Extra Credit

I attended the Cinequest screening of the animated shorts, my first credit in a movie on the big screen!  I forgot to get a photo of myself but here's a shot of Dave Chai from the audience where I was sitting..  You can ask him, I was there!

Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

The assignment here was to create 3D images using blending tools in Photoshop.  It's finals week and I've been up for 48 hours straight so I'm rather unsure whether I really succeeded or I'm just dizzy :P

Red/Cyan

Red/Cyan

Red/Cyan

Green/Magenta

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

For this assignment we were tasked with recreating a lighting scenario in Maya based on a photograph of an object.

Photo:

Maya copy:

Bonus Points: Lighting a Scene in Maya

In this assignment we had to build a scene in Maya using our initials as the main objects and light them in 1, 2 and 3 pt lighting.

Outline for the Third Term Paper

Intro: Volcanic erruptions - often misrepresented

-Avatar the Last Airbender (the tv show) season 1 episode 14
-The lava that runs down the hillside is very fast moving, like water.
This would not be the case
In addition, volcanoes that have explosive eruptions with huge clouds of smoke do not also have lava flow.  They have debris.
-What could have been done that would be more appropriate to the level of fear the lava causes is make it a lahar- it is more fast moving and dangerous.
The same issue can be seen in Disney's Aladdin, although it can be argued that it is magic lava and doesn't come from a volcano.
-Here is an example of a volcano that has an eruption animated for comedic effect. But they explain it as a fluke, and in no way magical since the two aren't gods, so realistically, this could not happen either.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

I had the idea for this animation while having a conversation with a friend about dreams and nightmares.  They swore that nightmares were caused by being cold and so I thought up a dream-catcher character that physically does things to keep its owner from having nightmares.  The animation is stop-motion. It's very shakey since I didn't have a remote for capturing each shot.  I anticipated this before shooting, though, and decided it was okay since I wanted it to feel like an outsider witnessing the object coming to life.  I made the puppet using some wire, a dream-catcher and some plastecine. The whole process took me about 4-5 hours to shoot and compile the frames in Photoshop's timeline (since for whatever reason the camera I used took photo files not supported by anything else.)  Here's a bit of the prep work and the final cut:

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

The chase has long been a cinematic story-telling device.  Fast cuts and impossible stunts make characters seem immensely faster than the actors portraying them.  But all too often in chase scenes there is a maneuver or inconsistency that throws off the audience.  You’d think that this would be less distracting and more controllable with animation.  Yes, animation allows for a lot of leeway with its physical laws.  Screenplays are often animated out of necessity or choice to break the laws of physics and to reveal new ideas and worlds that don’t exist.  But an audience that is very engaged in a fast paced scene might be broken from their trance when they feel as if a character or object did not move the way it should have.  This can often be caused by an inconsistency with Newton’s 3^rd law.  This principle says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Breaking the laws of physics in both animated and live action film can be comical or add to excitement, such as in Despicable Me where Gru punches the shark (mentioned in my previous paper).  However animation can be as equally guilty as live action of maneuvers that break the laws of physics in a distracting manner.

In the Dreamworks film Mr. Peabody and Sherman, there are many physical laws broken.  This film contains a lot of chase sequences and time machine travel scenes that could only be achieved through animation.  But even with the wacky physical laws established in the world of the film, there is one scene that feels very wrong while it is playing out. Mr. Peabody and Sherman are attempting to escape a tomb in ancient Egypt. At one point Sherman is unsuccessful at avoiding a trigger that sets off a booby trap.  He and Mr. Peabody get separated and end up in two separate canoe-like boats.  One of the boats is headed for safety while the other is destined for imminent destruction.  Peabody realizes that he needs to get Sherman into his safe boat and uses a rope to jump to him and swing both of them back to safety.  But the downward force of Mr. Peabody and Sherman swinging at the end of a taught rope that is tied to the boat has no apparent effect on the boat’s trajectory.  Since the boat is supposedly rigged to launch and carry its passengers through a small hole, the audience recognizes when the trajectory should have been shifted.  This can be more thoroughly explained by the conservation of momentum theory, though it is related to Newton’s 3^rd Law.  The conservation of momentum theory would state that the mass and velocity of Mr. Peabody must match the mass and velocity of the boat.  While Mr. Peabody is inside the boat, he acts as an internal force. But when he leaves it to retrieve Sherman, the boat should have increased the velocity since mass has been shed.  But even more distracting is the fact that when Mr. Peabody and Sherman’s velocity is changed because they are swinging perpendicularly to the boat, both their mass and velocity should have an effect on the boat’s velocity and the direction it is travelling in.  If the principle were obeyed, then both boats would have surely crashed into the wall surrounding the small exit. So I suppose I understand why the animators executed the scene this way.

In the Pixar animated feature, UP, an old man and a young boy are tasked with transporting a small Victorian house suspended in the air by millions of balloons, across a jungle, by means of rope strapped to their waists.  Yes, this whole premise is physically impossible to begin with.  However, this concept and the animation of it don’t feel unlikely.  What I mean by this is that the audience doesn’t feel on edge that the house will fall and crush Mr. Frederickson and Russell at any moment. This illusion is very successfully maintained until the pursuit scene.  While being chased by hundreds of dogs, Mr. Frederickson and Russell are faced with the challenge of jumping over large gaps between rocks on the mountain.  Russell falls and swings back and forth but this has no effect on the momentum of the house or on his friends who are carrying him now.  Russell mentions earlier in the movie that he and Mr. Frederickson just weigh down the floating house. Therefore, Russell’s weight and his pendular motion would have an effect on the house’s movement.  However the house shows no reaction to his change in velocity.

In the Disney film Tangled, there is a scene where Flynn Rider grabs a hold of Rapunzel’s hair and jumps from a high platform, swinging to the other side of a dam.  Assuming Rapunzel’s scalp is indestructible still does not explain why the force and momentum of a fully-grown man swinging from her hair has no effect on her or the small rock her hair is tied to.  This one of few scenes where the camera shows her while someone is suspended from her hair.  Otherwise the camera doesn't focus on her, and the distance that Rapunzel’s lengthy hair puts between her and Flynn may be the key to keeping audiences from cringing for the poor girl. She could not be capable of rivaling the force that is being put on her body from the people who climb her hair. And in this scene, her hair would easily be broken or her hair would be pulled out from the rock she had no time to tie it to.

Any fast-paced scene worth watching is going to have some sort of effects that make it feel all the more exciting.  Breaking the laws of physics can be a great tool for causing something unexpected to happen.  One of my favorite laws of story-telling written by a Pixar writer says (basically) that coincidences should only be the cause for problems, not be the method of solving them.  I think this rule can altered for breaking the rules of physics as well.  If breaking a physical law is the line between a character’s survival and death, then it shouldn't feel coincidental. In other words, make your animation say what you mean it to.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?
0. Chose 3 animated films that disobey newton's 3rd law - action/reaction
   -Up, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Despicable Me (or Tangled instead if you want me to not include anything from the film I chose for my last paper)

1. Up - pursuit scene
     - while being chased, pulling house & picking up speed.
     -force on the house changed but then remains unchanged further in chase when character hangs from it.

2. Mr. Peabody and Sherman
    - Booby-trap scene in tomb
    -flying through the air on a canoe and Mr. Peabody swings around one of them mid-air, but there is virtually no reaction from the boat - the trajectory is unchanged.

3.  Despicable Me
     - Gru punches a large shark flying toward him with no reaction from his body
     - similar to Shaolin Soccer effect

4. Tangled
     -there are many scenes where Rapunzel's scalp of steel comes in handy
     -specifically the dam scene when Flinn swings from it
     - her hair would have been short and brown long before this

5. Conclusion
    -restate principle and thesis

Reverse Video Reference

For this assignment we had to look at some character walks/dancey movements and try to do them ourselves.  I'm not an animator and I'm generally uncoordinated so please don't judge too hard!

I think I mostly got the movements down, but I do think now that I should have changed the camera angle for the non-profile clip (clip 2).

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

I decided to try something relatively simple for the stop motion falling assignment this week.  I suppose this animation is a metaphor for the cliche saying, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".  I made a very..improvised..down-shooter, took individual photographs (with my phone), and animated them in Photoshop using the timeline.  The SHM logo is made of plasticine.  In timeline I made a hidden spacing layer that I could turn on and off while deciding which photos to keep and remove.  I spent some time trying to figure out the frame rate because I didn't realize I had it set to 30fps while working in Timeline. I finally got it, but I think unfortunately the quality of this upload ruined it a bit.  It was a valuable learning experience though.

The Laws of Physics in Despicable Me - Term Paper

“Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.”  
― Alan Moore

This quote by the writer of the vastly popular graphic novel, V for Vendetta, rings true for all imagined worlds.  Having an element of truth is vital when telling a story.  The physics that exists in an animated world is just as much of a story-telling device as any other part of the film.  When altered physical laws that exist in animation remain consistent and retain some attributes of our own known laws, they can add comedy and emotion to a scene.  The audience will not only accept the altered laws, but may subconsciously invent reasons for why they are acceptable.  One prime example of this effect can occur while watching the Universal Pictures film, Despicable Me.

There are a few theories that the audience must accept in order to relate to the world of Despicable Me. First, there are extraordinary materials that exist which have not been discovered in our world.  Second, the stylization of the characters and machines make impossible maneuvers and mechanical inaccuracies conceivable.  And third, concepts of gravity, mass, height, and volume have lots of fluidity and dimensions.

In the first scene of Despicable Me, a tour bus making its way over some sand dunes stops abruptly in front of the pyramids.  In the natural world there would not be enough traction on such loose sand.  This sets the mood for the film because at this moment the audience can sense that the laws of physics are not the same as ours.  It may be assumed that advanced materials exist and that extraordinary tires are available to the bus drivers of this world.

In that same scene, a child falls off of a ramp onto a giant inflatable pyramid.  Upon contact, the kid sinks deep into the pyramid and is then launched very high into the air.  The kinetic energy to potential energy is clearly off.  The only way for this sequence to be mildly accepted is if the pyramid were made of a highly elastic extraordinary material. 

Gru has many inventions that would not be possible in our world.  His freeze ray is capable of making icicles out of living things without harming them.  In fact, it seems that people who get frozen have no problem getting unfrozen.  If a living person were to be frozen in that manner, their blood would coagulate and they would die. So here we have to assume that the material freezing the characters is extraordinary-perhaps containing a harmless fictional chemical that mimics our own chemicals that are used in cryogenics. 

Gru’s platform structure is another case for speculation. The feeble support beams that lift the weight of his platform could not hold up without being made of an advanced metal.

And finally, the most curious of extraordinary materials in Despicable Me is Vector’s soft, plastic-looking bubble helmet that floats around and doesn't burst in the vacuum of space!  But its movement complements that of its wearer, meant to enhance the character’s charm.

The next theory is that because the characters and objects in Despicable Me are so stylized and often made up of extraordinary materials, they are capable of impossible maneuvers and prone to mechanical inaccuracies.   

The first example of this is when a minion is manning the guns equipped aboard Gru’s plane and is shaking with each shot.  This reaction would not occur with the way the controls are configured.  However, it adds comedic effect to the scene, which the minions are meant to add. 

In a later scene, Gru takes the girls to a theme park on the pier.  While riding the roller coaster, the car accelerates while going up a hill.  This is not how roller coasters work, but I can imagine that this was for comedic effect since Gru is so obviously unsettled by the ride.

At one point, Gru becomes frozen from the head-down by means of his aforementioned freeze ray.  He then proceeds to waddle around, contained by a giant ice-cube.  Even if we accept that the freezing component is harmless to the body, the act of waddling around the room would still be impossible since Gur has no range of motion.

Dr. Nefario is Gru’s elderly partner who rides around on an electric scooter.  At one point he accelerates and his scooter makes the vroom sound of an internal combustion engine exhaust.  This is clearly for comedic effect, but inaccurate in our world.

Toward the end of the film, Gru is being attacked by Vector who sends heat seeking missiles to destroy him.  In a slow motion scene, Gru effortlessly jumps from missile to missile to avoid being hit.  But Vector is not finished (nor baffled by his opponent’s sudden acquirement of superpowers.) He launches a great white shark at Gru who punches the creature with such a force that it flies in the other direction.  Great whites weigh 5,000 lbs on average, whereas American human males weigh about 177.9 lbs (Gru was apparently raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, despite what may be inferred about his accent.)   That means, realistically, the shark would weigh about 28x that of Gru, who would therefore not be capable of holding his ground when contact was made with the airborne shark. Even if the shark weighed only about 5x Gru’s weight, he would still travel in the direction of the shark due to inertia.  But this brings me to my next point because the great white really does appear to be only about 5x Gru’s weight in the film.

The third theory to be considered is that concepts of gravity, mass, height, and volume have lots of fluidity and dimensions in Despicable Me. 

The most obvious example of this is in the dream-like sequences that Gru has. For example when the girls are running with the shrink ray there is a shift in gravity.  They have a much higher hang time and appear to be less affected by gravity.  Also, on Earth, it is possible to jump about 2ft in the air from a standing position. Though not quite the height of a moon jump (up to 22ft), the girls do get about 4ft in the air with each skip. 
So perhaps the surface gravity becomes closer to that of Mars (0.38), on which you can get up to a 9ft jump. (For reference: Earth’s surface gravity is 1 and the moon’s is 0.165). (Wikipedia).  But these are dream-like sequences and so they are more easily accepted than other gravitational shifts throughout the movie.  

In one scene, a minion consumes an anti-gravity serum and begins to float.  He starts off slowly and then accelerates upward, flying out of sight.  This could be explained by either looseness with the concept of gravity or by extraordinary materials – a serum that causes you to become exponentially less affected by gravitational pull.

The Minions seem to be the least affected by the laws of physics, which is not inconceivable since they are an abnormality of biology to begin with.  They seem to constantly change size depending on the scene.  It is not entirely noticeable and is clearly a tactic that the animators used to get better compositions for story-telling. 

In the grocery store scene, a minion shakes a two liter soda bottle, opens it, and the pressure released causes it to fly in the opposite direction, pulling the much larger minion with it. The minions are the most comical element of the film and therefore the audience gives them their scenes the most lenience as far as physics is concerned.

The weapons that exist in the film are not only made up of extraordinary materials, but also have physical characteristics that could not be explained by their composition.  At the pier, Gru pulls a small gun out of his coat that, upon activation, reveals much larger components.  Similarly, Vector’s squid launcher could not contain multiple rounds of squid ammunition, and especially not living ones if they were to be compressed into the small clip (or whatever holds the cephalopodic projectiles).  The dimensions of mass are stretched in these cases for a surprise factor, and it definitely succeeds in being hilarious.

There are some inconsistencies in the film that mostly are done for story-telling purposes as well as to prevent shock on the part of the audience.  


Toward the beginning of the film, Gru’s plane gets shrunk by Vector.  He and the minions are the only things aboard that do not get any smaller, and furthermore, they are not crushed by their shrinking surroundings.  The latter part is easy to explain: Despicable Me is an animated kid’s film in which the characters do not die painful deaths. But the part about the minions and Gru not shrinking with the plane is a troubling case. One could argue that perhaps the shrink ray does not shrink living things. However, their clothes also remain fitting, and in a later scene, a minion is shrunk by that same device.  It is understandable that this inconsistency should happen since the introduction of the shrink ray is a vital part of the story, but Gru and the minons getting back to normal size would cause a far worse inconsistency.  However, this is one of the most notably distracting parts of the film.

At the end of Despicable Me, there is smaller distraction, but equally confusing to the last. In Vector's plane, the shrunken moon starts to grow back to its normal size.  At about the size of a softball, it crushes a mug, but at the point where it grows larger than Vector and rolls over him (multiple times, I might add), it does not kill him. I suppose this could go under advanced materials too in the case of extraordinary flesh and bone (or maybe the mug was extraordinarily fragile.)  There could be an explanation using any of the three theories listed above, but the scene and concept of the shrink ray remain a mystery.  It is easy to say that the writers should have fixed these issues, but I think that providing explanations of how the shrink ray and other things function would detract from the story more so than just leaving them a little inconsistent.

Despicable Me is the story of a supervillain who adopts three orphan girls to aid in his plot of stealing the moon. This summary alone would tell you that the laws of physics are not followed in the movie.  But with this particular plot, pushing physics beyond the limits of the natural world would be the only way to succeed in making a fantastic movie; and that can only be achieved through animation.  Exaggeration is the backbone of animation. Whether it is exaggeration of character, story, or physical movement, it is the reason why animation has retained any relevance when such great technological advancements have been made in the film industry.  The challenge of creating a world with physical laws that deviate from our own is deciding which things must remain the same in order for the film to be relatable to its audience.  The world of Despicable Me is very unlike our own, and yet it is so easy to relate to the story and its characters (even the little yellow freaks of nature).  Just as Alan Moore puts it, believing in a lie can teach you something true about yourself.

Term Paper Outline: Despicable Me Analysis

Intro
Animated Feature Film:  Despicable Me
Thesis: In the universe of Despicable Me, physics does not reflect the principles of the natural world.

Body
1.  Advanced Materials; for certain events to occur, extraordinary materials would have to exist that do not in the known world

-1st scene: bus stops abruptly on sand dune - but shouldn't be enough traction - assuming extraordinary tires

-amount of rebound on the inflatable pyramid - potential energy to kinetic energy off (launches kid) - must be   highly elastic material

-Structure in Gru's lab that lifts him to the ceiling in front of the moon - feeble and wouldn't support platform -    unless, of course it is an extraordinary material.

-In the vacuum of space Vector's soft plastic bubble helmet would pop - must be some crazy material not  known to man

2. Impossible Maneuvers and Inaccuracies
-When the minion aboard Gru's plane is shooting at Vector's plane using the plane's weapons, the control is shaking with each shot - wouldn't happen

-When Gru and the girls are riding roller coasters on the pier, the roller coaster accelerates while going up hill 

 not how roller coasters work

-Gru gets frozen from the head down but has the ability to waddle around in the giant ice cube

-Sound in space- nope

-Dr. Nafario's electric scooter makes a vroom sound - wouldn't make the sound of an internal combustion  exhaust.

-Heat-seeking missiles are heading toward Gru, he simply jumps on them to avoid being hit.

-Next, Gru punches a launched shark which then flies in the other direction - The shark would weigh at least    3x what Gru weighs so he would not remain in place.

-Gru's arm would be ripped off when he is caught mid free-fall by hanging minions.

3. Concepts of gravity, mass, height, and volume have lots of fluidity & dimensions
-Gravity changes in some dream-like sequences - ex the girls running with the shrink ray - they are sort of    floating

-minions seem to change sides between scenes

-anti-gravity serum that minion drinks: he starts to float off and then accelerates upward, flying away

-minion shakes a 2 liter soda bottle in the store, opens it, and then it flies in the opposite direction, pulling the  minion with it.

-small guns and squid launcher conceal much larger components (and squids) in no visible compartment.

Inconsistencies

-The shrink ray shrinks Gru's plane and its contents, but not Gru or the minions - this could be explained if the  shrink ray could only shrink inanimate objects, but a minion is later shrunk and so it is inconsistent.

-In Vector's plane, the shrunken moon starts to grow - at about the size of a softball, it crushes a mug, but  when it is bigger than Vector it does not kill him...I suppose this could go under advanced materials too in  the  case of extraordinary flesh and bone.

Conclusion
-In Despicable Me, the laws of physics are pushed to make for comedic effect and excitement. Although some inconsistencies seem less intentional, there is enough deviation from real world physics that the film feels like a different world, and makes it entertaining to its audience.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Shooting Video Reference

First Post

This blog is going to be my submission page for my SJSU course, Physics of Animation with professor Alejandro Garcia.