Animate a Ball Throw [Locomotion and Mechanics for Animation - Unit 11]

Animate a Ball Throw

01/11/24

Introduction

The ball throw exercise is another exciting and challenging animation exercise that studies an array of complex body locomotion. These locomotion work in conjunction with key animation principles like anticipation and follow through to make the animation impactful. The wind up is key to build strong anticipation followed by a strong throw and ending in a recoil. This will feature a lot of extreme poses to allow the ball to make impact. Furthermore, there will be the transfer of weight from one foot to the other as the ball is thrown. Reference and research will be key to identify the type of throw and influence the key poses. This blog post will explore the development of this animation from preproduction to completion.

Theory Analysis

To begin core animation theory was studied to look at key poses and motions in this type of animation. Firstly, the thumbnails in the Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair (Blair, 2020) was studied. 

(Blair, 2020, pp. 68 - 69)

The above and below images (Blair, 2020, pp. 68 - 69) analyse the line of action in animation and what can be achieved in an animation like a ball throw. There are some really exaggerated poses, however, its interesting to see this smooth line of action create lots of smooth, fluid arcs in the animation. It also shows some super exaggerated poses and exaggeration in the 360 degree anticipation as the character springs to create the wind up before throwing the ball. This couldn't be achieved in real life but does create a super exaggerated version of the animation which still remains true to real life, particularly with the amount of force that is involved.

(Blair, 2020, p. 69)

The below image (Blair, 2020, p. 97) captures balance and shows how a character can remain in balance and keep their centre of gravity realistic in a ball throw animation. This is viewed from the front and shows how the limbs are balanced and how the weight sits on one foot at all times. This is shown through the cross that sits behind the character. This is interesting as it shows how the limbs counter balance each other to keep to keep the character from falling over. This is particularly interesting as the limbs move fairly fast and throughout a range of poses throughout the animation.

(Blair, 2020, p. 97)

This section from the Animator's Survival Kit (Williams, 2009, p.275) explores anticipation. This stresses that the anticipation is slower than the main action and tells the audience what is about to happen. This means that how the anticipation poses read to the audience are arguably more important than the action poses themselves. It also highlights that in a ball throw the hips will lead and then the body is forced into the action as the throw follows through. You can see a really exaggerated forward pose that emphasises the force behind the ball.

(Williams, 2009, p.275)

The book (Williams, 2009, p.284) builds on this further by suggesting that you can exaggerate anticipation further by pushing the movement in the opposite direction to the anticipation pose for no more than 2 or 3 frames first . It highlights the importance of making sure the anticipation pose reads well to the audience by being simple, direct and clear to make a statement.

(Williams, 2009, p.284)

Research and Reference

Next research and reference was gathered to help ground the animation in reality. This provides a starting point for key poses that can be further stylised.

Initial Posing Plan :

1. Resting
2. Slight anti-anticipation
3. Anticipation pose - hold it to feel the force building (Backward Pose)
4. Exaggerated throw (forward pose)
5. Follow through from the throw
6. Step Back
7. Settle

This first video (Jacob deGrom Slow Motion Pitching Mechanics (Third Base Side View), 2022) provided a really clear view of key poses due to the slow motion, however, due to it being slow motion the timing is harder to analyse. The resting pose into anticipation is particularly key as the upper body starts to lean forward - building force for the throw. As the character 'falls' down the leg catches the weight. Whilst this is happening the pitch hand is pulling backwards to build force and anticipation. As the leg legs the hips and body twist with the arm following shortly afterwards to build energy for the throw. The rear leg follows throw showing the forward force from the body and this creates a beautiful arc as the character steps around. As this leg lands there is a nice bounce and recoil backwards as the pitcher observes their throw.

This next video (Tom Hackimer 90.5 mph Slow Motion Mound Mechanics, 2020) analyses a similar motion, however, there is significantly more exaggeration in the arm motions as they curl backwards for anticipation and then sling forward with great force. Similarly there is slight more exaggeration in the body and leg motions which also help create more force. One of the key observations from this video is how you can see the wrist lag behind and then how this flies the ball forward by rotating at the shoulder. This helps show how the underlying skeleton is moving between key poses. One of the draw backs of this video is that it ends quite abruptly compared to the previous which showed how the character settled after the throw.

Another important aspect for this animation exercise was to understand how a baseball is held in order to allow release at the force it is propelled. Without this research it could be easy to place the ball in the palm of the character, however, as these images show the ball is placed between fingers with the index and middle finger on top. This allows the player to squeeze the ball to hold onto it and then also fling the fingers forward to add additional force. A range of images were gathered to view this from different angles to enable easy posing.

(Hadfield, 2023) 

(Male hand holding baseball ball, 2023)

(Michael Flippo - People Images, 2007)

(Gravante, 2019)

Reference Analysis

Next the reference footage was studied to understand the key poses. Annotations were used to pick out the key timings and other key information relating to the poses and movements. These will be used as thumbnails to start producing the animation.

Animation

02/11/24

This section details the development of this animation over time through multiple animation passes.

Setup :

Blocking :

03/11/24

Blocking Plus :

Spline Refine :

Final Animation

04/11/24

Conclusion

Overall, this animation was successful! Reference has been used well to plan key poses and the timing has been exaggerated to further stylise this animation. Anticipation feels strong with some good overlapped body parts to create some interesting posing. The throw forward has strong force as the arm drags the ball through the air before propelling it. The end of this animation is not quite as strong and could have been adapted using the first reference video to add a bounce and recoil into a resting pose. The stamp down is function but could have been exaggerated a little further by raising the whole body a little more before stamping down and launching the ball. However, these slight imperfections allow this animation to be grounded in reality and the animation itself feels believable and the force in the ball feels good.

The learning outcomes, listed below, have been achieved because : 

1. Attachment methods have been used through the use of the parenting the ball to the hand, keying off the visibility, keying on the visibility of an unparented ball and animating this launching off. This method was used because the interaction between the two objects was relatively minimal and this method was the quickest to implement with the least likelihood of technical errors.
2. Live action reference has been used extensively to influence the thumbnailing processes paired with annotation to show deep study. This has influenced but not constrained the key posing process to block out the animation.
3. A dynamic ball throw has been crafted showing skill with animation as detailed in the conclusion above.
4. The Morpheus rig was not used and instead a Body Mechanics (Daniels, 2014) rig was used instead. This is due to the rig featuring no face and therefore the focus is solely on the locomotion which was the objective of this animation. Furthermore, these rigs are much more accessible and arguably stronger than the Morpheus rig which tends to feature frequent errors.
5. Advanced animation techniques were applied by the incorporation of animation principles to build an engaging animation. This is detailed in the conclusion above.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand and apply attaches, constraints and parenting in Maya
2. Incorporate live-action references in animation
3. Animate a dynamic ball throw
4. Use the Morpheus rig for complex animations 
5. Apply advanced animation techniques in Maya

Reference List

1. Blair, P. (2020) Cartoon Animation with Preston Blair. Mission Viejo, CA: Walter Foster Publishing.
2. Daniels, J. (2014) Anim rigs, art of Joe Daniels. Available at: https://artofjoe.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html (Accessed: 03 January 2025). 
3. Gravante, A. (2019) Baseball pitcher, close up of the hand ready to pitch on black background stock photo, Alamy. Available at: https://www.alamy.com/baseball-pitcher-close-up-of-the-hand-ready-to-pitch-on-black-background-image363253451.html (Accessed: 10 January 2025).
4. Hadfield, M. (2023) How to throw an eephus pitch in baseball? elevating your pitching, uPlaay. Available at: https://www.uplaay.com/how-to-throw-an-eephus-pitch-in-baseball/ (Accessed: 03 January 2025).
5. Jacob deGrom Slow Motion Pitching Mechanics (Third Base Side View) (2022) YouTube video, added by Paradigm Pitching [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOrC3tmuknE (Accessed: 03 January 2025).
6. Male hand holding baseball ball (2023) Getty Images. Available at: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/male-hand-holding-baseball-ball-royalty-free-image/1756254553 (Accessed: 10 January 2025).
7. Michael Flippo - People Images (2007) Man’s hand holding a baseball in a pitching grip against black background stock photo, Alamy. Available at: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-mans-hand-holding-a-baseball-in-a-pitching-grip-against-black-background-50866594.html (Accessed: 10 January 2025).
8. Tom Hackimer 90.5 mph Slow Motion Mound Mechanics (2020) YouTube video, added by Dean Jackson [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1eOrZSvdI (Accessed: 03 January 2025).
9. Williams, R. (2009) The animator’s survival kit. London: Faber and Faber.