How can i fix squash and stretch timing in a bouncing ball animation?

[Sophia_M]

I’ve been trying to get the hang of squash and stretch for my bouncing ball animation, but my volume keeps shifting in a way that feels off. I’m following the principle of keeping the mass consistent, but it either looks too stiff or like it’s made of jelly.

[JeffreyL]

Yeah I go with area preservation in 2D. When it sinks on contact I flatten in height and widen in width so the overall area stays close to the ball's normal silhouette. If the area drifts more than about 10 percent from frame to frame it starts to read as too soft or too stiff. Easier to gauge if you keep a simple checklist: height times width shouldn't wander.

[Brandon31]

I tried uniform scaling and it felt wrong. I watched a real bounce and noted frame counts for when it compresses and when it stretches. I slowed the contact to two frames, then nudged the stretch on the way up. It helped but the mass still felt off when the ball sped up.

[LunaTL]

Could the issue be timing rather than mass—like how the compression lines up with the contact frame?

[HarperC]

I once added a separate deformation layer so the outer silhouette stayed almost round while the inner shape compressed, then I let the outline rejoin. It looked okay, but tweaking the handoff was a mess and I dropped the extra layer eventually.