This week’s task was to animate a basketball bounce and throw. This was the most complicated task as we had to turn on and off the child-of constraint when the ball left the hand.
Research
I looked into different tutorial videos on how to shoot a basketball and used the video provided by Mike.
Process
As per usual I blocked the key poses for the first section of the animation, I then blocked the jump and shoot portion. Splitting the animation up helped me to focus on a smaller chunk so I felt less overwhelmed.
I then added some in-betweens to smooth the motion and adjusted the timing.
After I was happy with the movement, I added the ball and started to use the child-of constraints. I struggled a lot with making the ball line back up with the hand as I kept messing up the steps to fix the position after turning off the child-of constraint.
Once I figured out how to work it, it became much easier. After the character throws the ball, the animation is much easier to do as it is now just a simple ball bounce. I keyed in the ball positions and turned on the motion path to see the curve. I adjusted the ball bounce in the graph editor, smoothing the curves and sharpening the falls.
Outcome
Overall, I am happy with the result, the character’s movements look good and the timing works. I do think he stands too still when he is bouncing the ball, I could have added a little more foot work or weight shifting.