Jumping vs. Bouncing

It’s good to understand the physics of how something would bounce in animation, but it’s also important to understand the difference between jumping and bouncing. Motion-wise they seem quite similar, but there are little variations that make differ.

The jump-like feel is going to give the ball life and personality ~ it sells that the ball has a thought process before it acts.

I pulled a few clips from “Boundin’ ” which I feel demonstrate the style of jumps I’m talking about. I also put in some clips of triple jumps to show a real life example of jumps with long hang time.

Notice that how the character (it would be the ball in your case), feels as if it’s sticking to the ground and then snaps up quickly into the air. The “stick” is the few frames of anticipation, and part of the hang in the air is sold by the stretch leading to the squash that settles into the original shape. The character will basically reach the height of its jump before the squash as it crests over the arc to fall back to the ground.

In the graph editor, you may be able to better see how you push/exaggerate the arcs. Round out the tops of the arcs and make the falls to the contacts sharper.