So, a One legged man hops into a bar...

Ok, ok. I thought I had the squash stretch bouncing ball stuff down cold. But I didn't. Its a little humbling.

Maybe its like a surfing thing... you know, a "searcher". But not for the perfect ride or wave, but for the interior meaning of the squash and stretch. Why does it squash and stretch? I'm sure this sounds silly to anyone out side of the this discussion.

The bottom line is I thought I knew. But I didn't. And this has kind of rocked my center a little bit. The good news is that I was willing to be wrong. And willing to be concerned about something that to the vast population of the world is quite silly.

See, I though bouncing a ball was about the way a mass reacted to events that occurred to it. It hit the ground, and that made it squash. It left the ground and that made it stretch. But that is entirely NOT the point! Its not what the physics of the world do to a ball and its materials (although that is a consideration), its the perception and READ of the ball in its action to better "SELL" a movement.

Man I'm such a DOPE! I would have told you this VERY thing if you have asked me last week or even last year. But I just finished an assignment that DIDN'T FOLLOW this very principle.

Well, that is making me review everything now. How have I gotten by so long not knowing the core aspect of this very fundamental attribute?

One of the things mentioned in a Guest lecture (Dean Deblois) was he was afraid that "they" would find out that he is not qualified to do what he does... Clearly he is being modest to a fault. But that is EXACTLY how I feel today. And that makes me feel pretty good actually. Because I know that one of the biggest things I have to learn in this Journey is to take crits and realizations like this and use them to be better.

This Animation Mentor thing is really pretty mind blowing. I am really beginning to understand how this is going to make me a better animator, and really separate me (and all of my classmates) from the pack.

So here it is:

Karate-Marita-One-Leg-Hop

• i added a chaotic twitch in the anticipation to make it look a little less robotic.. but now it just a looks a little sloppy.. will fix that for the revision
• and the squash and stretch thing..oy
• need to push out the foot rotation a bit more.. maybe at least the instep of the foot more in parallel with the calf.
  

....and a bonus low res render!
(I'm going to continue to render scenes for my Blog only as I learn more about Maya materials and shaders. This was just a simple lesson in color, nothing more.)

MachioMaritaHop

Sketched at the Zoo with my family :) Observing life as they say..Sketches here:


Zoo People



Zoo Animals




See you next week!
philro