Week 11 Lab 2: Adding Squash & Stretch to a Ball

Tennis Ball

Beach Ball

1) Why is squash and stretch so useful in animation?
It is useful in animation because it gives realism to the animation. For example when a ball such as a basketball hits the ground, we can see it being stretched and squashed when looking at it in slow motion but we do not notice it in real life as it happens too fast for our eyes to capture.

2) Think of a situation in which extreme squash and stretch could be applied to a character.
When a character with a beer belly walks, the beer belly will move up and down causing squash and stretch.

3) Think of an animation example where squash and stretch would NOT be appropriate.
A large boulder or rock.

4) If squash and stretch doesn't really happen so obviously in real life why do you think it is so effective in animation?
It gives more in-depth motion to the animation and can be used to create humour and also the illusion of life.

Research on why it is necessary to group the ball mesh to itself:
It gives us a separate set of channels for each type of transform such as translation, rotation and scaling.

Reflection
For this lab exercise, I found that adding squash and stretch to a ball is quite challenging and I felt that I could do better for the animation as shown above. However I now know the reason why we are supposed to group the ball mesh to itself and hopefully this knowledge will help me in future exercises.