Extra Credit Ticket- San Jose Film Screening

Here's my Ticket for the San Jose screening at Camera 3. I really liked seeing both of the animated shorts "Enrique Wrecks the World" and "No Robots," but I was also surprised at the quality of the other films. Of the live action films, I think "The Rule of Engagement" was definitely my favorite.

Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

 I thought it would be interesting to get the moving island to pop out and look 3D, so I chose this scene. I tried to make the microwave the balancing point.

This is perhaps the worst of the three, mostly because I couldn't be the camera person, and my dad didn't understand what I wanted him to do. I pop out of the scene, but everything else looks funny.

Here's the photo I took on campus. It was the first one I did so I'm not so sure how successful it was.

Lighting a Scene in Maya

For my 1 point lighting, or key light, I used a directional light. I liked the moody feel it got, as well as the mystery in the background, so I kept it that way.

For my 2 point lighting, the fill light, I added an ambient light. It is much more dramatic than the example of fill light in Raquel's lecture, but I like the way it illuminates what was once completely in shadow.

Finally for the 3 point lighting, the rim light, I created a point light and put it under the K. I like the effect it created on the water.

Creating a Scene in Maya

Since Raquel pointed me out in the audience for creating water effects in Maya, I felt compelled to use it in my initial making. I'm not sure if I want to keep everything in the scene as it is, or if I'm even allowed to change it, but at least the water looks cool.

Term Paper 2

Gravity of Physics vs. Gravity of Emotion

            A roadrunner is speeding towards a cliff, disguised as solid land by the coyote trying to catch him, yet he glides over the massive ravine as if land really existed in that space; the fact that the law of gravity is broken is what makes this scene so entertaining. Such was an example of a classic Chuck Jones cartoon. Hand drawn animations are harder to come by these days, yet breaking the law of gravity is not. So long as there is a story to be told, there will be some rules of physics broken, even if unintentionally. I will be giving some examples of animated scenes breaking the laws of gravity on purpose and on accident from three very different styles of story telling. The hand drawn animation High Diving Hare, by Chuck Jones starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, the computer animated movie How to Train Your Dragon, by DreamWorks Animation Studios, and the live action film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee all, in their own way, break or ignore the law of gravity. There will be a URL link to each of these scenes at the end of every explanation for the reader to reflect upon.

            Cartoons love to play with physics; it is very entertaining to watch characters defy the laws and do extraordinary things. A famous Disney animator Art Babbitt, the creator of Goofy, said “Animation follows the laws of physics—unless it is funnier otherwise.” Chuck Jones was notorious for this in his highly loved characters from Loony Toons. In his animations, Bugs Bunny can outrun a baseball flying over 60mph to be both the pitcher and the catcher in a baseball game, Daffy Duck can survive several gunshots to the head, and Roadrunner can run through solid objects that Wile E. Coyote cannot. The gimmick most commonly used, however, is the manipulation of gravity. In the short High Diving Hare, Yosemite Sam wants to see someone jump from a high dive into a small bucket of water, and Bugs Bunny becomes his unwilling candidate. True to his reputation, Bugs Bunny tricks Sam time and time again to take the dive instead. During each of his falls, Yosemite Sam manages to break the law of gravity. One scene stands above the rest, illustrated in the following images.

             After being fooled yet again Sam falls of the plank and plummets to the ground. As with all of his other falling scenes, he has no falling arc—he simply clears the edge of the plank—hovers for a moment as he realizes his mistake, and then shoots downward with no slowing out. What sets this scene apart is that Yosemite then comes back up to even height with Bugs and floats mid-air long enough to tell Bugs “I hate you,” before dropping once more. We as the audience know there isn’t a trampoline down there, and even if there was we neither hear the sound of him jumping off of it nor would he have jumped back up so high, because when he returns to the scene he actually comes a little higher than he started. This manipulation of gravity was completely intended because it gets a laugh out of the audience; it is mean to entertain. It’s funny to watch Yosemite suffer the fall so many times and still come back for more.

 High Diving Hare

            We will now move on to a scene that is less obviously breaking the rule, and was probably done on accident. In the movie How to Train Your Dragon, a young Viking named Hiccup forms an unusual friendship with a dragon, forbidden because the entire village is bent on killing dragons who in turn steal their supplies. Hiccup starts off like the rest of his clan and in an effort to prove himself manages to shoot down a dragon known as a Night Fury. He later realizes that this dragon—now named Toothless—cannot fly because of a damaged tail wing. Being the inventor that he is, Hiccup creates a mechanism that when controlled by himself will allow Toothless to fly again. On their maiden flight together, Hiccup loses his hold on Toothless and they both start hurtling towards the ground. It is in this scene that the law of gravity is broken, and it is not immediately noticeable. Disguised by the pretense of wind resistance being the cause, the scene is filled with so much action and drama that the view is not likely to pay attention to any mistakes. Only perhaps on the fourth or fifth viewing can this really be spotted. Take a look at the images provided below, and pay careful attention to the positions of Toothless and Hiccup.

            The law of gravity states that two objects falling at the same time, regardless of weight, will fall at the same rate. Take a look at where Hiccup starts falling in respect to Toothless; they are maybe a foot or two apart. In the second image, perhaps due to perspective, they are now much further apart than before. If there is indeed wind resistance involved in the fall, how is it then that hiccup is able to catch up with Toothless? Being much lighter than Toothless in mass, Hiccup should not have been able to catch up. Going further he even manages to pass Toothless and end up lower down. The two characters are constantly shifting back and fourth in their falling positions, and though it breaks the rule of gravity, it serves to create a very dramatic scene. The two look very wind-whipped as the fall to give the feeling of air resistance, which helps to disguise the bending of gravity. As it would be counter productive to kill off our main characters before the climax, they level out again so Hiccup can re-attach himself to the saddle and save the day by trusting his instincts and maneuvering through difficult terrain, serving to strengthen the bond between the two further. 

How To Train Your Dragon- Test Flight 

           

            My last example scene that breaks the law of gravity is perhaps the most glaring yet. Chuck Jones did it as a joke, and DreamWorks did it for drama, but in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, whether or not to break this law seems to go back and fourth. The movie is filled with everything you would expect from a Kung Fu film, from jumping on roof tops to epic sword fights. A young girl who is being forced into an arranged marriage decides to strike out on her own, and starts her quest by stealing a famous sword called the Green Destiny. Her theft does not go completely as planned however, when a guard hears a noise and checks on the room she is in. A hunt ensues, with several grounds guards searching for her until another female martial artist finds her on the rooftop, and thus an even greater chase begins.

            Right away the viewer will notice something wrong. The rising and falling action feels less like jumping and more like floating, as they seem to glide effortlessly across the roof tops. There are even moments when they neither rise nor fall, but glide level across an open area in between roof tops. The older martial artist- the thief’s pursuer—is pumping her arms like a windmill which belays the idea of gliding, and in no other parts of the scene do you see her doing this. It’s almost as if it takes her more effort to run than it does to fly, which is perhaps why they do it so often. A point worthy of note is that only the masters of the martial arts are capable of this flying or gliding; normal people are not able to imitate this action. Whey they get tired of running across the rooftops they head for the ground and use a series of martial techniques against one another, trying to best each other. Notice that now true gravity is being taken into affect, and the most they can raise of the ground is a few feet. For being so light and nimble on the rooftops, it is strange that suddenly the rules of gravity apply as they struggle to push the other away. Climbing along the walls creates a similar suspending of disbelieve as the rooftop-running. Their feet barely touch the wall, and moving alongside it is as easy as swimming to the surface of a pool. The idea that martial artists can do miraculous things that non-masters cannot is a very strong idea where this movie was portrayed, so gravity is ignored on the pretense that these martial artists are just that good. 

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 

            Whether it be to make a comical, dramatic, or impressive scene, the law of gravity if often ignored in the process of film making. Though films of more recent days are making an effort to more accurately portray accurate physics, the most important aspect of film making is getting an emotional response from the audience. Without the emotional context there is no reason for the viewer to keep watching. Good physics doesn’t always mean good show; sometimes it is necessary to bend or break the rules in order to generate a response from the audience. Making scenes that pull the viewer in emotionally is to make scenes that survive the test of time. In the end, it’s more about the gravity of emotion than the gravity of physics.

Sources: All videos are clips found on YouTube

            All pictures are screenshots taken from these YouTube videos.

            I do not own any rights to any of these films. The content is borrowed or referenced for academic purposes only.

Term Paper 2- Outline

I. Introduction

A. Laws of gravity are often ignored to make a scene seem more comical, more dramatic, or more impressive.

B. I will demonstrate this with three scenes from various sources.

1. Cartoon- Loony Toons

2. 3D Animation- How to Train Your Dragon

3. Live Action- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

II. Body

A. Loony Toons- High Diving Hare

1. Yosemite Sam tries to get Bugs Bunny to jump off a high dive and into a pool of water.

2. After being tricked once again of falling off the bridge himself, he actually comes back up to level height with Bugs (note there is no trampoline below), to tell Bugs “I hate you,” and then drops once again.

B. How to Train Your Dragon- Flight Scene

1. At one point in their maiden flight together Hiccup looses his hold on Toothless and they start falling towards the rocks.

2. These two constantly change position in the air back and fourth before leveling out again together. They began to fall from the same height, so they should have been traveling at the same rate downwards.

3. Air resistance in this case should not have been enough to warp this law of gravity to that degree. Gravity was manipulated to make the fall more dramatic and threatening.

C. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

1. Typical of a fight scene in Kung Fu movies the martial artists are able to do impressive things.

2. Gravity is manipulated almost too obviously. When martial artists jump in the air they glide as if they are weightless, almost as if they can choose when they are affected by gravity.

3. Jumping off of roof tops and off of walls one after the other, they glide along as much as they please, until it’s time for them to take a serious hit and suddenly hitting the ground hurts a lot.

III. Conclusion

A. Restate Thesis.

B. All types of media manipulate gravity to their advantage, whether it is a hand drawn, a computer animated, or a live action environment. The important thing to the director is manipulating the emotions of the audience.

Note to Self: Try to bring some pictures into the paper this time.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

I realized as I was putting the movie together that it was a bit overambitious, and the types of models I was working with couldn't move all that smoothly, nor did I have invisible string to make them have more rising/falling action on their turns, but I charged ahead in hopes that at least pieces of the film would come out okay. Because the models are stiff I tried a Toy Story approach in animating them; they're toy figurines in a person's room going about their own schedule. I suppose I got so wrapped up in wanting to do this story that I sort of got in over my head. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Story is basically a peaceful setting of pokemon enjoying their daily lives, until a trainer comes around trying to catch one of them. All of the pokemon figures flee, up until one of them can't keep up with the crowd and the trainer gains on them. One of the faster pokemon returns and sacrifices itself to save the other, and as the trainer leaves with his prize, the free pokemon look at each other in worry, wondering at the fate of their friend....

Don't Get Caught

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

This link is for Clip A:

Child Sees Something

This link is for Clip B:

Waiter Carrying Drinks

This link is for Clip C:

Optimus Maximize!

The Physics of Home Alone --Term Paper

            It’s a few short days away from Christmas, and the house is filled with the excited packing of the McCallister family. With uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, and sisters all preparing for the holiday trip to Paris, little Kevin feels invisible and unwanted. Every which way he turns he is redirected, picked on, or ignored. When he sees his cousin doing the one thing to ensure he will wet the bed they have to share and his brother pretending to throw up on his plate, Kevin finally loses his temper and causes a huge mess in the kitchen, leading to his punishment of sleeping alone in the attic. Believing that everyone hates him he angrily tells his mother that he wished he never had a family. The following morning the family leaves in a desperate attempt to catch their flight, unaware that they have left someone behind. Kevin wakes up to find his wish has been granted, which seems fun at first, until he discovers that two burglars are lurking around hoping to get inside and loot the place. In the movie Home Alone, it’s up to Kevin to protect his house from the men who call themselves the Wet Bandits. This is a fun film intended for families and children of all ages. To make the film entertaining to such an audience without traumatizing younger kids, certain aspects of the movie are played up and down. This causes a distortion in the laws of physics. Assuming this movie is based on our physical plane, the rules are often broken for the sake of entertainment. I will discuss the incorrect parabolic arcs of falling action, the speed exaggeration in certain scenes, and how the injuries the bad guys sustain are not realistic.

            Throughout the movie, the parabolic arcs that would normally occur in falling action are pushed past their limits. The first example of this occurs when Kevin attempts to slide from the second floor, down the stairs, and out the front door onto the sidewalk. Ignoring the fact that the friction of the carpet versus the angle at which he slides down the stairs would keep him from making it farther than a few feet, and even ignoring the fact that his sliding angle would have stopped the sled at the bottom step, the arc from which he slides off the front porch is inaccurate. Somehow, he mysteriously gets air from a flat plane that was exerting no extra force on the sled, which reaches the peak of the arc in two seconds, and then takes four seconds to reach the same point at which it had lifted. If he had been following the laws of physics, and it took him two seconds to reach the top of the arc, it would have taken him another two seconds to return to the same height on falling side of the arc, not double that time. The second example is actually a series, because they break the rule in the same way. There are several instances when the bad guys fall off of the stairs, both inside and out. For instance, when Harry, the shorter villain, slips on the iced steps outside, he doesn’t just fall backwards, but seems to float away from the step, which doesn’t exert enough force to send him flying so high. As with the example of Kevin and the sled, his arc on the rise doesn’t last as long as his falling arc. He looks more like he is being pulled by a wire than being affected by gravity. This can be seen again when Marv falls down the stairs after being hit in the head by a paint can. By slowing down the movie, one can actually see that as soon as he is hit he does not fall down and back but actually rises from the step. He then proceeds to fall further than he would under normal conditions. Where he would have fallen sprawled on the stairs, he manages to land completely flat on the first floor. One last example of incorrect arcs, because it is simply too good to miss. When the bandits try to follow Kevin out the window along a rope, they get half way across when Kevin cuts it. In the movie the bad guys hold onto the rope as it swings back towards the house and hit the wall hard before falling to the ground. This would be physically impossible. The distance between the house and the tree the rope was tied to is so great that, had the villains indeed been halfway across when the rope was cut, they would have hit the ground long before the rope would ever reach the house.

           

            By far the most unrealistic aspect of this movie is of course the physical damage. Most people going through even one or two of these incidents would be down for the count, not springing back to their feet for more. Within the body are physical limits, which the two villains succeed in surpassing. For instance, when Harry puts his hand on the heated doorknob, he rushes to cool it in the snow, but we later see him using this hand to support his entire body weight as he climbs across a rope. The stinging sensation of a recent burn would have been too much and he would have fallen off of the rope very early on. Even before this however, when he slips down the stairs he performs what I affectionately call the kill shot. After making it up the stairs, he slips again and revolves to land squarely on his neck, his body weight crunching down on his spine in its most vulnerable place. Looking shocked but otherwise unharmed, he proceeds to climb steps again to burn his hand. He will later have his head set on fire for six seconds and come back with only burned hair, when third degree burns would be more accurate. If that weren’t enough Harry takes three more falls, once from slipping and another from being hit with a paint can, including his fall from the rope. He also gets hit by his partner at full force by a crowbar, an action that would crack a few ribs. It seems strange that after all that, he is bested by a shovel to the back of the head. His partner also sustains more damage than would be physically possible to get back up from. Marv falls down the stairs to the basement, which should leave him feeling sore all over, but continues on to get hit in the head with an iron, plant a nail an inch into his foot combined soon after with broken ornaments, also take three more falls with his partner, and does not pass out until he too is hit with a shovel. After so much abuse the villains are driven away, not in an ambulance, but a standard police car.

            Had the bandits exhibited accurate reactions to all the abuse they suffered, this movie would not be deemed suitable for family audiences. The rules of physics are broken to make the film entertaining. The falling arcs are off, the speed is exaggerated, and the villains get up and come back for ever more, at least for as long as the script says. The great comedy of the film is that it boarders on the ridiculous, that because these things are not physically possible, they are funny to watch.

Term Paper 1- Outline

Physics in “Home Alone”

I)       Introduction- A young boy left on his own during the holidays is forced to defend his home from two men trying to break in.

a)      Parabolic arcs of falling action are sometimes incorrect

b)      Speed exaggerated in certain scenes for comedic effect

c)      Damage to burglars take is not realistic

d)      Thesis statement: Assuming this movie is based on our physical plane, the rules are often broken for the sake of entertainment.

II)     Parabolic Arcs of Falling Action are Sometimes Incorrect

a)      Kevin (the kid) sliding from the top of the stairs to the sidewalk outside.

i)        Angle he is going down stairs should first of all stop him from getting that far

ii)       Once outside he has too much hang time before landing

b)      When villains fall off or down stairs they do not fall accurately. Several examples:

i)        Harry (short villain) falls off stairs, he travels too far: where he should have landed on the stairs he lands instead on the sidewalk.

(1)   Also has the feeling of being pulled back

ii)       Marv gets hit in the face with a paint can he actually raises off the stairs before falling again on the floor.

(1)   The paint can would not exert enough force to lift him off of his feet it would only send him backwards.

iii)     Harry gets hit with the paint can, and without the rise he somehow lands evenly on his taller partner, though Harry was higher up on the stairs.

c)      Bad guys swinging from middle of rope would have landed on the ground before ever hitting the wall

III)  Speed Exaggerated in Certain Scenes for Comedic Effect

a)      Falling Action in all cases happens slower than it would in real life, allowing us to savor the reactions of the actors.

b)      Harry is attacked by the flamethrower: stands there for 6 full seconds, simply screaming.

IV)  Damage Burglars Take is Not Realistic

a)      Many examples in the movie of physical injury that would cause serious injury or even death and yet the burglars get up every time.

i)        Head injuries: Iron, Snow shovel, BB gun point blank, Flamethrower, Paint cans.

ii)       Other Body Parts: Nail sinking full inch into foot followed by broken glass, Burned hand, BB gun in private parts, iron crowbar on lungs.

b)      In one case Harry falls off the stairs and crushes his full body weight against his head and spine, but sustains no lasting damage.

V)    Conclusion

a)      Thesis again

b)      Summarize main points

c)      Breaking the rules can also be fun, because it allows you to torment your villains longer.

Stop Animation of Falling

For my stop animation video of something falling, I decided to use a pokeball. I have a bunch of these from my childhood, each of which had a pokemon inside that you could take out and use as a key-chain. I chose a lap-table for my background, because I thought it would make a good reference of where to keep my camera centered on the scene. I added a stick at the bottom to work as the floor. For the falling animation, I taped the Pokeball in place for each shot to keep it from swiveling too much during it's fall. I also planned out the scene so that the button would land on the ground on the bounce following the fall, allowing the pokemon to jump out. I tried to add a tiny bit of lag time on the ball's falling action when the Pokemon first appears, as that's typically what would happen in the cartoon (The ball would open and stay midair, falling only after the pokemon was released). I put all of the shots together in QuickTimePro. My Name and Title I created later on my white board, which is a part of my desk. Anyway, here's the film.

Charmeleon, I Choose YOU!

Video Analysis Path of Action

Okay, here are a bunch of things, starting with the image of my tracked path. Sorry I'm not in the image anymore; I was replaying the movie for my parents and teaching them about the graphs.

Here is the movie with my jump plus tracker

Next is the single jump used in the Tracker program

Followed by the rest of my jumps for the assignment.

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

My Plots button was on the bottom right rather than the top, and it was hidden, so it took awhile, but I think I finally got it. I hope this is the correct image. I tracked the fall and the first bounce in my video. This is still from the 15FPS camera, and due to my car troubles I haven't found time to re-shoot the video, though I have found a 30FPS camera to use in the future.

Video Reference

I decided to go for something less conventional to drop. Yes... it is a tiger in a diaper...

This was recorded on a camera with 15FPS.

Hidden Kathy Falling Tiger

Mini Portfolio

Hi Everyone, welcome to my blog! Before becoming an animation major, I started my career at SJSU as a Computer Scientist, which regrettably wasn't at all how I had imagined it, and I bombed terribly. School became a place I loathed attending. So, I took a chance at pursuing something I though I'd never have a talent for: Animation and Illustration. I picked up my art board and joined my very first art class. I received an A and thought "I might just make it in this crazy town" and switched majors. Since then I've been doing worlds better and school is a challenge I welcome with every new course. Here's a little bit of what I've done in the past couple of years. And I mean a couple; I never took an any art classes before college, which goes to show just how good SJSU's art program is.

This is a piece from my Art 12 Class, the Second Art class I took, called the Personal Symbol. The medium was black paper cut out and mounted on a white illustration board.




This is the final piece from my Art 122A class last semester. The idea was to do a self portrait with an old saying behind it. Mine was "lookers on see most of the game." This was a reverse drawing and is about 20"x29"

Here are the links to my videos. I couldn't get them to post here, so I uploaded them onto YouTube instead, which seems to work.

This link will take you to my hand drawn final animation from Art 28-Introduction to Animation and Illustration, which I took about a year ago now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jddlVrZaoI

And this link is for my final in Art 51- Animation in Maya, which I took just last semester.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66QqWdmbQYw

My First Post

This blog is dedicated to Physics in Animation, or as I so affectionately call it Physics 1.2.3. I am so excited for the upcoming semester that I have done the first homework assignment before even the first day of class. Huzzah! May the rest of Fall 2010 go so well. See you in class!