Bouncing Golf Ball Animation
For this project I had to create a 3D animation with a main ‘actor’ – object starting with the first letter of my name – G.
I eventually managed to come up a golf ball. This may seem easy for some but the animation has to last 90seconds therefore choosing a simple actor that can be incorporated into a scene and to be animated at 15fps for 90seconds was key.
Another few reasons as to why i chose this object was that i had to consider the time it takes to model each object involved within the animation, i had to understand how key frame animation works as well as squash and stretch techniques.
The Process:
How can create a golfball in 3DS Max?
Thoughts – Make a sphere and extrude material to create dimples?
How can I make the dimples look even and to follow the ‘curve’ of the ball?
How can i animate a golf ball?
I have watched some videos on youtube.com to get a feel of what is involved.
Here is a link to one of the videos i found useful.
How can i make this in 3D?
Answer – make a geo-sphere.
Convert to editable poly.
Chamfer edges them bevel them to create dimples.
Smooth the object to make the edges rounded.
There are two options within 3ds max for smoothing therefore i will have to try them both.
They are mesh smooth and turbo smooth.
Sketches of movement:
When a ball hits a surface it squashes.
Before and after it has hits that surface it is its original shape.
original size → squash → stretch back to original size.
The Scene:
I had to create a scene for the golf ball. I chose a room within a house. This scene would allow me to create a basic but appealing scene for the animation allowing me more time to concentrate on the animation itself.
.
Idea One:
A simple but effective scene. I did not chose this scene for the following reasons:
There is limited space compared to other ideas
Lots of objects for the ball to hit easily therefore would have to animate the movements of the object the ball its too. = more time on animation = will i manage to finish animation in time?
Scene may be boring to viewers = not the goal i am wanting to achieve
The animation must be interesting to gain attention of viewers.
.
Idea Two:
This is an aerial view
reasons for change –
more for ball to do = more time taken up
more space for the ball to bounce in
This is the scene i have chosen for the animation.
My initial thoughts for animation are that the golf ball will bounce off the bookcase from a shelf, to bounce along the upstairs hall, down the staircase and into the living room area. Then eventually coming to a halt.
The scene would include different camera shots at different angles.
Front View:
This is a front view of the scene.
The house has 3 main areas: upstairs hall, staircase, living area. Objects i am going to include are:
bookcase
paintings
staircase
walls
table
tv
rug
door
Storyboard Solutions:
Idea One:
Details of stages in animation written on image itself.
These back-up my reasons for changing the scene mentioned earlier.
[A simple but effective scene. I did not chose this scene for the following reasons:
There is limited space compared to other ideas
Lots of objects for the ball to hit easily therefore would have to animate the movements of the object the ball its too. = more time on animation = will i manage to finish animation in time?]
Idea Two:
Details are on the sketched image itself.
Idea Three:
Similar to idea two except the animation will end when the ball hits the last step and comes to a halt. The ball will at that point have lost momentum.
Idea three is an option for the final storyboard if idea 2 is too long. I am aiming to meet the minimum 90 second time but do not want to majorly go over that time scale.
How i made my golf ball:
Step 1 - create a geo-sphere with any radius and 8 segments.
Step 2 - right click the geo-shpere and select convert to an editable poly
Step 3 - make sure all edges are selected and select chamfer. Chamfer until you have the appropriate dimple depth.
Step 4 - make sure all faces are selected and select bevel. Bevel the dimples until you are satisfied with the dimples shape/depth etc.
Step 5 - Select turbo smooth from the drop down menu. note: if the turbo smooth does not look great there is the option to choose mesh smooth.
Views of each object within the animation:
back
front
front - change - added books and a holder for the golf ball to sit on. makes the scene look more realistic.
top
front
side
top
back
front
side
front
side
front
left view
right
Changes made:
i have added a sofa into the scene to make it look more realistic as most living areas have a sofa.
Instead of the walls all being one plain colour i have added a plane on to which i made the right hand wall have striped wall paper.
I have added materials to the following:
tv
door
rug
paintings (living room and upstairs hall)
table
bookcase
flooring
Also, i have taken out the windows from the scene as i did not have a material to put on them. I feel this change does not affect the realist look i wanted to achieve.
As i have already mentioned in the caption beneath the bookcase i have added books and a holder for the golf ball to make the bookcase less empty.
lines for camera and ball to follow (upstairs hall)
aerial view
camera and ball paths (stairs)
camera and ball paths (livingroom)
opening sequence
opening sequence
opening sequence
opening sequence
Method used to create animation:
To make the golf ball move in a realistic motion i created a line and edited the line to create a path for the ball to be attached to.
I attached the ball and used select key animation mode moving and inserting the key frames to make the ball have believable movements.
I did the same for the camera. I created a separate line and added a path constraint. The camera follows the line in time with the ball.
The timing was off a little until i edited the camera settings. I changed the camera to follow the balls every movement.
I repeated this method for each individual scene.
Except the opening scene where the ball tries to escape the holder on the bookcase. For this i used simple keyframe animation:
Move time line → Move ball → insert key frame
This had to be done for each movement within the clip.
Here is my final animation: (viewable at bottom of page)
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