Creating Bouncing Ball animation in Maya
One of the very first things people often learn to animate is a bouncing ball, so I also started with this.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_549fe4b3664a4599b60ecda94f6796f2~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_522,h_475,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/ed24dc_549fe4b3664a4599b60ecda94f6796f2~mv2.png)
I started by creating a sphere in Maya. I then scaled it to the size I wanted and placed it so it was on the ground.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_083f5b77b7284abab8490351b7a3a2c6~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_542,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/ed24dc_083f5b77b7284abab8490351b7a3a2c6~mv2.png)
As the ball is going to be bouncing, it makes sense that the first keyframe would be from the point where the ball is dropped from. I moved the ball on the y axis to where I wanted it to be placed.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_c1ec62cbc0304b4fba878b497d864048~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_99,h_109,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/ed24dc_c1ec62cbc0304b4fba878b497d864048~mv2.png)
I then pressed S. This created the first keyframe and the red line appeared at the beginning of the animation timeline to show that the first animation keyframe had been set.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_d97418be1e7142f1a303224ab5a699ac~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_194,h_215,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/ed24dc_d97418be1e7142f1a303224ab5a699ac~mv2.png)
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_e74bcff2459d4a47ae764c606361d18f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_270,h_321,al_c,q_80,enc_auto/ed24dc_e74bcff2459d4a47ae764c606361d18f~mv2.jpg)
From there, I would double click the frame in the animation timeline to select when I wanted to create the next keyframe, then right click the red area next to 'translate y' and click 'key selected' - this would create the next keyframe.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_7e052a93af7a40a192c1cb3a4b190bea~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_524,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/ed24dc_7e052a93af7a40a192c1cb3a4b190bea~mv2.png)
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed24dc_7fd9f2b2b4a441979af8834c3483fcab~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_61,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/ed24dc_7fd9f2b2b4a441979af8834c3483fcab~mv2.png)
Once I had added all the keyframes into to the animation timeline, I opened the graph editor. Here I could move the keyframes around, changing time/height/intensity to make the bounce look more natural.
It is also important to go into the animation preferences and change the timeline to 'real-time' and the frame rate to your localised frame rate for the project you are working on (in the UK, this would be PAL).