In order to understand how the 12 principles of animation relates to the motion of a bouncing ball, I recorded clips of different types of ball on a series of different surfaces: a tennis ball, and a ping pong ball (which is much lighter)
I realise that the tennis ball seems to be much more springy on concrete surface, creating more arcs in its motion than on the mattress and carpet surfaces. The tennis ball draws to comes to a halt the quickest on the mattress because of the prevention of rebound from the soft material, allowing less bounce for the ball, and the timing of the following bounces after the first point of contact to be quicker.
Much like the tennis ball, the bounce of the ping pong ball is cushioned by the carpet surface. The vinyl flooring, which works as a padding to the concrete floor, also limits the amount of major bounces from the ball. The ball makes a significant amount of bounces on the wood flooring before the spacing between the ground and the ball decreases, as the timing of the bounces increase.
Here’s a video I watched as reference to see how a bowling ball, much heavier than the two recorded, bounces on a padded surface
I decided to try a test animation to see how the timing and spacing would work with a ball this heavy. The weight of the ball effects the timing of which it makes contact with the ground, which is slower than the tennis ball. Because the bowling ball is of much harder material and less hollow than the previous two balls, it has a stronger reaction to gravity, limiting the amount of bounces it makes. There’s only one large arc of motion before the timing of its bounces speed up.
BA ANIMATION BLOG 