I had the obvious idea of starting off in the end position, reversing the gravity and then playing the animation backwards - however this looks unnatural as there will be no bouncing/settling at the start of the reversed animation

Physical simulations don’t work realistically in reverse. When something starts to fall, it accellerates from still untill it reaches terminal velocity. Unlike when something hits the ground, it may even be a terminal velocity when it hits. So reversing this would make the objects slow down to a stop as the reach the ground, very unnatural.

Samab 24 August 2010 10:30 AM

I had the obvious idea of starting off in the end position, reversing the gravity and then playing the animation backwards - however this looks unnatural as there will be no bouncing/settling at the start of the reversed animation

Physical simulations don’t work realistically in reverse. When something starts to fall, it accellerates from still untill it reaches terminal velocity. Unlike when something hits the ground, it may even be a terminal velocity when it hits. So reversing this would make the objects slow down to a stop as the reach the ground, very unnatural.

Good point, I didn’t think it through just a brainstorm moment, which is why I love this site. Someone will think of everything… Could you say remove a proportional amount of frames or speed that part up in Premier Pro or some other post production software?

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