How to Make a Simple Ball Rig in Blender

In this Blender tutorial, I will show you how to make a simple ball rig that you can use to animate squash and stretch. This can help you make your balls that you animate look more realistic by having them react to the environment.

We will start by creating a UV sphere and adding a texture to it. We will then add an armature to the sphere and parent it to the sphere. Finally, we will add keyframes to the armature to make the ball bounce.

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to make a simple ball rig in Blender. You can then use this rig to animate your own balls.

What You Will Learn

• How to create a UV sphere
• How to add a texture to a sphere
• How to add an armature to an object
• How to parent an object to an armature
• How to add keyframes to an armature

Instructions

1. Open Blender.
2. Create a new scene.
3. Add a UV sphere to the scene.
4. Select the UV sphere and go to the Properties Editor.
5. In the Textures panel, click the “New” button.
6. Select the “Image Texture” type.
7. Click the “Open” button and select an image file.
8. The texture will now be applied to the UV sphere.
9. Select the UV sphere and go to the Object Data panel.
10. In the UV Maps panel, click the “Create” button.
11. The UV sphere will now be UV unwrapped.
12. Select the UV sphere and go to the Texture Paint workspace.
13. In the 3D view, select the faces that you want to paint.
14. In the Tool shelf, select the “Paint” brush.
15. Click and drag on the faces to paint them.
16. Once you are finished painting, press Esc to exit texture paint mode.
17. To add an armature, select the UV sphere and press Shift+A.
18. Select the “Armature” type.
19. The armature will now be added to the scene.
20. Select the armature and press S to scale it up.
21. Select the UV sphere and press Shift+P.
22. In the Popup menu, select “Object” and then “Automatic Weights”.
23. The armature will now be parented to the UV sphere.
24. Select the armature and go to the Dope Sheet editor.
25. In the Dope Sheet editor, right-click on the Z location of the armature and select “Insert Single Keyframe”.
26. Move the timeline to frame 30.
27. Right-click on the Z location of the armature and select “Insert Single Keyframe”.
28. Move the timeline to frame 10.
29. Scale the armature down on the Z axis.
30. Right-click on the Z location of the armature and select “Insert Single Keyframe”.
31. Move the timeline to frame 24.
32. Scale the armature up on the Z axis.
33. Right-click on the Z location of the armature and select “Insert Single Keyframe”.
34. Press Play to see the ball bounce.

Tips

• Use a high-resolution image for your texture.
• UV unwrap your object carefully to get the best results.
• Use different brushes to create different effects.
• Experiment with different colors and textures to create your own unique look.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to make a simple ball rig in Blender. You can now use this rig to animate your own balls.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions.