (25 F = 1 second)+ (12.5 F= 0.5 seconds) = 37.5 F = 1.5 seconds. I needed another 0.1 seconds so i rounded the number of frames up to 40 F, in which i thought would add the extra 0.1 second and it also makes it an even number.

I then 'tried' to work out how much time each individual frame would represent so i did 1.6 seconds / 40 frames = 0.04 seconds, so each individual frame should be 0.04 seconds. (Since looking at my workings out on the image below i can now see where i did the sums wrong, i double counted some of the frames where the ball hit the ground and also where the ball reaches its highest height at the top of each bounce. I started adding up wrong after the ball bounced for its second time - so ignore the sums after that, they should be:

• first drop down = 9 frames = 0.36 seconds
• first bounce up= 7 frames = 0.28 seconds.
• falls back to the floor for second bounce = 6 frames = 0.24 seconds
• second bounce up = 5 frames = 0.20 seconds
• fall to third bounce = 5 frames = 0.20 seconds
• bounce up = 3 frames = 0.12 seconds
• fall back down = 3 frames = 0.12 seconds.
• last bounce = 1 frame = 0.04 seconds
• last touch = 1 frame= 0.04 seconds.

0verall = 1.6 seconds in length

I am hoping that this will work when i put it into dragon software. The things i am concerned about are, if the animation is too quick - it should not be as i have worked it out and the animation should work out to be exactly 1.6 seconds long which is what my actual ball bounce was. I am concerned that the bounce it self will not be fluid and smooth, i will NOT work if it is jerky and abrupt, however, i wont be able to do anything about it until i put all of my work into Dragon and see how it runs. I would also like to add a roll at the end however, i did not have enough room on the page, and it would have added unnecessary effort as i was told to concentrate on the ball bounce and nothing else... i am also concerned about the third ball bounce so frame 32 as i think maybe i should have done the frame less squished and more of circular shape because the ball looses momentum and energy and the shape of the ball manipulates less. I did try to make each bounce less semicircular and more 'circular' but i think i should have made it more obvious on the third bounce.

The diagram to the left i was just playing around with what i was talking about on my previous post - the heavier ball, snooker ball. I know our brief was to animate ball bounce of the ball we were given in class but to also test and experiment with adding in frames to the top and bottom of the bounces to see how it changed the bounce. But i thought it would be interesting (for me) to look into heavier balls and how they bounce as i have not done something like this before, so i am rather excited about it. The diagram is not a mathematical diagram, it had not been worked out to the T, but it for me is an estimate of how it should look bounce. Although i think i have been rather generous with the height of its bounce, but it does have a deceptively large bounce for its one and only bounce. Maybe what looks wrong is the angle that the ball is coming in from, i think i will have the ball drop at more of a vertical angle, its maybe too curved. I am really looking forward to getting back into University tomorrow morning and putting all of my drawings onto Dragon and see how they animate! If all goes well i will be experimenting loads which the change in character of the ball bounce etc!