How to create a ball that rotates when it moves, even if is scaled, squashed or stretched (by Marti Escageda)
In this tutorial we’ll create a ball that can be squashed and stretched, is always on top of the floor when its size changes, and that has rigging so it rotates according to the direction is going.
This will save A LOT of work when you’re animating a circular object, and this is coming from someone that used to animate everything without rigging, I know what I’m talking about…
The first step is to open 3ds Max and create the ball (obviously XD).
You go to the Command Panel -> Create Menu -> Standard Primitives -> Sphere
Then create the sphere in the center of the world, and let’s change its name to “Ball”.
Remember that when modeling anything, it’s a good practice to do it in center of the world and name everything at the beginning; this can save you many future problems.
editor barNow assign a material to our ball, so we notice when we rotate it. So you go to the Main Toolbar and click on the Material Editor icon.
In the Material Editor window, choose any material and then go to Basic Parameters and click on the button at the right of Difusse.
In the Material Browser you select checker.
Then you select the ball and assign the material clicking on “Asign Material to Selection”. Remember to have the selected the option of “Show Standard Map in Viewport” so you can see it.
Now let’s create a “floor” for the ball.
You go to the Command Panel -> Create Menu -> Standard Primitives -> Plane and create the plane on the center of the stage and name it “Floor”.
Also, let’s move the ball over the floor… All this just so it looks nice ☺
Now, in order to always keep the ball on the floor, you need to use Wire Parameters. So you select the ball and then go to:
Main Toolbar -> Animation -> Wire Parameters