Ball Toss - Page 2: Create a Motion in MikuMikuDance to Toss the Ball Accessory that we made using Google SketchUp and the 3D-RAD Plugin.

Before you start this exercise, you will need to have the Ball accessory object. You can create it using Google SketchUp as we did on Page 1... the full instructions are HERE.

With the ball in hand, you are ready:

Align the ball with the Coordinate Grid.

Set up Frame Zero with the ball in it's "neutral" position.



Advance to Frame 3 and lower the ball a little below "neutral"




Advance to Frame 10 and place the ball at the top of its toss.




Advance to Frame 17 and position the ball slightly below the neutral point.




Advance to Frame 22 and return the ball to the Neutral position. For the smoothest action, COPY the Frame Zero dummy bone position and PASTE it into Frame 22 so that the ball's in the same place as it was in Frame Zero.




Now add some "Hang Time" to the ball's motion by COPY Frame 10 and PASTE it into Frames 9 and 11. This keeps the ball in place for 3 frames.




That's ALL THERE IS TO IT !  ":o).

Here's where we are going: 

But First, in this lesson, we animate the ball's motion ... then, later on, we will match the model's arms to that motion.

To make it easier, I started the project by rotating the ball's dummy bone so that its axis is squared with the Coordinate Grid. This lets the ball move straight up or straight forward as I move the dummy bone. 

I spent some time getting the model to hold the ball realistically. Position the arm, wrist, and fingers as necessary. I used one of my standard hand pose files, RH_RelaxOpenRD, to give me a head start. You can download all of my hand poses HERE.

When you are happy with your Frame Zero, we are ready to move on.

We are going to focus on only the ball's motion ... ignoring the model's action until later.

I will call the ball's position in Frame Zero the NEUTRAL position.

Advance the frame counter to 3 and then lower the ball, a little below the neutral position. The ball's motion starts with a little wind-up before the pitch ... giving the ball the look of having some weight.

Advance the frame counter to 10 and move the ball straight up to the top of your "toss".

Advance the frame counter to 17 and position the ball a little below the neutral position, again.

Now go to Frame Zero: highlight and COPY the dummy bone's diamond so that you can  PASTE it in Frame 22 to finish the motion. This locks the ball in the very same position it was in at Frame Zero.

Finally, fine tune the ball's motion by giving it a little "hang time" at the top of the toss. Go to Frame 10, highlight and COPY that diamond. Go to Frame 9 and PASTE ... Go to Frame 11 and PASTE. This holds the ball at the top of its flight for 3 frames.

That's it ":o) for one cycle.

Click the Repeat box by play, enter a play range of 0 - 28 ... Push PLAY ... and it should look like this:

Have fun ... keep practicing ...
Keep 'em dancing!

Move on to the next step in "tossing the ball" by creating the model's motion:

In the next page we will set up the model's motion to make her toss the ball.

See you there!