Maya Bouncing Ball Tutorial + Graph Editor Explained | A Step by Step Guide

Summary

This tutorial video guides viewers on creating a simple bouncing ball animation in Maya using the graph editor. The instructor demonstrates how to set keyframes, adjust the animation's timing, and utilize auto keyframe tool for efficiency. The focus is on refining the animation's realism by adjusting the graph editor to reflect the effects of gravity, ensuring the ball's motion mimics a natural bounce. The video concludes with a brief on duplicating the animation and encourages viewers to subscribe for more content.

Takeaways

• 🎬 The video is a tutorial on using the graph editor in Maya for beginners.
• 🏐 The tutorial demonstrates creating a simple bouncing ball animation.
• 👁️ The importance of adjusting the ball's position to hit the ground at the right frame is emphasized.
• 🔑 Pressing 's' sets keyframes at specific frames to define the animation timeline.
• 🔧 Utilizing the auto keyframe tool simplifies the animation process by automatically setting keys as you move the object.
• 📊 The graph editor is introduced as a tool to fine-tune the animation curves.
• 📉 The concept of 'slow in and slow out' is explained to create a more natural motion.
• 🔄 The tutorial covers how to adjust the graph editor curves to simulate the effects of gravity on the bouncing ball.
• 🛠️ The 'break tangents' tool is highlighted for independent control of animation curve handles.
• 🎥 The final result is a more realistic bouncing ball animation that mimics the effects of gravity.
• 🔔 The video ends with a call to action for viewers to subscribe, like, and enable notifications for future content.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is teaching viewers how to use the graph editor in Maya to create a simple bouncing ball animation.

What is the first step in creating the bouncing ball animation?

The first step is to create an empty scene and then create a sphere object to be used as the ball.

How does the instructor switch to the front view in Maya?

The instructor holds the space bar, left-clicks on Maya, and chooses the front view.

What is the purpose of setting a keyframe at frame 1?

Setting a keyframe at frame 1 establishes the starting position of the ball before it begins to bounce.

What is the significance of the 'auto key' or 'auto keyframe tool' mentioned in the video?

The 'auto key' tool automatically sets keyframes whenever the object is moved, making the animation process easier.

How does the instructor determine the timing for the ball to hit the ground?

The instructor adjusts the timing by observing the ball's position relative to the ground and checking the values in the channel box.

What does the instructor mean by 'tweaking the graph editor' to improve the animation?

Tweaking the graph editor involves adjusting the curve handles to control the speed and timing of the animation, making it more realistic.

What is the 'ease in' and 'ease out' concept explained in the video?

'Ease in' and 'ease out' refer to the gradual acceleration and deceleration of the ball's motion, respectively, to create a more natural animation.

How does the instructor use the graph editor to simulate the effect of gravity on the bouncing ball?

The instructor adjusts the graph editor's curve to show a decrease in the height of each bounce, simulating the effect of gravity diminishing the ball's momentum.

What does the instructor do to fix the ball's motion when it hits the ground?

The instructor selects the point where the ball hits the ground and adjusts the curve to create a sharp spike, representing the ball's rapid acceleration due to gravity.

What is the final step the instructor takes to complete the bouncing ball animation?

The final step is to duplicate the animation and adjust it to create multiple bouncing balls in different directions.

Outlines

00:00

🎥 Introduction to Maya's Graph Editor

The script begins with a tutorial on how to use the graph editor in Maya for creating animations, specifically a bouncing ball animation. The instructor starts with an empty scene and guides viewers to create a sphere object, position it, and switch to the front view. The focus is on setting keyframes at specific frame numbers to animate the ball's movement, with an explanation of the auto keyframe tool for easier animation. The instructor also discusses the importance of timing and adjusting the animation to make the ball's bounce appear natural.

05:02

📉 Understanding Graph Editor Dynamics

This section delves into the mechanics of the graph editor, explaining how the ball's momentum is affected by gravity, causing it to bounce less high with each successive bounce. The instructor shows how to adjust the graph editor to reflect this by moving keyframes and using the 'move' tool. There's an emphasis on understanding the graph editor's interface, including the visibility of different channels and how they relate to the animation's translation, rotation, and scale.

10:03

🔍 Tweaking Animation Curves for Realism

The script continues with a focus on refining the animation to make it more realistic. The instructor discusses the concept of 'ease in' and 'ease out' in animation, demonstrating how to adjust the curve handles in the graph editor to achieve a smoother, more natural motion. The aim is to mimic the physical behavior of an object under the influence of gravity, where the object accelerates as it falls and slows down as it reaches its peak before descending.

15:04

🌐 Applying Physics to Animation

Here, the instructor connects the animation process to real-world physics, particularly the effect of gravity on the bouncing ball. The goal is to ensure the animation accurately represents the increasing speed of the ball as it falls and the decreasing speed as it ascends. The instructor shows how to adjust the graph editor to create a spike in speed just before the ball hits the ground and slows down as it loses energy, creating a more believable animation.

20:07

🔄 Refining the Bounce and Wrapping Up

The final part of the script involves fine-tuning the bounce of the ball to ensure it slows down and stops momentarily before bouncing again. The instructor uses the graph editor to create a sharp spike and a U-shape curve to achieve this effect. After making the necessary adjustments, a playback of the animation is shown to demonstrate the improved realism. The instructor also mentions duplicating the animation but corrects themselves, indicating a minor mistake in the process. The script concludes with a prompt for viewers to subscribe, like, and enable notifications for future content.

Keywords

💡Graph Editor

The Graph Editor is a tool used in 3D animation software like Maya to edit and adjust the timing and spacing of keyframes in an animation. It provides a visual representation of the motion curves, allowing animators to fine-tune the motion of objects over time. In the video, the Graph Editor is used to create a more realistic bouncing ball animation by adjusting the speed of the ball as it falls and bounces.

💡Animation

Animation refers to the process of creating the illusion of motion and shape change by manipulating objects or images over time. In the context of the video, the animator creates a bouncing ball animation by setting keyframes for the ball's position at different points in time.

💡Keyframes

Keyframes are specific points in an animation sequence where something changes. They define the start and end points of a transition or movement. In the video script, the animator sets keyframes for the bouncing ball at different heights and times to create the effect of the ball bouncing on the ground.

💡Auto Key

Auto Key is a feature in animation software that automatically sets keyframes whenever an object's properties are changed. This simplifies the animation process by eliminating the need to manually set keyframes. The script mentions turning on the Auto Key tool to make the animation process easier.

💡Gravity

Gravity is a natural force that attracts two objects towards each other. In animation, gravity is often simulated to make motion feel more realistic. The video discusses how adjusting the animation to reflect the effects of gravity can improve the realism of the bouncing ball.

💡Tangents

In the context of the Graph Editor, tangents are the slopes of the curves that represent motion. They determine the acceleration and deceleration of an object. The video script describes adjusting tangents to create a more natural slowing down and speeding up of the ball as it bounces.

💡Bouncing Ball

The bouncing ball is a simple animation exercise often used to practice and demonstrate the principles of animation, such as timing, spacing, and the effects of gravity. The video uses a bouncing ball to teach viewers how to use the Graph Editor to create more realistic animations.

💡Frame

A frame in animation is a single image in a sequence of images that, when displayed in rapid succession, creates the illusion of movement. The script refers to specific frames where key actions of the bouncing ball occur, such as hitting the ground or reaching the peak of its bounce.

💡Channel Box

The Channel Box is a panel in Maya that displays attributes and channels of the currently selected object. It allows animators to view and edit the values of these attributes. In the script, the Channel Box is mentioned as a way to check the values of the ball's position as it hits the ground.

💡In and Out Tangents

In animation, 'in' and 'out' tangents refer to the angles at which motion curves enter and exit keyframes. Adjusting these tangents can affect how an object accelerates into and out of a keyframe. The video script explains how to use 'slow in and slow out' tangents to create a more natural animation of the bouncing ball.

💡Perspective View

The Perspective View in 3D software provides a three-dimensional view of the scene, simulating how the final rendered image will look. The script mentions switching to the perspective view to check the animation from a more realistic angle.

Highlights

Introduction to using the graph editor in Maya for beginners.

Creating a simple bouncing ball animation in an empty scene.

How to switch to the front view in Maya.

Adjusting the ball's position to hit the ground at the correct timing.

Using the channel box to set keyframe values.

Setting keyframes for the animation by pressing 's'.

Enabling auto keyframe tool for easier animation.

Adjusting the ball's bounce timing and height.

Explanation of frame numbers and their relation to the ball's bounce.

Fixing the ball's floaty animation issue by tweaking the graph editor.

Saving the file after making adjustments.

Understanding the effect of gravity on the ball's bounce.

Using the graph editor to adjust the animation curves.

Selecting and moving keyframes to adjust the bounce height.

Focusing on the 'translate y' channel for vertical movement.

Explanation of the graph editor's curve and its relation to the ball's motion.

Applying linear tangents for a constant speed effect.

Adjusting the curve to create a more realistic bouncing effect.

Using 'ease in' and 'ease out' to simulate the ball's interaction with gravity.

Breaking tangents to control individual handles without affecting others.

Final adjustments to create a more realistic and consistent bounce.

Playing the final animation to demonstrate the improved bouncing ball.

Encouraging viewers to subscribe and like the video for more content.

Transcripts

[Music]

hello guys

welcome back to my channel

so today i'm gonna be showing you guys

on how to use

graph editor and maya if you're totally

new

this is the video for you okay firstly

this is an empty scene and we're gonna

start to create some very very quick and

simple animation

so let's create a bouncing ball so you

can click from here we have this

sphere object and i'm just going to move

it up

up to here and to

switch to front view i can hold space

bar left click maya

and chooses front view slide down

and firstly i have to adjust until the

bottom of this ball

kind of hits this ground

okay next i have to click on channel box

and i can see that this should be in the

values of one okay which is the

exact timing where it hits the ground

okay so at first

i'm going to go to about you know like

15 frames or 10 frames

i'm going to set a key by pressing s

okay press s to set a key

and then i'm going to go back to frame 1

and move it up to a certain distance

like

maybe somewhere here and press s to set

a key

and to make the animation easier it is

best that you turn on this

auto key or the auto key keyframe tool

that whenever you move it will set key

for you

so at first in the air drop down

so the next time it bounces up it should

be

having last frame so maybe around here

let's check again the first time it was

here the second time it was

here okay and after that

so plus 8 plus it will be 26

so for 26 it will be about

1 again and after that

so this is eight frame and the next time

it bumps it up it will be six frame

which is 32

so 32 is somewhere around here

and plus six 32 plus six will be 38

so 38 is back to one

okay and next we'll have 42

42 it's here and

46 so 38 42

46

come on 46 is one

and next we have the plus two frame

which is

48 and we just moved the ball

up a little and after that 50

let's put let's put it back to one okay

so

our ball is bouncing from here let's hit

the spacebar

okay and back to here and checked okay

so we have this

perspective and

you can see like from different angle

okay you can click here side it looks

like that

at first it should be one

okay sorry i think i made a mistake

somewhere here

so let me just pull it back up here

because just now i click the spacebar

and then

somehow like it makes it back to zero

so let's play so right now that ball

seems floaty okay so it kind of like

floating

on the water surface it doesn't really

feel that it is hitting the ground

okay so that's that that's the next port

that we

are going to move into so in order to

make this

bouncing ball looks better we have to

tweaking graph editor

so let me do a quick save file

just save it

[Music]

here

ball zero one

okay so a quick explanation about the

situation here

is we drop it from here somewhere in the

air

it it drops to the ground and it bounces

back

so whenever it bounces back it is being

affected by the gravity and gravity will

somehow

lessen the amount of the momentum that

it goes up

so it only uses eight frame compared to

the first time it uses ten frame to drop

so a frame to to went up it framed to

drop

and then the energy is getting less and

less every time it bounces up

so six frames six frame four frame four

frame

two frame two frame if you want some

more then we can get this

you know like one frame up a little

in one frame down to one

okay so next let's go into the graph

editor by going to windows

animation graph editor

okay so let's bring it over here and you

can see that it is not

seem to be that good so so far this part

is looking good

and this part it seems like the second

time it bounces it up

it should be lower than the first one

okay so we have to go to here

and select that click w

w for move okay this tool

and hold down shift key

hold down middle mouse key and move it

down

just like so all right

and to to kind of guide you guys through

what is happening around here inside

graph editor is that

so you see we selected

this ball and it says that

this is shear one so we have p sphere

one

and in this graph it shows you all the

items

that is keyable or it is being key

whenever you set an animation so we can

see that because whenever we say

animation we press

s so it keys on the visibility translate

translate translate so translate we have

three channels

as you can see here trying to say x y z

rotate x y z

scale x y z and invisibility on

and we have this as well we have this as

well

but if you select all you can see

everything but somehow only green color

shows the full graph and the rest they

kind of like stop here

because at the very first we hit s

and second we hit s after that we just

keep moving because we have that

auto curve sorry auto key turn on

and it will set key automatically for us

so the rest is kind of not

doing much as i'll say like it doesn't

change it doesn't show anything

so you should just focus on this

and what is this this is translate y so

translate y

meaning moving in y direction

so you can see that whenever our ball is

moving

dropping down it's going in this green

color

and that green color indicates

y direction let's have a look

you see that y is green

okay so that is why it is showing

only green color only green color is

changing in

values over time

okay so it shows that it is starting

from

around a value of six which is the

distance

from ground zero one

to six so it drops the second time it

bounces it up

it's around like forty eight four point

eight and the third time about three

point eight

the fourth time about two point eight

the fifth

time it's about 1.6 and the

last time it's about you know like one

point

to 1.3 okay so let's make it more

consistent

so these points actually means the

height okay

where the the ball went up or bounce

back up

again so i'm gonna select these

kind of moved it around to make sure it

goes more consistent

and next i would like to select all of

this in translate y

to click f so f means focus

so focus meaning that it kind of

re-resumed the whole thing

and fit it into the the the graph editor

to into a bigger picture so that you can

see it better

okay and of course you can zoom in and

now like on your own by

holding down alternate and right click

and drag

okay and the next thing it's what does

this

you know like as looking curve means

so this is one of the most important

part and the most fundamental things

whenever you start working with graph

editor

[Music]

so let me start with something simple

all right so if you're looking at this

whenever we play you feel like the ball

it's kind of

slowing whenever it's about to drop

and then it feels like it is going back

up and then suddenly it slows down

so let me kind of shrink this down to

just about like 52

okay so it feels like it is slowing down

and then whenever it

bounces back up it's kind of slowed down

and somehow that that motion doesn't

seem to be stable like it is floating

it doesn't feel like it really hits hard

on the ground

so there is a sense of ease in at ease

out so in the term of animation we call

it slowing slow out or

is in is out all right

and how do we really define

what is is in is out okay

so let me try to tweak this

so i select the point and i select the

handle i kind of click w

and move it down

and kind of click this and moved it up

or i can just go to here select all

and i'm going to choose this option so

let's choose this option

this is linear tangents so whenever we

set the linear tangents

it means it just goes all the way you

know

without slowing in without slowing out

okay just go linear

okay let's have a look so at first level

you can see here at first

it's starting here in a second it

reaches here

so the distance in between here and from

two to three

it's about the same that it goes all

just linear without slowing down or

without speeding up

okay so if you go back to here and play

okay so it doesn't really feel that it

is slowing down you just keep moving

on its own with the same speed so as in

like you're traveling

in the highway 16 miles per hour just

keep moving keep moving without slowing

down

so um let's go back to here

let's let's stop it for a while let's go

back to here

so it means something so whatever you

see a diagonal line straight without

curve

it means linear okay it's all the same

here

and you can't have it leaner all the way

that bouncing ball will still looks a

little bit weird

so what we have just now it's

applying an auto tangent so auto

tangents it will

make it auto like this and from here

it's sort of progress slowly because you

can see the curve like kind of slow

slowing in alright so it progressed a

little bit

and then further down further

whenever it's moving over time you can

see that

it's suddenly speed up so from here from

one to two

frames it only progressed this little

and from two to three it progressed

this much and from here to here

it progressed even more take this

straight line as a guideline so whenever

it comes to here

you can see that you try to draw a line

through here

and then it goes all the way down it

progresses this

much so comparing this distance and this

distance

from number two this actually increased

a lot

so we can say that it started out slow

ease in slow in and it progresses

speed up in the middle and in the end

this is an inverted curve of this so

this means

slow out all right so it kind of slows

down whenever

it's about to hit this point and then it

slows in again

ease in again speed up in the middle

east out

he's in speed up is out so it repeats

the same thing like

same phenomenon through the whole thing

okay but what really happens here it's

so from our understanding of the physics

whenever we drop it it goes faster and

faster and faster and the fastest point

whenever it hits the ground all right

and then whenever it bounces back up it

goes slower slower slower slower slower

until it loses all the energy and it

stops it

stops there for a while and then it

starts to

going slow faster faster fast fastest

and hits the ground again all right so

that is

the correct or logical way of how we we

explain this

in accordance to the gravity gravity

field

if we do not have a gravity people won't

die like jumping down

from the rooftop right okay

so because there's gravity like you

can't stop you can't slow down you just

have to

keep going faster and faster and faster

and hits the ground like

bye-bye that's it end of the day okay

so this is the point where

it hits the ground all right

so whenever it's about to hit the ground

it has to go faster and faster and

faster

so we have to tweak this so let's

click this so right now you can see that

it it shows you

a spike at the point where it hits the

ground

so we can change all of that

hold down shift key and select all the

points

and apply this so right now you can see

that it goes like

and then slows down and faster faster

faster

okay slows down and stop in

faster and faster and hit okay let's

have a look at the animation

okay so it feels slightly better but

still

i kind of think that whenever it bounces

back up it should get

slow and kind of stopping

for a while like maybe zero point few

seconds

zero point few not a few seconds okay

few seconds it's not logic all right

so zero point few seconds and before it

drops again

okay so how do we fix that so right here

i need to make sure this goes like

very sharp and very sharp up

and then again like kind of like a u

shape

so i can select this point and select

that handle

and use my minimalist key and try to

move it but you can see that

whenever i move one side the other side

is being affected

so i have to select these point

and choose this break tangents so break

tangent meaning that

so you can see that from here it

switched to here

break tangent meaning you can control

one side

on its own without affecting the other

one

just select the handle middle click and

move the curve

go to here select that select the handle

click w middle middle mouse click

sorry i have to break it first and moved

all the way up to here so making sure

that this is a

very nice spike

okay break the tangent select the point

select curve and move it like this

with it like so select all the points

and

break the tangent okay you can reselect

that

click after refocus then you can see

that it shows you

a much better vision of how

you should be it's like that

i'm gonna move it that way move it that

way

okay move it that way

okay all right

let's play

okay so right now it really have a big

difference as you can see here

that whenever it hits the ground the

moment it hits the ground it bounces

back up

right away without slowing down without

stopping

and then whenever it bounces back up to

the sky

somewhere in the middle it slows down

and it stops

for a while and then continue to drop

again

so let me kind of extend this

okay so that is a much better bouncing

ball

so hopefully with this simple animation

and the simple explanation about graph

editor

it gives you an insight on how to use on

how to tweak graph

and before we end this lesson i'm going

to duplicate this

and move it in this direction

oops i think it doesn't

it doesn't duplicate the case okay

that's all right

so i think that's all

hopefully you guys learned something

today and if you

like my videos and you think this is

helpful to you

please subscribe to my channel and hit

the like button

and don't forget to turn on the

notification button as well

so that you won't miss any new contents

until then i will see you in the next

video

bye

[Music]

you