Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Red/Cyan

Red/Cyan

Red/Cyan

Recreating Lights and Camera in Maya

Original Image:

Maya Copy:

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

1 Point:

2 Point:

3 Point:

I tried what I could but I couldn't really figure out how to get three point light to work, even after I watched the tutorials.

Building a Scene in Maya

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 88 and 90; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

Introduction:

I will be looking into the differences of how streams of lava are used as a visual effect in live action film versus in an animate film. The films that I will be comparing there usage and representation of lava flow between the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith versus The Incredibles. I will be comparing them for believability and usage versus to that of actual flows of lava.

Body Paragraphs:

First body paragraph: Star Wars Episode III

Compare certain properties of lava shown in film versus actual lava:

- Color

- Flow

- Overall feel

Explore possibilities as to why was created to be that way

How does having the lava shown this way benefit the film? Does it add to the intensity of the sequence? Was it supposed to evoke a certain kind of emotion?

Second body paragraph: The Incredibles

Compare certain properties of lava shown in film versus actual lava:

- Color

- Flow

- Overall feel

Explore possibilities as to why was created to be that way

How does having the lava shown this way benefit the film? Does it add to the intensity of the sequence? Was it supposed to evoke a certain kind of emotion?

Conclusion:

Lava flow and other special effects in films can be used to add feeling to the scene that the effect is taken from.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

For this video, I shot this using kneaded eraser, my phone camera, my mic stand, and lots of tape. I used the mic stand and tape to make a kind of DIY tripod for my phone so that I could keep it there for the most part in a relatively similar shot. The reason being for using kneaded eraser for my character is that, kneaded eraser can keep its form very well and also has a bit of a stick to it, animating movement is not as difficult as it would seem. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted my character to be doing, so I kind of just looked right in front of me and thought that it'd be fun if my character discovered that it had the power to make things disappear and then proceeded to clean my cluttered desk. For this animation I decided to take a direct approach and decided to animate this straight ahead, allowing me flexibility to play with my character as I saw fit.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

            In media, we tend to misrepresent how physics truly acts in order to attempt to tell a story in the most efficient and entertaining way that we can. This is most apparent when film makers are telling a story that happens in space, in which their fictional version of space does not have the same properties that space actually does in real life, and therefore objects within that space react differently than they would be expected to react. Among the way these objects react differently a few prime examples are, their movement in space, sound, and the explosions. These examples of fictional space reacting different than normal space in media can be cited in movies such as the Star Wars saga, Star Trek (for the purposes of this essay we will be citing the franchise as depicted in J.J. Abram's films), and in the video game, Halo.

            The most infamous of examples that occurs commonly in media dealing with space is the way that objects move while in said space. Often times flight or even just basic movement in space is depicted as how the object would normally move in our Earth's atmosphere. However, unfortunately this does not actually work due to the properties that exist on Earth simply do not apply in space. As much as it pains me to say it, I would like to cite or rather "blame" Star Wars for bringing about the common misinterpretation of flight in space because of the way George Lucas wanted the starships to fly, and based his space fight sequences off of old World War II films (more specifically the film, "The Dam Busters"). However, this was done for good reason, as it brought a sense of familiarity into the film, making the sequences interesting and appealing to see, albeit the scenes are incorrectly shot. If this were to be fixed, one would have to attach more engines, and develop a way to turn as sharply let alone maneuver as easily as the fighters in Star Wars can, this is because of the way space works, more than likely in a real life situation the star fighters would in actuality take ages to even turn, due to the environment that they're in. Because of the choices and widely accepted depiction of this kind of space flight, it has been used as an example of the prime example of flight in space for today's media. On a positive note however, this is not to say that more recent media examples haven't tried to introduce more realistic designs and flight trajectories into their films. Examples like Star Trek and Halo, demonstrate their attempt of getting closer to how physics in space really works by incorporating ways to balance out the physical problems that are presented in the vacuum of space.

            Another continually occurring problem in media is the fact that in the vacuum of space, there is no way for sound to be heard ("In space no one can hear you scream" "Alien"). However, despite this, sound is still ever present in films that take place in space. Meaning most of the sounds that are heard are all made up sounds that were made on Earth. For instance, the sound of the Star Destroyers in Star Wars flying overhead is actually the sound of a fan slowed down afterwards (try it it's actually really cool to hear!) or the sound of a TIE Fighter flying by is the sound of a race car and the cry of a baby elephant. Sounds in science-fantasy have to be crafted in such a way that we can believe that this kind of future is real, whether it is the roar of the Millennium Falcon or the engines of the Enterprise. However, on the flip side, how would it be to watch a film or play a game and during the flying in space scenes, all you heard was silence or just radio chatter. Not exactly an appealing image for the audience. However, other forms of media have been trying to figure out a way to balance realism with fantasy, for me I like to cite Halo when it comes to sound, because of the few times that you are in space, the developers decided that the best way to approach the sound problem would be to muffle all the sounds, to a point where you can still hear but it's really only an inkling of what it could sound like. For an entertainment view standpoint, I believe that this is so far the most successful of at least trying to incorporate real science into a form of science-fantasy entertainment.

            Of course with sound in space, typically something that follows closely afterwards, is explosions. Explosions is what people like to see in a science-fantasy story, the action of it bringing in the intensity of the scene. Unfortunately, as with the other two examples, explosions in space are often shown to look to similar to explosions that we expect to see on Earth, mainly meaning that they have enormous flames coming out of the ships or explosions acting in a very terrestrial manner. The prime example of this is the Death Star exploding in "A New Hope", the shot of course done in real life with real models and then edited into the film, or the star fighters blowing up with fire. A lot of the times, the explosions act like they would normally do with oxygen, however in space there is no oxygen, making it so that the objects blowing up can still explode, however fire probably will not exist in the resulting destruction. Halo also suffers by including unrealistic space exploding dynamics in the game. However, a film that does seem to have a relatively good grasp on realistic explosions in space is Star Trek, where the explosions seem to fit the description of what should be happening in the given situation.

            Science fiction in today's media is represented in a way that is designed to be supposedly exciting, giving us movement, sounds, and explosions to make us get into the moment. However, certain titles take their own liberties at trying to incorporate true physics in space into their media. In creating their own unique way of showing how their science-fantasy universe operates, we as the audience are introduced to a wide variety of interpretations of what space could look and sound like, inspiring us and taking us into far off worlds with our imaginations. While true science isn't entirely represented, each director tries to incorporate something new that will add to the realism of their piece, creating an entertaining experience for all.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Introduction:

Objects in fictional space do not move or react as they would in real space.

Examples in media of interest:

Star Wars (Saga)

Star Trek (as depicted in J.J. Abram's films)

Halo

Body Paragraphs:

1. Movement in space should not be as easy as it is depicted in the films.

Star Wars is most to blame due to basing their fight sequences off of old World War II films (i.e. The Dam Busters)

Star ships and the way they move due to a frictionless environment would be very different if using real life physics.

Halo get's some redemption points for considering these facts and trying to incorporate this into its game universe

2. Sound

Because of the nature of space (no air) sound would react very different in a real world setting.

All three "suffer" immensely because of this, having sound effects everywhere

however, strangely enough while Halo has its faults, it does get some points back for seeming to put real physics into consideration (muting sounds while in space combat)

3. Fun explosions

As with sound, because of the nature of space, explosions shouldn't work the way that they are represented in all of these media forms.

Star Wars, Star Trek, and Halo all have explosions and fire at some point, although all have varying degrees of how they represent it

Star Wars and Star Trek both have very earthlike explosions, Halo also suffers from having very earthlike explosions however, with varying degrees of success the developers try to at least hint a change in the explosions (like with sound)

Conclusion

Science fiction in today's media is represented in a way that is designed to be supposedly exciting, giving us movement, sounds, and explosions to make us get into the moment. However, certain titles take their own liberties at trying to incorporate true physics in space into their media.

Reverse Video Reference

Here are my reverse video reference reproduction!

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

For this assignment, I'll be honest I looked around to find the most interesting object that I could find to animate, just for the sake of thinking, "Oh, that'd be fun." The prep work that went into this before shooting it all was drawing out a basic plan of how I wanted the object to move in the kind of space that I was providing it. During this process I took into account the properties of the forces acting on the object that we have learned during this class. To me, I thought a challenge would be to make the object that I was "dropping" to act a lot more bouncier than its structure would suggest, I'll be frank I don't think I really achieved the look that I was going for, but I am still relatively content with the results. Once the drawings had been laid out, I set out and made a DIY down-shooter with my mic stand, my camera phone, and some tape. From there I used the framing of the camera as my stage for my object and had it bounce around in that environment, trying to roughly follow the layout that I had provided myself with.

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

            Whether it be for the use of comedic effect or to increase the stakes at hand,  in animation we push physics well beyond what is considered scientifically accurate in order to drive the story forward through a means that provides entertainment for the animation's audiences. The Hub's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is no stranger to bending the rules of physics in order to achieve this. Time and time again the ponies break rules of motion, defy gravity, and of course perform feats of magic.

            My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is the Hub's widely successful newest reimagining of their franchise, My Little Pony, and was developed for television by Lauren Faust. Now right from the start of the show we are given some ground rules on how this world of Equestria works. For starters the ponies (and other hoofed creatures) that inhabit the world are sentient and can also produce magic. Unfortunately what is not explained are the physics that work in this world, however we are shown hints at physics equations every now and then like this example which (after some digging around) would appear to be formula describing time dilation at constant acceleration.

             So for all intents and purposes, we shall assume that the physics that exist in this world is to similar to that of our own world. Now enough with back stories, let's get on with identifying physic anomalies!

             For starters, let's look at how our ponies move in this world. And what better way to examine this first than taking a look at one of the most iconic ideas in the world of Equestria, the Sonic Rainboom.

            The sonic rainboom both as it is sounds and described in the show is occurs when a pegasus (a flying pony) is flying fast enough that they break both the sound and color spectrum barriers, thereby producing an explosion of color and sound. The properties of a sonic rainboom are relatively similar to that of a sonic boom in our world. Though one notable misrepresentations is that a mach cone appears prior to the sonic rainboom rather than after.

            This demonstration of super speed isn't just demonstrated through the sonic rainboom, several other incidents occur where characters will exit from screen right and enter from screen left only a mere several frames later. Here are a couple images describing this kind of motion including a shot of the ponies path of action described in the snow.

            Though these kinds of bursts of speed should at least include some kind of stretching that should appear right? At the very least the animators would put in some stretch to help create a feel a realism of speed. Well, thanks to one gravity defying character name known as Pinkie Pie, we tend to see her bend out of shape a little more than what is physically possible. Not only does she bend out of shape noticeably, but in a very cartoon-y manner she keeps this stretchy pose for far longer than only a couple of frames. Ever wanted to see what a pony would look like if they were a giraffe?

            It should be noted that this character proceeds to walking off in mid-air, completely defying the rules of gravity.

            Speaking of defying the rules of gravity, let's take a look at some incidences where these ponies seem to be made of dark matter but more importantly pay little to no heed to the rules of gravity. A case that is commonly seen throughout the show is the pony characters falling, and they fall quite often. There was an incident where one of the characters, Fluttershy, is falling from the cloud layer all the way down to the ground, only to be saved by a swarm of butterflies.

            

            Now, at this point Fluttershy has been in free fall for about 13 seconds meaning that (with a bit of calculations) assuming she was in a vacuum and discounting air resistance, she fell from a height of about 828.1 meters, and by some miracle this kaleidoscope of butterflies were able to produce an equal and opposite force and slow her down gradually enough so as not to exert too much force on her all in a span of about a second. These butterflies aren't exactly very high off the ground mind you, height wise, the highest butterfly in the swarm is probably about the height of a female pony in the show, let's assume the height is 5 feet based off of the average height of a pony in our world.

            

            The most common "mistake" that is commonly used (I believe this is true with many animations as well) is the rules of conservation of mass, where one character launches another to extraordinary distance and/or height with little to know effort. Take these next shots for example.

Off Rainbow Dash goes...

            

            In these images, Applejack launches her friend (Rainbow Dash) off into the distance after only jumping off a ledge that would not be able to provide the amount of energy to launch a pony in equal weight to such a great distance. If anything, Rainbow Dash should have a relatively equal transfer of energy from Applejack and should have at the very least gone up to about Applejack's initial starting point. That is unless we speculate that pegasi weigh significantly less than regular ponies. Though since this is never explicitly stated, we'll have to conclude that this is indeed a gravity defying moment in the show and say that the two ponies weigh roughly the same.

            The last point that I would like to make about gravitational discrepancies in the realm of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is that the Sun and Moon are raised and lowered everyday by pony deities (not to mention that one of these deities was imprisoned in the Moon for a thousand years). This only raises questions about how this world functions outside of the planet's surface. For instance, it would appear that no other none deity takes control of the Sun or Moon once they fall under the horizon, so does this mean that this world exists on a flat surface? What does this mean for their tides? What does this mean about other gravitational forces? What if the deities decided to screw with the citizens and not raise or lower the celestial bodies in an orderly fashion? It has been shown that unless one of the deities moves the Moon or Sun it will stay there until a greater force acts on it. 

            However, while manipulation of large celestial bodies is reserved for these deities, there is still magic all around this world and flows from the ponies that inhabit it. Magic is the last anomaly that exists in this world that vastly differs from our world. I'm not talking about magic where you pull rabbits out of hats or other illusions, I'm talking about things like unicorns using levitation, blowing up mountains and tree houses, walking on clouds, and pegasi having the power to manipulate the weather.

            That kind of magic.

            

            Not only that but there are even several magical abilities that can completely change a character's body structure (such as turning flesh to stone and vice versa), to things like changing a character's personality. You can thank the quick "get out of jail free card" magic known as the Elements of Harmony. However, while these elements do not change the physics of the world to outrageous nonsense, their opposite, Chaos, certainly can. What's more is that this chaos is embodied in a creature known as Discord who can change the rules of physics with a snap of his fingers. He can change clouds into great clouds of pink cotton candy that rain chocolate milk, or have buildings float on their own, make characters float off in mid-air, switch day to night, cups fill up from the top down, any kind of chaotic thing that comes to his mind, he could certainly do it. Can you imagine the implications of this? Like the deities previously mentioned, what if Discord suddenly didn't like the Sun being up and made it so that it was immediately night?

            Though while these are all powerful and physic breaking, there is one power that only appears every once in a while. The power to realize the fourth wall. One character in particular, Pinkie Pie, seems to knowingly break this barrier more often than not, interacting with transitions and such to get the audience's attention.

            In the end, what we gain from all these pieces of discrepancies in physics, is a performance that keeps the audience engaged with the story, taking us deeper by wowing and challenging us. Logic would suggest that we should be disturbed by all these issues, questioning how any of these feats could even be possible. How in the world could a pony break the sound and spectrum barrier without any protection or bodily harm to boot? How can a swarm of butterflies catch a pony that was falling from such a great height? How in the world could a creature change the laws of physics with a snap of his fingers? But we don't ask these questions, because all of these amazing displays push the story forward and entertain us with satisfying visual displays. Perhaps we allow leniency towards animation because we know it isn't real, and all these amazing displays only let the audience fall further into the magical animated worlds before us, because in the end the audience wants to be entertained. The pay off of something drastic is the reward of something completely fantastic and out of this world. In conclusion, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic pushes and breaks the boundaries that are set by our natural laws of physics engage the audience in order to tell the story in an entertaining way, whether it be for the use of comedic effect or to increase the stakes at hand.

Outline of the First Term Paper

Introduction:

Animated Show I will be analyzing: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Thesis for this term paper will be that physics is pushed well beyond what is considered reasonable in order to drive the story forward through a means that provides entertainment for its audiences, whether it be for the use of comedic effect or increase the stakes at hand.

Body Paragraphs:

1. Cartoonish timing in motions and movement around camera.

- Sonic Rainboom - a Sonic boom that breaks both the sound barrier and color spectrum...

- Characters zipping off of screen right and appearing suddenly on screen left.

- Stretchy body movements. Such as characters stretching faces, though more commonly body parts to distances that greatly exceed normal body structure.

2. Gravity defying masses.

- Characters falling from extreme heights and not suffering any bodily harm because of it. For instance, characters being caught by a swarm of butterflies. or in mid-air at literal break neck speeds

- Characters launching other characters to astronomical distances though do not have the proper potential energy to produce such a feat...or do they?

- Universal bodies such as the sun and moon are controlled by deities and can be controlled to their pleasing. Leads to believe that world may in fact exist on a flat plane of existence, or rather world/planet is actually flat.

3. Magical properties existing in world.

- Magic blasts that can lift up houses made out of a tree into the air, roots and all as well as completely level entire mountains. Also can control clouds/weather properties.

- Characters realizing that they are in fact in a show from time to time, breaking the illusive "fourth wall"

- Elements of harmony can imprison creatures in the moon for a thousand years or completely change one's personality, or if so exists an element of chaos, can completely change the rules of physics in the world with a snap of a finger.

Conclusion:

Normal laws of physics are broken throughout the show in order to tell the story in an entertaining way to its audience. Perhaps is allowed leniency with the idea that since this world is a magical world, though still does not explain the physics presented in the show. Bottom line, physics is pushed in order to tell the story in an entertaining way.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Shooting Video Reference

Mini-Portfolio

Hello there!

My name is Henry Farmer, and I am studying to become an animator through the animation program here at SJSU, more specifically I would like to focus on 3D animation. I've always wanted to work somewhere in film, specifically bringing characters to life on the big screen. I participate in the ShrunkenHead Man Club on campus as well as the Film Production Society club. As for physics, I am quite excited to be taking this class because of my love for physics (albeit basic knowledge) and would be very interested in applying my knowledge to my animations! I look forward to studying how physics is presented in animation to create convincing motion in my animations!

This piece was done in my ANI 113B Illustration class. It was done in acrylics, and while I did have fun with this, the illustration path isn't exactly for me.

 This was a really fun project to work on! It was from my ANI 12, it was done in graphite.

Here is my animation final from my ANI 128a class, completed last semester. So much fun!

Here's looking forward to this semester learning more about physics in animation!

The First Post

The first post of many! Looking forward to a wonderful semester of learning more about animation and getting back in touch with physics!
Fire It Up!