Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

 

All of them are red/cyan pairs. The first one works quite well the other two are harder. All the shots I had of the campus failed to work so I had to try to create a scene using the lighting exercise model.

 

 

 

 

 

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

 

original photo

 

Maya attempt:

 

 

 



second original photo

 

Maya attempt

 

 

 

 



 

 

Building a Scene in Maya

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 91 and 95; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline for the Third Term Paper

Avalanches in Film

A. INTRODUCTION- rough

            When one thinks of special effects in film, they often think of fire, ice, snow water and explosions. Rarely do they get any more specific as to think of avalanches. It is true that there are only a handful of examples of avalanches in film, and even less successful attempts at it. Both Ice Age and On Her Majesty's Secret Service contain avalanches of some sort and both of them could use some reworking. However, what they did achieve was a sense of believability in their avalanche attempts. Through animating on different layers to superimposing man made avalanches, these two films showcase how avalanches can be produced in film, but also how much farther the film industry has to go to produce better ones.

B: BODY- polished

I. Ice Age

            In the beginning of "Ice Age", Scrat accidentally sets off an avalanche. The animators on Ice Age separated each individual piece of glacier shard to move on its own in their animation program, then put them all together into one gigantic monster of an avalanche. To do this, the animators put the glaciers on separate layers of animation and the huge glacier moving towards Scrat on its own layer. They also stressed how they were not trying to create a realistic avalanche, but rather a cartoon version of it to suit the scene, which is why there are glacier shards "chasing" after Scrat.

            The way the shards move is not really realistic as it seems to have a life of its own but it fits in the world that has been created in "Ice Age". Studying actual avalanches and glacier attacks are important for the animators, which was probably neglected a bit due to their idea of wanting to heighten the comedy of the scene. What results is a believable effects animation in that world, but viewed today, the shards move too uniformly and could use a bit more sporadic changes in the pace and shard's paths of action. In other words, more randomness could create a greater sense of the naturalistic monster that an avalanche can be in real life.

II. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

            The massively uneven 007 "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" contains an avalanche scene that was created from a man-made avalanche, stock footage, special effects and edits. Cliff Culley, Robert Browne and Roy Field shot their man-made avalanche in Pinewood Studios in London using some fake trees and salt as snow. After they had completed their simulation, Culley and his crew used optical effects to superimpose the salt and trees onto the footage where 007 and his soon-to-be-bride Tracy were skiing. This gave the effect that the snow was closing in and would soon be devouring the two lovebirds. Due to Director Peter Hunt's excessive love for quick cuts, stock footage of avalanches were also implemented to "heighten" the drama and tension of the scene.

            The stock footage used for the avalanche was quite successful in showing hulking amounts of snow racing down the mountains of Switzerland. However, artistically it falls flat because it doesn't show its relation to the characters. The stock footage doesn't give any emotional cues to the audience because the angle at which the footage is shown is flat which gravely reveals the stock nature of the footage. The edits that Peter Hunt made are excessive and reminds one of the ill-realized attempts at "heightening" action in the Bourne films and other recent action films. The aspect that really destroys any element of reality in the scene, for me at least, was the wonky perspective that is shown behind James Bond and Tracy when they have their medium shots. The background is shaking quite violently even when the characters are just skiing in a relatively straight line. It is obvious then that the backgrounds were added after the actors filmed their skiing scenes in the studio.

C. CONCLUSION- rough

            Obviously filming an avalanche is far more difficult than using an animation program to do it but the overall effect that both films wanted was the same. The avalanche was to be a huge monster of nature that would try but fail to devour the protagonist (Scrat, 007 and Tracy). The avalanche in Ice Age was successful in presenting the danger of the avalanche but failed to make it as believable as it could be even within the universe that it had created. The uniform movements and even pacing of the natural disaster made it seem too artificial. On Her Majesty's Secret Service's quick cuts and stock footage also gave the scene a stale feeling of unfocused direction. All that aside however, both films do allow the avalanches to give the characters a sense of bedlam and if one was to combine the realism in the Bond picture with the heightened danger in Ice Age, the avalanche would work wonders.

 

Character Animation

 

 

 

       For this animation, I made sure to plan out the scenes first so I would not be going into the staging and composition of the characters blind. The basic premise was that it would start out with 007 trying to hunt his nemesis Dr. Julius No. However, upon finding and preparing to subdue the good doctor, James Bond falls in love with him. He drops the gun and the two presumably make out. I know that I haven't exactly achieved the heights of Ang Lee and his Brokeback Mountain, but I tried.

 

       There are several  moments such as the beginning and end where Photoshop came to use and also when Bond raises his eyebrows. I felt the shot was necessary to really push the idea that Bond liked what he saw. There are a couple of areas such as when Bond "checks out" Dr. No that I wish I could have done better but somehow his body always moves in the most infuriating ways when I move him. There were also some shots where I needed to put Bond or Dr. No on a stand, so I had to paint that out on Photoshop. Well that's about it. Hope the animation reads.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

             Action films have entranced countless generations, but of course reality can only bring so much to the screen in terms of excitement and wonder. As the decades passed and film became more technically innovative, the action genre has become more "colorful". By the turn of the century, fantasy and action welded together and films such as ones featuring superheroes have suspended the laws of physics to entertain and indulge the audience. This heightened reality, however, comes at a price. Because many of the feats the characters in these films are able to pull off have not been attempted in real life, the filmmakers oftentimes need to test it out themselves, only to realize that sometimes a certain action is too slow or too quick for the general masses to notice and appreciate it on the screen. This causes them to break some laws of physics in order to present a more aesthetically pleasing product. A common physics problem in these recent action films are the impossible jumps. Using the jump magnification equation (jump height divided by push height) and the push time equation (jump time divided by jump magnification), many characters in recent blockbusters do not adhere to either of these equations when they are performing jumps.

             In the first Spider-Man (the superior 2002 Sam Raimi version), the audience is presented with a being who's abilities are so supernatural, he can swing from building from building using only webs that sling out of his hand when he positions his hands in such a way in which it looks like a gang sign. The character of Spider-Man is also very agile and can react faster and stronger than a regular human being. In a particular scene, as Spider-Man races to save Mary Jane Watson from the clutches of his archenemy, the hammy Green Goblin, we see him jumping from one festival balloon to another. Since the web-slinging hero takes approximately a little less than a second for his push time with a jump magnification of perhaps 20 feet, the jump time should really be about a little less than 20 seconds. However, in the film, Spider-man is able to jump to the next balloon in a matter of two seconds. This does not adhere to the jump magnification and the push time found using the equations. The filmmakers must have known this but decided to use creative licensing and sped up Spider-man's jump time to add to the energy during his first battle scene with Green Goblin. If Sam Raimi and his crew had allowed Spider-Man to take 20 full seconds to leap up and slowly descend down to another balloon for him to have enough momentum to leap to Green Goblin, it would slow down the pacing of the action scene and the Green Goblin probably would have already been done assaulting Mary Jane Watson.

            Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon contains a similar lack of adherence to the relationships between the jump magnifications and push times. Throughout the entire film, characters are able to jump and even fly great distances with very little push time. However, given that the characters often jump or fly to such great heights, their jump time should usually be even faster for them to be able to jump to such an extreme height. A subtle example is when Jen steals the Green Destiny sword and is confronted by one of the bumbling guards. She jumps on top of him for about half a second (push time) and jumps to a height of at least 5 feet into the air. The push height was relatively low so perhaps it was about 1 foot. Therefore the jump magnification would be five feet. Adding that to the push time formula, the jump time (about a second) divided by the jump magnification of five feet simply does not equal the push time of half a second. In order for the push time equation to work, Jen would have to have a jump time of 2.5 seconds which in the film is only about less than 2 seconds. The timing in this example is a lot closer to being accurate than the one provided in Spider-Man and it's quite surprising to find that the jump time should have been longer when all the characters were on wires to give the audience the illusion that these supernatural beings were flying or jumping. There are still even other examples in the film where the push time is not fast enough for the characters to jump to such a height, but the motivation behind this remains the same for the filmmakers. They want the audience to feel the push of the jump and experience the balletic movement when the characters are suspended in the air. The accuracy of the timing takes a back seat.

 The last example is from Disney Pixar's The Incredibles. In the same vein as Spider-Man, this film follows super beings around as they perform various "incredible" feats. As an overweight Bob Parr tries to fend off a mediocre version of the Omnidroid, he makes an incredible leap of about 30 feet into the air to get over the Omnidroid and give it a nice right hook. His push height is about one and a half feet, meaning his jump magnification would be about 20 feet. Since the jump time was a little bit less than two seconds, Mr. Incredible's push time should be about 1/10 of a second long. In the film, it would have been almost impossible to notice the 1/10 of a second which was why the filmmakers made it just a tidbit longer for the audience to feel and notice the push time. This is the opposite problem with Spider-Man in which Peter Parker's push time is too long for the given jump time he has in the film. Like the example in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brad Bird's main purpose was to show the audience the effort of the push and the flow of the jump.

            Of all the examples presented, it would be belittling to the filmmakers to believe that they thought they had adhered to the jump magnification and push time equations. The three crews probably all knew that that their films did not adhere to some laws of physics but decided not to in order to heighten the drama, excitement and action. Spider-Man's speed, Jen's athletic skill and Mr. Incredible's mobility are all showcased at the expense of the accurate jumps. Fantasy and animated films such as the three mentioned have always been about imitating life, not copying it. When these movies copy life exactly, the mundane and often stiff nature of the actions will clash with the world that has been built in the alternate reality. Films of this sort must tweak and sometimes alter the laws of physics to help accentuate the actions and the world that is being created. Only then will the film be believable and yet fantastical at the same time.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

I. Introduction

            Action films have entranced countless generations, and of course reality can only bring so much to the screen in terms of excitement and wonder. As the decades passed and film became more technically innovative, the action genre has become more "colorful". By the turn of the century, fantasy and action welded together and films such as superhero films have suspended the laws of physics to entertain and shock the audience. A common physics problem in recent action films are the impossible jumps. Using the jump magnification equation (jump height divided by push height) and the push time equation (jump time divided by jump magnification), the three films presented do not follow the push time equation after finding the jump magnification equation.

II. Spider-Man's Unity Festival Balloon Jump

            a. In the first Spider-Man (the superior 2002 Sam Raimi version), as Spider-Man races to save Mary Jane Watson from the clutches of the Green Goblin, we see him jumping from one festival balloon to another. Since the web-slinging hero takes approximately a little less than a second for his push time with a jump magnification of perhaps 20 feet, the jump time should really be about a little less than 20 seconds. However, in the film, Spider-man is able to jump there in a matter of two seconds. This does not adhere to the jump magnification and the push time found using the equations.

            b. The filmmakers must have known this but decided to use creative licensing and sped up Spider-man's jump time to add to the energy during his first battle scene with Green Goblin.

III. Jen's Jump from Bumbling Guard

            a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon contains a similar lack of adherence to the relationships between the jump magnifications and push times. A subtler example is when Jen steals the Green Destiny sword and is confronted by one of the bumbling guards.

            b. She jumps on top of him for about half a second (push time) and jumps to a height of at least 5 feet into the air. The push height was relatively low so perhaps it was about 1 foot. Therefore the jump magnification would be five feet. Adding that to the push time formula, the jump time (about a second) divided by the jump magnification of five feet simply does not equal the push time of half a second.

IV. Mr. Incredible's Incredible Jump

            a. The last example is from Disney Pixar's The Incredibles. As an overweight Bob Parr fends off a mediocre version of the Omnidroid, he makes an incredible leap of about 30 feet into the air to get over the Omnidroid and give it a nice right hook. His push height is about one and a half feet, meaning his jump magnification would be about 20 feet. Since the jump time was a little bit less than two seconds, Mr. Incredible's push time should be about 1/10 of a second long.      b. In the film, it would have been almost impossible to notice the 1/10 of a second which was why the filmmakers made it just a tidbit longer for the audience to feel and notice the push time.

V. Conclusion  

            Of all the examples presented, it would be belittling to the filmmakers to believe that they thought they had adhered to the jump magnification and push time equations. They three crews probably all knew that that their films did not adhere to some law of physics but decided not to in order to heighten the drama, excitement and action. Spider-Man's speed, Jen's athletic skill and Mr. Incredible's mobility are all showcased at the expense of the accurate jumps.

 

Reverse Video Reference

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

 

 

 

       For this stop motion animation I decided to use my refrigerator as the "canvas" because I do not have a tripod that can hold my camera in place while I shoot images from the floor. Since I had a clown and a circular magnet, the simplest animation that I could have done with those two objects in my mind was to have the clown kick the magnet as if it was a ball. After getting the feel of where the magnet should be at certain areas by drawing arcs on the fridge for the bounces with a brush pen, I animated straight ahead. As it came to a stop I noticed that it was close to the edge of the table. Transferring my soul into the clown, I decided to jump kick it off the table. I was going to have it jump down and then kick it again, but I found the scenario to be redundant. The jump kick turned into a jump slip and I don't know how believable that is, but I found it more amusing than a kick from the clown again. Lastly, I decided to keep the greyscale tone for the animation (product of Flipbook) instead of using Photoshop to keep the colors because I felt that it would be more unique and feel as if it was some old silent film.

The Laws of Physics of an Animation Universe

The Laws of Physics in "The Emperor's New Groove"

 

            "The Emperor's New Groove" is an animated comedy which broke away from its formulaic animated precursors that constituted the Disney Renaissance. Whereas the previous films adhered to the strict guideline of a few songs, cute cuddly characters and strong romances, "The Emperor's New Groove" throws all of that and even quite a few of the laws of physics out the window. All of this is, however, allows the film to be the unique comedy more in tune with the Looney Tunes cartoons than a traditional Disney picture. The gravity, improbable paths of action and squash and stretch in the film all help complement the tone and style of the film which to this day is one of the more experimental Disney movies the company has produced.

            The film's use of gravity or lack of it accentuates the over the top comedic tone. The denouement of the film offers a good example of this. After Yzma's kind-hearted henchman tries to end her devilish schemes, Yzma pulls a lever which opens a trap door right under Kronk. In the tradition of Wile E. Coyote in the Looney Tunes cartoons, instead of realistically falling down the trap door almost immediately after it has opened, Kronk is suspended in the air for a moment to ruminate on how he probably should have seen the trap coming. Only after his regretful words does he fall down to his then apparent demise.

            A more subtle example of the unique gravity in the film occurs when Yzma and Kronk are in the secret lab. After Yzma rambles about her overly complicated plan to kill Kuzco, she holds a vial and tells Kronk to "feel the power". As Kronk is handed the vial full of powerful potion, he treats it as a stationary object and lets go of it for a while but the potion remains in the air unmoving, even though gravity should have plummeted the potion onto the ground and shattered it into a thousand pieces. Kronk quickly takes hold of the potion again so it may be easy for the first time viewer to miss it, but the lack of gravity working on the potion reinforces the idea that perhaps there is some truly powerful stuff in the potion and also that Kronk is a goofball. Gravity, however, is not always ignored or extremely altered to make way for humor. There are some instances in the film that adheres to the laws of gravity, usually the law or inertia. Near the beginning of the film when Kuzco learns that he has turned into a llama and rolls around until he hits a stone gate, he stops moving due to the unbalanced force of the gate. Another example is when Kuzco and Pacha are fighting under the broken bridge. After exchanging several blows, they both slam onto the sides of the mountains and slightly bounce off of it believably.

            The four main characters in the film are amazingly agile and durable as they catapult, slam and roll their way to the end of the movie. Their paths of actions, however, similar to their amazing athletic feats, are sometimes impossible. A particular example that comes to mind is when Kuzco and Pacha are trying to get up between two mountains after the bridge connecting the two has broken down. As the two buddies make their way up to tug on the remaining rope that was part of the bridge, Kuzco gets his head stuck in a cave full of bats while Pacha finds that tugging the rope that was stuck to the tree only releases scorpions down his back. In a state of panic, Pacha begins slamming his back onto the side of the mountain, awakening the bats in the cave that Kuzco's head was stuck in. As the bats fly into Kuzco's mouth and out of the cave, the emperor is able to tag along with the bats as they fly upward to the top of one of the mountains. In reality, the bats would not have been able to catapult Kuzco and Pacha on an upward arc allowing them to rebound off of the side of the mountain and onto the edge. No matter how many bats there could have been, there would not have been enough momentum to bring the two of them up onto the top of the mountain. In reality, it would have allowed Kuzco to be carried by the bats for a few moments before falling back to the relatively same place.

            Yzma herself experiences an improbable path of action when she goes through a life threatening obstacle course set up by Pacha's kids. At the end of the obstacle, Yzma is launched off of a wagon after it hits a rock. She soon replaces a piñata that a group of kids were supposed to batter and the path of action immediately stops as she bumps the real piñata out of the way. The rope that she is latched onto when she replaces the piñata also does not realistically swing back and forth like a pendulum upon impact from Yzma. It remains a straight line as Yzma abruptly stops moving and becomes vulnerable to the kids' weapons. The sudden stop adds to the comedy and surprise as the audience sees what has happened to Yzma's body after the brutal obstacle course the kids have put her through. When these characters complete their improbable paths of action, they also usually squash and stretch in hilarious yet extreme ways that would not be able to be accomplished by real animals.

            A final example of a ridiculous path of action happens when Pacha shoves a vial down Kuzco's throat, hoping that its "something with wings". Sure enough Kuzco is turned into a bird, but a very small one, similar in mass to perhaps a parrot. Since most birds can only carry half of its own weight, the fact that Kuzco is able to carry Pacha for at least three seconds as a bird makes the path of action impossible. Just like the Yzma piñata example, after flying for about three seconds, the arc stops and both Kuzco and Pacha abruptly plummet down. Once again, not only does the path of action not work, the arc doesn't finish either.

            The squash and stretch in "The Emperor's New Groove" is also very similar to the ones used in the Looney Tunes cartoons which will usually neglect the anatomy and skeleton of the characters in order to emphasize the impact of the force. During the end battle when Pacha and Yzma fight for the potion that will change Kuzco back to a human, there is a moment when Yzma jumps up in the air and performs an elbow drop on Pacha. As she lands, Pacha squashes to such a degree in which it seems that his entire body is made of only water. No skeletal structure or muscles could have realistically fit into the character at that moment. Audience members do not notice this due it being only a split second, but it exaggerates the impact that Yzma's elbow has on Pacha's body, as unrealistic as it may be.

            Using Yzma as an example again, after she launches back up from the trampoline and gets a hold of the vial, she chuckles for a few seconds at her good luck before smacking into the ceiling outside the palace. Her entire cat body squashes to such an extreme position that it seems as if all her anatomy and skeleton is missing. Only her volume remains the same which makes it believable but unrealistic. This adds to the idea that the impact was very extreme and also reminds the viewer that the character was in a cartoon so that there would be a lack of blood gushing out of Yzma or body parts stuck to the ceiling.

            "The Emperor's New Groove" is a hilarious film and while during many of its action scenes the laws of physics are broken left and right, the film does adhere to the laws of gravity in its more intimate and low key scenes. When dramatic action takes place, the comedy often follows right alongside it, resulting in exaggerated squashing and stretching coupled with a few insanely impossible paths of action. Gravity and sometimes the lack of it accentuates the action scenes to enforce the outlandish humor.

Outline for First Term Paper

Laws of Physics in "The Emperor's New Groove"

I. Introduction

   a. Synopsis of the film

   b. In a similar tradition to the Looney Tunes cartoon

   c. Hypothesis: The Emperor's New Groove does not follow the laws of physics due to the film's exaggerated universe. The gravity, improbable arcs and squash and stretch in the film all help complement the comedic tone of the film and its characters.
 
II. Gravity or Lack Thereof

   a. When Kronk is about to fall into Yzma's deathtrap near the end of the film, he stays in the air for a few seconds before dropping into the deathtrap right below him.

   b. During the bridge scene, Kuzco and Pacha are able to step on the flying bats to run up the side of the mountain and onto its ledge.

   c. A very subtle example of this is when Yzma hands Kronk the vial that will poison Kuzco so that he can  "feel the power". Kronk lets go of the vial and the vial stays in place.

 
   III. Improbable Arcs

   a. After Yzma is launched from a wagon and takes the place of a piñata by Pacha's kids, she abruptly stops any movement and is stuck on the string that attaches to the real piñata. The arc stops in the dead center.

   b. When Pacha shoves down a new vial for Kuzco to drink to transform him back into a human, Kuzco turns into a very small bird and is able to carry a much larger Pacha for a few seconds before falling straight down onto a statue.

   c. During the very last fight scene between Kuzco and Yzma (after she has been transformed into a cat), Yzma tries to dive for the potion that will change her back into "her beautiful self" without realizing that the dive is several hundred stories downwards. At the apex of her dive she exclaims "uh oh" and falls straight down without completing the arc she started.

   d. As Yzma and Kronk chase after Kuzco and Pacha with a flying vehicle, a sudden bolt of lightning strikes  and stops them dead on their tracks.
 

IV. Squash and Stretch

   a. Yzma's eye can stretch into and out of a peephole to see what is on the other side.

   b. The bats that fly into Kuzco stretches his mouth to an extremely exaggerated degree.

   c. In the first scene where Kronk meets the squirrel, Yzma slips and falls into what looks like a swamp. As she tries to pull her head out from the said swamp, her neck is stretched out to the point of it acting like latex.

   d. The cat that Yzma turns into squashes onto the palace structure and stays stuck there in the squashed position.

 

V. Conclusion

   a. The Emperor's New Groove is a hilarious film. Although it doesn't always adhere to the laws of physics, the film puts comedy in front of physical plausibility to great effect. The audience won't notice the physics because they will be so invested in the comedy.

 

 

Video Analysis of Path of Action

 

 

 

   

 

 

Three Jumps Reference

 

 

 

Two Jumps Reference

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shooting Video Reference

 

 

 

 

Mini-Portfolio

 

This first image is a traditional painting of a branch that I did in ANI 113B. I exaggerated the colors a little bit to make it a bit more colorful and saturated.

 

 

This is a painting I did in 112B. The palette I chose for this Flemish still life was full saturation with primary colors straight from the tube to the canvas. There is a bit of white and mixing of colors. I call this painting "Acid Trip".

 



 

 

This is a pencil piece that I completed in my first class at SJSU: ANI 12.

 



 

 

This was my final animation in ANI 28. I hope to get better.

 

 

       My name is Daniel Chen and this is my seventh semester at SJSU. I have taken all the lower division animation/illustration classes and just recently passed the portfolio review. I am now taking ANI 114 and ANI 51B, along with this class. The science classes I have taken are few and far between. I have taken Chemistry, Biology and Physics, but only at the rudimentary level. I've never cared much for science and found most of the classes to be too dry and boring. I'm sure in the right context I will be able to appreciate it more. At the moment I do not know what I want to do. I seem to be proficient in only painting some landscapes and drawing heads. My figures, animation and computer modeling skills need a lot of work and I hope to do just that. If I had to choose right now what I would want to do in the industry, I would probably say comic book writer and artist.

 



The First Post

Hi there.