3D Bouncing Balls

For my first task using Maya I had to make balls of different weights bounce in a line or off surfaces. It was my first time using Maya so I have to admit I was intimidated with the software, and struggled at first to animate anything. However, with some practice I think I understand Maya a bit and can animate basic bouncing balls. (Of course I still need hours of practice)

First I animated a tennis ball. Originally it was a beach ball, however I felt the amount of bounces and appearance of the weight of the ball reflected the properties of a tennis ball. It still needs some work, for example the bounce back up looks too quick and there's a middle bounce that seems a bit too slow.

So then I tried animating a beach ball. As beach balls are lighter, I needed to make the bounces last longer to make the ball appear as if it was floating. I struggled with getting the ball to stop, as beach balls don't bounce as much as tennis balls, so I ended up with quite an abrupt stop. I also added squash and stretch, which I think works well. I do need to edit the timing of the squash and stretch to make it look more natural.

After that I challenged myself to make the ball bounce whilst moving forwards. I used my beach ball bounce as a template for the key frames and simply moved the ball along a bit every key frame. I also edited inbetween the key frames so the squash and stretch didn't look too distorted. Additionally, I made the ball roll at the end to break the fall.