Week 11 Lab 2

First, we create the polygon sphere then at the main tab click on Window -> Outliner and ctrl+g twice.

Then renamed the groups names to prevent confusion and enable us to recognize which is which.

Next, select the translate_ball_gp group and Create Deformer -> Nonlinear -> Squash. If you did not see the Create Deformer in the main menu tab which means you are not in the Animation module. So change it to Animation module before this step! If you have done this step correctly, you will see handle named “squash1Handle” created (in the Outliner).

Then, we will parent the squash1Handle to the translate_ball_gp group. Firstly, select the handle, then press control and select the translate_ball_gp group in the Outliner. Next, press the p key(release control) to parent the handle to the group. If you have done this step correctly, it should look like what is shown in the image I included above.

The next step will be locking up the channel attributes as we do not want any changes made and to also avoid accidentally changes. 

To lock the channel attributes, select the wanted ones by using the shift or control and the left mouse button (LMB). Then right mouse click and a long list of selection will appear. Choose the Lock Selected. This action will lock all the selected channels and no change can be done to them.

If you have done this step correctly, the locked ones will be in blueish color while the unlock ones will be in red color. It should look like what is shown in the image I included above.

The next step will be mainly changing the factor value (at the squash1Handle) at different time of the timeline to change the effect to squash and stretching to the ball. To insert timeline, click on s.

A positive value in the Factor will create an exaggerated stretched ball. 

A negative value in the Factor will create an exaggerated squashed ball.

As the ball falls to the ground, it will be stretched by gravity. As the ball hits the surface, it will be squashed because of the impact on ground. To let the ball regain its normal shape, the squash1Handle’s Factor is 0. 

Rotation the value of the ball to point your stretched ball in a particular axis (in this case, the Rotate Z value) so that it would seemed to be bouncing in a stretched manner towards that direction.

Lastly, to animate the Rotation of the ball, select the rotate_ball_gp group. At Frame 1, set a keyframe with the Rotate Z value of 0. Then set a keyframe at Frame 100 with a Rotate Z value of -1200.

Extra : I changed the ball color and put in color for the plane by right-click on the object and click on assign new material -> lambert.

To conclude this exercise, it is more tedious then Week 11 Lab 1 exercise, it is more challenging and I have to extra careful with the timeline and all the numbers. Also, I often make the mistake of not keying s after the challenges I made in the values.