Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Red/Cyan Image:

Red/Cyan Image:

Red/Cyan Image:

Recreating Camera and Lights in Maya

Original Photo: 

Maya Render:

Maya Render, Angle 2:

Building A Scene in Maya

Outline for the Third Term Paper

Introduction

A. Visual Effects of Snow

B. Thesis: The techniques in making snow for films has significantly changed over the years with innovations of technology and shows how precise visual effects are in modern filmmaking.

Body Paragraphs

1. It’s A Wonderful Life

            -Description of film and present technique of using foamite—a material used in fire extinguishers—with sugar, water, and even soap flakes, that was sprayable version of artificial snow which could be quickly blasted over set pieces.

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas

            - Description of film and how for snowfall scenes, snowflakes were hand animated and designed and then duplicated in the computer.

3. Polar Express

            - Description of film and effect of simulated snowfall in computer animation/motion capture films. Snow can be manipulated in greater detail.

Conclusion

            Technology has pushed the limits of visual effects in films and taken stories to whole new places that audiences never thought possible. With this example of snow, it shows how film artists back in the 1940’s (It’s A Wonderful Life) were pushing the limits in creating new techniques just as much as the current artists who are a mouse click away from manipulating the tiniest snowflake in a feature film like the Polar Express.

Character Animation

I had a lot of fun doing this project! Great to collaborate with a group of my fellow animation peers and come up with a…let's say UNIQUE…story!

GROUP:

Kathy Chu: Animation, Lighting, Set Design. Camera

Geoff Nakanishi: Animation, Lighting, Set Design, Camera

Nicki Yee: Animation, Lighting, Set Design, Camera, and Editing

Myself: Animation, Lighting, Set Design, Camera, and Sound

When we first got together we took about an hour to brainstorm different story ideas and once we decided on the story, rough storyboarding then took place. After boarding, we set up the scene and everyone played an equal role in the production. Everyone animated, handled the camera, helped putting together the set, and lighting. Finally the film editing process and sound was done by Nicki and I. Hope you enjoy the film and remember…wildlife is WILD indeed…"Life of an Artist"!

Second Term Paper: Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

           When it comes to animated films, in most cases, the laws of physics are constantly broken in order to create more appealing and entertaining moments throughout the film. A certain law found to be broken quite often is Newton’s third law of motion, which states: “For every action, there is an equal reaction in magnitude and in the opposite direction.” Countless examples can be found in various films that don’t correctly follow Newton’s third law of motion and present unequal reactions when forces act upon each other.

            The first example can be found in Pixar’s first feature film, Toy Story. In the beginning title sequence, we meet young Andy playing around the house with his favorite cowboy toy, Woody, on the day of his birthday. One moment in the sequence, Andy places Woody on the ground where he leans up against the leg rest portion of a recliner chair and launches Woody in the air by pulling the leg rest side handle. Woody then lands perfectly on the arm of a couch across the room.

            Taking into consideration Newton’s third law, in order for Woody to reach that type of height, let alone the distance across the room to land on the arm of the couch, he would need a greater force acting upon him than the leg rest of the recliner. Realistically, Woody would only have travelled roughly a quarter or so of the distance portrayed in the film. Even if the recliner had a greater amount of force than a usual recliner, the height that Woody reaches and the parabolic arc he follows in the film is highly unlikely.

            Another example comes from the classic Looney Tunes shorts made by Warner Brothers Animation. A particular short, starring Sylvester the Cat, is at it again as he tries to box with a kangaroo that is getting on his last nerve. However, the exaggerated fighting animation between Sylvester and the kangaroo breaks Newton’s third law of motion in order to create a more comedic moment. At one point the kangaroo and Sylvester are “fighting” on top of each other which the kangaroo then kicks Sylvester and sends him flying into a brick wall.

            This moment breaks Newton’s third law when you analyze that the force of the kangaroo’s kick is not powerful enough to send Sylvester crashing all the way back into the brick wall. Both characters look roughly the same in size, so Sylvester would have a good amount of opposing force acting upon the kangaroo as he kicks. Plus, another factor to consider is that the kangaroo is flat on his back while kicking Sylvester. In reality, the kick would most likely send Sylvester only a good few feet away and perhaps landing on his back too.

            There are plenty more exaggerated and entertaining examples found within animated films that go against the laws of physics, but what about live action films? In this example, the popular science-fiction, action, comedy from the late 1990’s, Men In Black, is put into question with a certain scene involving the after effects of a powerful gun being put into use. The film follows two men, K and J, who work for a secret service called the “M.I.B” whom fight off aliens that disguise themselves as humans planning to destroy earth.

            The scene being analyzed shows K and J in a pawnshop looking for a certain alien that has taken over someone’s body and riding around the city in an exterminator truck. K and J try to stop the alien as he climbs into the getaway truck, where J pulls out his gun called “the cricket”. It is a comedic moment because it is an extremely small gun but surprisingly has a ton of power. J finally uses the cricket where the reaction of the gun sends J to the back of the store where he violently hits the back wall and falls flat on his face. However, when analyzing the sequence, the damage made by the actual bullet of the gun in comparison to the “kick back” effects it has on J don’t necessarily match up.

            The first shot made by J aiming at the side of the truck, shatters the glass of the pawnshop window and sets fire to a few surrounding objects on the sidewalk, but there is barely a scratch on the truck as the audience sees in the next couple of shots. The second shot he only breaks the chain attaching the tow truck to the exterminator truck, which seems like a light amount of damage that still doesn’t have much effect on both automobiles. Finally, the third shot is made by J, where he shoots the back of an even bigger diesel truck which results in a big blast of flames from where the bullet made contact with the diesel truck. With each gunshot, J is being more violently thrown back and shows how much the forces are unequal.

            What’s peculiar about the last shot is that the audience can see a couple walking on the sidewalk that are only a few feet away from the corner of the diesel truck that is shot by J. Once the bullet makes contact with the truck, the couple merely falls to the ground in a more frightened manner than in a natural, forceful throwback of an explosion. If the force of the gun’s shot were equal to the reaction force done on J, the damage done by the shot would send the couple back a few feet as well. As powerful as the cricket is in the hands of J, the weapon seems to cause inconsistent damage that does not follow Newton’s third law of motion. The cricket probably damages the shooter just as much, if not more, than it does the person being shot at with the weapon.

            Newton’s third law of motion, along with his other two laws, prove to be critical factors of knowledge with filmmaking, no matter how cartoony and exaggerated your film may be. Animation should always be pushed and test the limits of reality by walking a fine line with actions of certain characters, but it is also good for studios to have an attention to detail in this day and age where animation is no longer a medium obsessed with countless gags and cartoon appeal. Filmmakers should fully embrace the laws of our dear friend, Isaac Newton, as well as many other intelligent minds that contribute to filmmaking, and not always just sweep this knowledge and information under the rug.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Introduction

A. Introduction about the laws of physics being broken at times in animated films to create a more appealing and entertaining action

B. Describe Newton’s Third Law (Every reaction is an equal opposite reaction)

C. Thesis: Countless examples can be found in various films that don’t correctly follow Newton’s third law of motion and present unequal reactions when forces act upon each other

Body Paragraphs

1. Toy Story

- In the beginning title sequence of Toy Story, Andy launches Woody from the leg rest portion of a recliner chair, sending him clear across the room where he lands perfectly on the arm of the couch.

- Explain how the recliner would need a much greater amount of force to send Woody flying so far across the room. Realistically, Woody would have only travelled only a quarter of the distance portrayed in the film.

2. Looney Tunes

- Sylvester the Cat happens upon a rascal kangaroo that has a special talent for boxing. However, his weapons are his feet as opposed to his hands. In one sequence when Sylvester tries to catch the kangaroo, the kangaroo kicks Sylvester with one foot and launches him across the yard in which he hits a brick wall.

- The Kangaroo would also need much more force in order for Sylvester to have the reaction that he did. The kangaroo is animated with no opposing force reaction

3. Men In Black

 - When J receives his weapon, The Cricket, at the start of the film, it’s a comedic moment when he sees that it is an extremely small gun but is said to have a ton of power. In the pawn shop scene when K and J are chasing down the alien getting away in his exterminator truck, J finally uses the cricket where the reaction of the gun sends J to the back of the store where he violently hits the wall and falls flat on his face. However, the damage the gun has made seems to have only broken the front window of the shop.

- With this type of opposite reaction, there should be a greater amount of damage made with the bullet shot from The Cricket gun. If the reaction forces were equal, it would not only send J back but anything hit by the bullet would be hit with a big force.

Conclusion

- Summary and Restating of thesis

Reverse Video Reference

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Creating this movie was a bit of a challenge for me. It took a few re-tries to get the timing of the ball bounce remotely to where I wanted it to be and had some difficulties with a faulty tripod as you can see (I apologize for the jiggly frames). None the less, still a cool experience to make a stop motion film. I shot the film with a canon digital camera, edited it and touched up some of the look in photoshop, and complied the photos straight through quicktime. I liked adding the little guy sitting at the bottom and having him punch this ball into the air. Enjoy!

TERM PAPER: The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

           With most animated films, studios create new worlds with their own laws of physics in order to create a unique piece of entertainment. Some worlds are based more on reality, whereas others go more along the lines of the cartoon laws of physics. When it comes to Pixar Animation, the universe for their films are a great hybrid between reality and cartoons, which makes their films that much more appealing.

            One of the studio’s most iconic films is The Incredibles, the story of a former superhero named Mr. Incredible and his family who struggle adjusting to the normal lifestyle without being the heroes they were born to be. Although this Pixar film presents a creative world of endless possibilities, the physics found within The Incredibles goes well beyond the natural laws, so that the audience invests itself into the fantastic, yet believable, story about a family of superheroes.

            Throughout the film, many sequences present examples of exaggerated paths of action and timing. At the start of the film, Mr. Incredible is at his peak as a hero where he is called into duty to stop a bank robbery. A car chase ensues between Mr. Incredible’s car and the bank robbers’ getaway car, but is soon interrupted when a sweet, little old lady calls for his help to get her cat out of a tree.

            As Mr. Incredible stops and notices the old lady, going between shots in the sequence shows the inconsistent timing of Mr. Incredible’s car. You notice in the images below, the last frame of the first shot, when the old lady tries to stop Mr. Incredible, has the car in the middle of the intersection, using the traffic lights as a focal point for this example. In the next shot where Mr. Incredible notices the old lady walking to the middle of the street, he is about a good 20-30 feet away from the intersection.

01 Last Frame of Old Lady calling for Mr. Incredible:

02 First Frame of Mr. Incredibles POV:

            The speed of the car is also something to take notice of in this sequence. The shot right before the old lady character is introduced shows Mr. Incredible pressing a button that turns on the jet engine boosts in the back of his car, bringing him to a dangerously fast speed for a city street environment. Then going back to the introduction of the old lady shot, the car is travelling at a much slower and inconsistent rate through the intersection. Travelling with Mr. Incredible would be quite the bumpy ride, to say the least, if you were sitting shotgun in his jet-engine car.

            At the end of this sequence, Mr. Incredible ends up stopping the two bank robbers in their getaway car by using his massive strength to throw the tree that the old lady’s cat was trapped in down in front of the car, causing the robbers to crash violently and collide with the massive tree. If the natural laws of physics were brought into play for this particular section of the film, the robbers would have suffered much more graphic injuries as a result of the car crash. At the rate the robbers are speeding away in their getaway car combined with the force of the tree that crashes in front of them, the impact of the crash would have easily sent the two robbers flying through the front of the windshield. However, in the original film, the result is simply the upper bodies of the two robbers lying out of their respective windows without a scratch. What is even worse is that the robbers were not even wearing seat belts!

            Another sequence worth analyzing is where Mr. Incredible and his buddy, Frozone, are caught in a jewelry store by police thinking they are robbers and Frozone uses his ice powers to freeze a police officer in order to get away from the situation. Frozone even freezes the police officer’s bullet in mid air. Although the police officer’s body is completely frozen in the shot, the only body part he can move are his eyeballs. If the police officer were truly frozen in ice, he would not be able to move his eyeballs and the pure temperature of the ice would most likely put him in critical condition since the temperature is cold enough to freeze a bullet in mid air.

            Frozone’s main super power of generating ice out of the earth’s atmosphere also comes into question in certain scenes of the film. Frozone will go onto generate massive amounts of ice that he skates and glides on top of at high speed, but when the ice melts immediately after there is no sign of water anywhere on the environment.

            Later on in the film, Syndrome, the main villain is introduced where he is plotting evil schemes to take over the world at his secret lair built inside of a volcano. In a series of great action sequences, Syndrome sends his evil robots to exterminate Mr. Incredible while he is on the island. In one of the sequences, Mr. Incredible is being pushed by the robot to a rocky ledge where a pool of hot lava seems to be his fate. However, with all of his strength, Mr. Incredible jumps quickly out of the way which sends the robot falling into the pool of lava.

            When analyzing this scene, the laws of physics crashes a bit with cartoon physics in order to create better timing in the scene and more anticipation. The rate at which the robot hits the lava is very cartoon like, where it falls and pops back up very fast, holds, and then slowly sinks down into the lava. Falling and hitting the lava at that rate would generate a big splash of lava, but only a small splash of lava is shown in the aftermath of the shot and no small puddles of hot alive are show anywhere on the rocks where Mr. Incredible is standing.

            Although the film breaks many of the rules concerning the natural laws of physics, that is what makes The Incredibles such a successful film. The subtle breaking of these natural laws is what makes Pixar’s films so appealing and believable to audiences. It creates a world much like our own but with a bit of cartoon elements here and there to remind audiences that they are in a different world with familiar qualities to our own world outside of the movie theatres.

First Term Paper Outline: The Incredibles

Introduction

A. Animated Feature Film:  The Incredibles (116 min)

B. Thesis- Although this Pixar film presents a creative world of endless possibilities, the physics found within The Incredibles goes well beyond the natural laws, so that the audience invests itself into the fantastic, yet believable, story about a family of superheroes.

Body Paragraphs:

1. Exaggerated Paths of Action and Timing

- Timing of car chase in the beginning between Mr. Incredible and the robbers is inconsistent. Mr. Incredible is traveling at almost 65+ mph down a city street where in one shot he notices a little old lady asking for help and is a good 10 feet away, then in the next shot looks as if he is about 30-40 feet away.

- Mr. Incredible stops the two robbers when their getaway car collides with a tree Mr. Incredible throws down in front of them. The collision would easily send the two robbers out of the front windshield, yet their upper bodies simply lay out of their respective windows and they weren’t even wearing seatbelts.

2. Frozone’s Ice

- Frozone’s ice beams and pathways generates massive amounts of snow out of the water in the air. However, once the ice melts a few seconds afterwards, there is no trace of any water in the city einvironment.

- After the police officer is frozen by Frozone in the bank robbery scene, his whole body is frozen yet his eyeballs can still move.

3. The Lava at Syndrome’s Layer

 - At Syndrome’s secret Volcano layer, Mr. Incredible fights off one of his prototype robots near a pit of molten lava and successfully dodges a hit causing the robot to fall in the lava.

-The rate at which the robot hits the lava is very cartoon like where it falls at a rapid rate but only creates a small splash of lava. The robot also pops back up very fast, holds, and then slowly sinks down into the lava.

Conclusion

-The laws of physics are broken often, yet subtly, throughout the film.

-The subtle breaking of these natural laws is what makes Pixar’s films so appealing and believable to audiences. It creates world much like our own but with a bit of cartoon elements here and there to remind you that you are in a different world with familiar qualities to our own world outside of the movie theatres.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Jump with Tracking Points:

5 Jumps, Original Ref:

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Shooting Video Reference

My video reference and image example of "Fourth Down at Half Time". ENJOY!

Mini-Portfolio

My name is Ryan Eways and I am a 6th year Animation/Illustration student at SJSU. I have taken every art course part of the A/I program and going into BFA this year! As for science classes, most of them I have taken at SJSU, such as an intro to Astronomy class and two geology classes. Both were very interesting and I would say science is a topic I always have my ears and eyes open to. I love animation and I love drawing and I hope to be a working animator and/or storyboard artist in the very near future!

This first piece is a personal sketchbook painting from a few months ago. I painted it after watching a scary movie with friends:

This 2nd piece is another sketchbook painting I did during the holidays this last year. It actually served as my family's Christmas card too:

This video is a flash animation I did last semester for my intermediate animation class:

This animation was my flower sack pantomime I did for my beginning animation class, it was presented and awarded at the end of the year A/I screening:

First post!

My first blog post for Physics of Animation! Hooray!