Assignment #4 - Heavy and Light

This week's assignment, which I just submitted (woo!) was to create an animation between 60-120 frames that showed a heavy ball, and a considerably lighter ball bouncing and then coming to a rest.

Amidst a thick veil of ball jokes, I was eventually able to create an animation that I am satisfied with. Remembering my original ball bounce, I made sure not to repeat any previous mistakes. However, I'm anxious to see my mentor's e-critique tonight. I'm anxious to find out what I've done incorrectly, or how I can improve it, as that's where the real learning happens.

Part of our assignment stressed the importance of planning. I created  planning sketch of what I was going to do. Our mentor required us to email him for permission to create an animation that contained 'ball on ball' or 'balls to the wall' action, rather than just the balls bouncing alone. I was approved to go ahead with my plan to have the light ball bounce off of the heavy ball. I was happy to hear this, as I want to make each assignment as challenging for myself as possible.

Here is my planning sketch (complete with 'Steve is trying to solve a problem' doodles).

My idea was to have the bowling ball roll slowly off of a platform and come to a stop in a relatively short distance. Since the bowling ball has more mass, it would take it a little bit longer to 'build up steam'. It will also take longer to stop completely, rolling every so slightly. Like if you were to put a bowling ball on the floor and push it forward with one finger.

The other ball was one of those rubber/vinyl balls that I found in one of the aisles at Walmart. You've all seen them. One of these guys:



That ball was going to roll off a similar ramp. It would pick up speed a bit faster as it had a lot less mass. Both balls would fall at the same rate of speed, as gravity affects both of them the same no matter the weight. Air resistance comes into play very slightly with the light ball, but for the most part they are dragged down at the same speed. The rubber ball lands first, as it fell from a lesser height and rolled off first. That ball would bounce (my first go at this made it look like a basketball, it bounced much too hard and fast), and then hit the bowling ball. The bowling ball was still rolling to the right at this point, and because of it's huge mass/inertia/momentum compared to the rubber ball, it transfers quite a bit of forward motion to the rubber ball, which heads off in the opposite direction after contact.

Both balls would settle to a gradual stop. Fini!

Here is the resulting video. Glad it's done! I wonder if I'll look back on the hours spent making these balls bounce, and laugh. Let's hope so!

PS: While looking for an image of some Walmart balls, I found this on google images. You don't find an image like this and NOT share it.