OK, I see I cannot wait for final 2.46 release. More and more Blender users are starting to practice animation. As we know professional squash & stretch ball rig is the must to start with. After weeks and weeks of research I am releasing Blender Squash Stretch Ball rig.
I plan to release in depth DVD video tutorial during this summer as well. Hope that release notes are clear, I tried to make a rig very animator friendly and intuitive. Looking forward to your videos
I would be very glad that release will be understand as my giving back and big thank to the wonderful Blender community.
Blender Squash Stretch Ball
Copyright © 2008 JiriH
Only for non commercial usage
Please be so kind to give credit where appropriate.
Direct download (polorix)
Direct download (rapidshare)
Very rough intro video:
http://blip.tv/file/860299?filename=JiriH-SSBallAnimationTest146.mov
http://blip.tv/file/855865/
Main features
- auto-roller (auto-rotate) switch
- moveable pivot of squashing/stretching
- squashing and stretching rotation independent of ball rotation
- animation keys not directly on mesh (ball)
Version 1.1 (27/04/2008)
Corrected delay of Roller handler and ball. Solved by IPO drivers.
Roller has better new shape and is now called Mover.
Better default windows alignment.
Usage:
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Blender 2.46 RC needed (I hope final release will not broke this file)
When auto-rotation is enabled you need to animate only location position of Roller
NOT ROTATION WHICH IS EVALUATED AUTOMATICALLY BY ROLLER SCRIPT (i.e. do not insert any rotation keys!)
Sometimes you need to turn one frame forward and back for constraints/switchers update.
Controllers consist of bones as well as other meshes.
Mainly Local orientation need for controllers,
Roller needs Global orientation (because it is quite specific object)
AutorollSwitch - left position switches on auto-roll
Mover - controls the location of ball, when auto-rotate is on controls also auto-rolling
RotationHandle - when auto-rotate disabled controls rotation of the ball
SSOrigin - determines the origin of squash/stretch effect, should not be moved away from ball mesh
SSHandle - controls squashing and stretching,
when SSOrigin is near the the ball (bottom) surface it adds more squash/stretch effect for more cartoony look
SSRotation - controls the axe along squashing/stretching is happening
Layer 2 and 11 have some basic lighting, cameras and environment for rendering.
Roller Script V1.0
©2001 Bart Veldhuizen, Not a Number B.V.
Thank you very much Bart, without your script it would not be possible to make this rig.
More info:
http://download.blender.org/documentation/oldsite/oldsite.blender3d.org/118_Blender%20news%20Python%20Roller.html
http://www.zoo-logique.org/3D.Blender/index.php3?zoo=dld&rep=blenderfiles
Have fun. I plan to make detail DVD tutorial how this rig was developed from scratch.
JiriH