In today’s class, we went through the 12 principles of animation, going in depth into anticipation. This principle refers to the movement generated by internal or external forces, resulting in dynamic motion. Going through this, as well as offsetting with the graph editor, was perfect for our next assignment: the ball with the tail.
When fixing the pendulum animation, I found that the initial force applied was too large and unrealistic. Additionally, when the primary base came to a stop, my offset was completely off, causing it to swing to the other side before planned. Regarding the follow-through from the different parts, I was instructed to bend or break them further, as they were extremely stiff and barely had any movement.
As for the ball with the tail, I watched the references provided by George and also did the extra exercise of drawing the tail in motion to understand the movement better.
After doing so, I sketched a plan for the rail and simulated an animation as well.
When I went to Maya, I began by treating the head first as if it were the bouncing ball. After having the desired outcome, I started with the tail. The first few frames were easy to animate, but when the ‘squirrel’ came back down, I got a bit confused about how to animate it, especially at the end.