Tangled Wire Ball with a UV Sphere in Blender

Today we’ll make a simple animation, in which a ball of tangled wire will rotate around its Z axis and then move toward the camera along the Y axis until the camera is inside the ball. We’ll use a UV sphere to model the ball. I’m going to use the 2.82 version of Blender. In particular, we’re going to use the following:

• Add Curve: Extra Objects add-on
• Bounce Spline
• Metallic Material
• Insert Single Keyframe
• Align Camera to View
• Parenting in the Outliner

Here’s the video version:

Step 1 – Preps

Delete the default cube. We’re not going to need it. Save the file as Tangled Wire Ball.blend.

Step 2 – Add a UV Sphere

Add a UV Sphere and scale it: S 5

Step 3 – Activate the Add Curve: Extra Objects Add-on

In the Edit menu (A) select Preferences. Go to Add-ons and check Add Curve: Extra Objects (B).

Step 4 – Bounce Spline

Close the Preferences window. If you now hit N on your keyboard, the Properties panel will open with the Create tab (A). In this tab select Bounce Spline (B).

Step 5 – Bevel

Go to the Object Data tab of the curve (A) and under Bevel set Depth to 0.005 (B).

Step 6 – New Object in the Outliner

In the Outliner you can see that a BounceSpline object has been added. This is what we need.

Step 7 – Delete the Original UV Sphere

We don’t need the original UV sphere anymore, so select and delete it.

Step 8 – Add Material

Hit N to close the Properties panel. Add a new material to the ball and drag the value of Metallic all the way up to 1 (A). Go to Rendered shading (B).

Step 9 – Move the Light

In the World tab set Color to black (A). Select the Light in the Outliner (B) and move it to the 3D cursor, which is in the center of the World. To do that hit Shift + S and select Selection to Cursor.

Step 10 – Light Settings

With the Light still selected go to the Data Object tab and set Power to 5000 W (A) and Color to light blue.

Step 11 – Check Bloom

In the Render tab (A) check Bloom (B). This will add a nice effect to the ball.

Step 12 – Add Animation

Now let’s add some animation to our ball. I want it to rotate in a distance and then also move toward the camera until the camera is inside the ball. Select the ball. Go to front view (A). In the Timeline go to frame 1 if you’re not there (B). Hit N to open the Properties panel and go to the Item tab (C). Make sure the Z rotation is set to 0, right-click the Z rotation and select Insert Single Keyframe (D). This will insert a keyframe for just the Z rotation because we’re only going to rotate the ball around the Z axis. 

Step 13 – Make the Ball Rotate

Now, the ball should be rotating during the whole animation, so go to the last frame (A) and set Z rotation to 90 and insert another single keyframe.

Step 14 – Play the Animation

Deselect the ball, go to frame 1 and play the animation.

Step 15 – Align Camera to View

In the other animation the ball should move toward the camera. Let’s zoom out a bit so that the ball is a little farther away. Select the ball and align the camera to view. To do that go to the View menu, and then select Align View -> Align Active Camera to View. Then go to camera view (hit 0 on your numpad). So, this is now the distance the ball should be away from the camera at the beginning of the animation.

Step 16 – Add the Other Animation

Now we are ready to add the other animation. It should start near the middle of the Timeline, so let’s go to frame 120 (A). In the Properties panel make sure Y location is set to 0. We are going along the Y axis toward the camera. Hover your mouse over the Y location slot and right-click to add a single keyframe, just like we did before with rotation (B).

Step 17 – Insert Another Keyframe

Go to the last frame (A) and then hover your mouse cursor over the Y location slot and holding down the left mouse button drag to the left until the ball is so close that the camera is inside it. In my case a value of -28 seems fine, in your case it will depend on how far away from the camera the ball originally was. Anyway, enter the value that is fine for you and insert another single location keyframe to the Y location (B).

Step 18 – Play and Watch the Animation

Go to frame 1, deselect all and play the animation. Everything seems to be working fine except one thing. As the ball starts to approach the camera, the image gets darker and darker. This is because the light has been left behind. The easiest solution to that is to make the ball the parent of the light.

Step 19 – Parent Object in Outliner

In the new versions of Blender there’s a very convenient way of parenting objects. You can do it in the Outliner. So, select the light in the Outliner and then, holding down the Shift key, drag it onto BounceSpline, which is going to become the light’s parent.

Step 20 – Play the Animation Again

If you now play the animation again, the ball should be correctly lit.

Step 21 – Get Ready to Render

We’re done. Now it’s time to render the animation, but first some settings. In the Output tab (A) select the folder where you want to save your animation (B). Set File Format to Ffmpeg video (C) and under Encoding set Container to MPEG4 (D).

Step 22 – Render the Animation

Save the file and make a test render (Render -> Render Image). If you’re satisfied, render the animation (Render -> Render Animation). This will take a while, naturally.