The pool break

Animate an eight-ball break on a pool table, seen from directly above, as a loop that runs by itself.

Build

• A full pool table: green cloth, wooden rails with diamond markers, six pockets, and the head string and foot spot marked faintly.
• Rack the fifteen balls the way a referee racks them for eight-ball. Use a real ball set: solids 1–7, the black 8, and stripes 9–15, numbered and colored the way real balls are, each number in a small white circle.
• On load, show the rack for a second. Then the cue stick draws back and drives the cue ball into the rack.
• Real 2D physics: momentum-conserving ball-to-ball collisions, cushion bounces, and rolling friction that brings everything to rest. Balls never overlap, and never pass through each other or the rails.
• A ball that reaches a pocket drops into it and then appears in a tray of potted balls below the table.
• Once every ball has stopped, wait two seconds, re-rack and break again. Each break plays out a little differently.
• Soft shadows and one highlight on each ball, so it looks like a finished TV graphic, not a physics diagram.

Judged at a glance

• The rack is correct.
• The break looks real: the pack scatters, balls bounce off the cushions and slow down naturally.
• No balls overlap, and none go through a rail.