I was using the i key. I was then clicking the VisualLoc. I guess that stands for visual location?? I started off with Loc but that seemed to mess up with the x line and threw my timing off.
Well, you can always just delete the curves you dont need. You can also choose which you want to see, and go in and edit each curve(or multiple curves if you shift select), so you shouldnt ever have any keys you dont need.
Hope that helps(and that I read your question correctly), if not, go ahead and ignore this.
Looks like people are getting ready to move on. I’d suggest the following:
When you’ve done the exercise so that it looks good to others (no more suggestions about how it could be improved) and you’re satisfied with it, then you’re ready to move on to the next exercise. We may not all be ready at the same time, so I’d ask that people continue checking back and critiquing any new comers to the thread. I’m not sure we will all be moving as a group, and that’s ok. And you may move on with the bulk of the group, and then a month from now come back and post a bouncing ping pong ball that you’ve finally perfected, and that’s ok too.
I’d rather stay away from a scoring system, and keep the critique as written comments rather than grades of any sort. We are going to be getting into style issues, and grades just aren’t appropriate there, so I’d rather not start something we may have to abandon.
In the meantime, why not have a little funwith this one?
@ypoissant: Awesome, very good. Only thing is that the rotation does not look quite right during the bounces.
@free_ality: Looks very good.
@koots2: try this link out. http://ocw.tufts.edu/Content/28/supplementarymaterial/366743
Look at the IPO Curve Editor link. Everything I know about the IPO is from this.
Joe
I agree Orinoco.
That does look like fun. I will try that.
I have a vid for a ball ricochet that I did waiting for it to process then I will post it.
Joe
I don’t know how much more help you need. All your questions have already been answered in previous posts by me and others. I think you need to go back and re-read and understand the answers we already gave you.
Good idea Orinoco, I think you should release the scene file with no animation. We really need to get the scene files up on a wiki page or something. Does anyone know how to create a wiki page, maybe we should have one for the bootstrap Class?
So in order to not key on one curve this needs to be done in the IPO window. To me that would seem very time consuming.
Also does that mean I would have to key 2 axis’s independently i.e. x and z?
I just wanted to make sure I was following along correctly.
Ok, people :D. Blender Bootstrap Animation II is up. I’ve also posted a blend file with two balls, one white cue ball and one red target ball, with no animation.
Anyone who feels they have gotten all from the bouncing ball that they are going to get for the time being, jump over to Exercise II.
Do continue to review any new posts here, as well, since there may be late comers joining and looking for some critiques of their work.
And, of course, carry on here with all bouncing ball work. 
The issue of understanding timing and spacing definitely needs to be covered before moving beyond the basic bouncing ball test.
From “The Animator’s Survival Kit”:
The impacts - where the ball is hitting the ground - that’s the timing of the action, the rhythm of where things happen, where the ‘accents’ or ‘beats’ or ‘hits’ happen.
…
The ball overlaps itself when it’s at the slow part of its arc, but when it drops fast, it’s spaced further apart. That the spacing. The spacing is how close or far apart those clusters are. …The spacing is the tricky part. Good animation spacing is a rare commodity.
Here’s a link that might help with understanding the very basics of timing and timing charts.
Here’s a youtube video showing a “Class 1 - Session 104” exercise from Animation Mentor. Notice the level of detail in the preparations and the precision…there is no guesswork involved. Yes, it can be a pain in the a$$. :yes:
Here are some advanced bouncing ball animation sketches done by an AM student:
Attachments
BTW, I don’t want to give the false impression that I’m some kind of “mentor”. I’m trying to hack it out myself. But I think it’s extremely important to always do research to know what resources and info are already available, especially the free stuff. There’s no need to re-invent the bouncing ball, what’s needed is really good research.
If we can collect the fruits of that research into these threads I think it will be a more effective resource.
Here’s a link to the AM Blogs WebRing (a treasure chest):
http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=animationmentorb
I would recommend saving as much of these resources as possible to your hard drive because sometimes these sites disappear.
@ypoissant
To create a custom bone shape,
- create mesh for custom shape
- select bone, switch to pose mode
- in the Armature Bones panel, put the name of the custom mesh object into the “OB:” field
- in the Armature panel, be sure to enable the Shapes option
You’ll see the Armature Visualizations panel. There are a lot of options available so I would recommend checking the wiki:
http://www.blender.org/development/current-projects/changes-since-245/armature-drawing-improvements/
Also, when in object mode, pressing the K-key (within the 3D View) will show you the keyframed positions of your objects! 
I guess I do not understand the only post I think related to my question was
"free_ality Well, you can always just delete the curves you dont need. You can also choose which you want to see, and go in and edit each curve(or multiple curves if you shift select), so you shouldnt ever have any keys you dont need.
Hope that helps(and that I read your question correctly), if not, go ahead and ignore this."
and I tried this and it does not seem to work. I single out all of the channels and it still add in the key frame in the x and y. the channels I don’t want… I don’t understand the the process. I do need the x curve, I do not want to delete it. I just want to choose when I put key frames on it. I am just looking for help on this one small problem I am having. Can someone please lay this out step by step?
Thanks in advance.
I have also mentioned video tutorials several times but no one seems to want to jump on those. Does that mean no one is interested in setting those us to teach the new people the concepts?
Well, you can control click anywhere in the IPO window to add a key to the selected curve.
If you mean only adding keys to ceartain channels, you can either do that, or do it like me, I generally delete the keys I dont want(select a curve, hit tab, it’ll let you edit the curve handles).
The best I can think of is manually deleting keys you dont want, as far as I know thats the only way to do it, because:
Keyframing in the 3D window will add keys to all channels(all xyz channels if you choose locrot), so you can just manually add keys(control click), or you can key in the 3D window and delete any keys you dont want(tab when youve selected the curve you want to edit).
Also, the truth is, video tutorials are a little difficult to do… especially for animation, an area that doesnt have too many users really invested in the blender community
I hear – and I forget.
I see – and I remember.
I do – and I understand.
This thread is really not about collecting resources or watching someone else’s animations, but about doing our own, and learning from the experience, the feedback and the redoing. I think no one is picking up on the tutorial idea because it’s really not about showing others but about learning ourselves.
This thread can be either used directly by others, as long as people continue to critique, or can be used as a model for others if we all happen to move forward as a group and don’t revisit old haunting grounds.
This is not a freeby version of Animation Mentor. We are not professional animators, working for big studios, making big bucks mentoring aspiring animators. We are Blender Bootstrap Animators, doing our best to help each other learn by performance and critique.
If we have any model out there in the world, it might be the Toastmasters Public Speaking organization, which teaches people from all walks of life how to be effective public speakers, by the same method of doing and getting feedback.
We have been at this for less than a week, we have grown to a dozen regulars, all of whom have improved their animation skills. I think we are on the right track.
Working in the IPO window.
Start by putting in two loc keys, one at frame 1, the other at frame 21. You can do this by typing I in the 3d window and selecting LOC from the pop-up menu.
Now I’m going to work in the IPO window. I clicked on Z LOC and Shift clicked on X LOC so they are the only visible IPO curves, since the Y LOC won’t change. I select the Z LOC curve by RMB clicking on one of it’s dots, then press TAB to edit the curve. I move the green line (time line) to frame 10. I add a key to the Z LOC curve only by typing I in the IPO curve window, I get a pop-up that says Insert Key Frame. I’ll only get a key on the Z LOC curve, since it’s the curve in edit mode.
Now I select the new key, and grab+y to move the key down (the IPO window is 2d, only x and y) so the ball is now touching the platform at frame 10.
Then I move the timeline forward six frames, and insert another Z LOC key, only this time I use it to move the ball up. Now the ball drops and bounces once, but the IPO curve is still a little too straight.
Close up on the handles. I type h to change the selected handle into one where I can move the sides independantly, notice the handles change from pink to black.
I then adjust the key where the ball hits the platform to make it nice and pointy, and adjust the key at the top of the bounce to a smoother curve.
Here’s my cannon ball, first attempt.
http://www.clipsandscripts.com/training/cannon_ball_timing.mov
And, PingPong ball, first attempt.
http://www.clipsandscripts.com/training/pingpong_ball_timing.mov
Pappy
HaHa, Thats great.
Joe