APPLIED ANIMATION
Maya Animation


Pendulum swing:

Animating my pendulum using the playback toolbar and Rotating my it from left to right, it automatically creates a keyframe on the timeline and by pressing the 's' key on the keyboard, this locks the attributes. Then I advance along the timeline to a new frame and rotate the pendulum, pressing the 's' key again to create key the rotation.

These guide lines around the centre pivot allow me to rotate the main object pressing 'e' and shift- 'e' to key rotation, but I only want an arc of movement to be animated so I key frame all the positions along the timeline. The motion between each keyframe has an attribute that auto keyframes which generates frames of motion, speed and translation depending on the spacing of the individual set keyframes on the timeline.

Bouncing balls:

Applying the same process from the pendulum swing animation, I need to move the balls according how I want them to bounce. Setting the keyframes far apart for fast movement and close together on the timeline for paced movement. The auto key attribute will anime frames in-between for a fluent animation. 

This process of arranging the keyframes apart or closer is based from the previous traditional techniques of animating, I am learning that the principles of animation are always present in all types of animated motion. 

Segmented pendulum:

Similar to the pendulum swing animation, animating a segmented pendulum, I made the pendulum swing around the centre pivot, by selecting the components, adjusting the position of the objects and setting keyframes. The segments automatically moved every time I made an adjustment, they had set paths for rotating like they were following a set path or maybe the components reacted with each other when moved. 

Creating a overlapping motion like the rotating axis was shifting the motion of all the components along a path. This meant that they would move at the same speed, but the ball at the bottom of the pendulum would hang with a delay than the smaller balls further up, creating a more realistic pendulum swing movement.