Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Here are the three stereoscopic images I've created for this asignment; it was rather tricky at first, but I think the 3D effect is definitely there...

Lighting a Scene in Maya

One Point

Two Point

Three Point

Building a Scene in Maya

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

The Law of Acceleration in Current Film

Every once in a while, as we sit captivated in front of yet another creation of modern cinematography, we like to turn to our friends and quietly remark something along the lines of, “that didn’t look right”; or go all the way and proclaim aloud “look what they did there, that can’t possibly work!!” In animation, that sense of acute perception is somewhat deadened in us, but in viewing CGI movies it comes fully to life and makes us all critics. So, are we right in thus judging the carefully charted special effects, presented to us like the ultimate spice of a motion picture, purposefully designed to suspend our sense of disbelief, and push the known-to-all laws of physical reality just far enough to enhance our viewing pleasure? Or have we just not grasped enough knowledge of our own world to accept it on screen when it is shown to us so openly? To find out, let us examine a few popular films and scrutinize further to find those flaws, real or fake. And since we cannot pick them for all their potential mistakes, let us focus on a singular physical law which is at stake in all of them. For this paper, I have chosen to examine Newton’s second law, that of Acceleration, and how it fluctuates depending on the mass of the object and it force. For instance, something might appear to walk, jump, fly, etc, too quickly or too slowly depending on its apparent mass; or the reverse of that; it is a principle which we are so familiar with, having used it on a daily basis our entire lives, that we pick up on it right away, but often cannot explain why. To clarify this, the movies that I have picked are The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Iron Giant, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

To start off with the Two Towers, it must be said primarily that the film is flawlessly done, and even though it contains more than enough potential examples of gravitational flaws, it makes sure to work them out so that it looks entirely real or masks them to the best of the animators’ ability. Yet a few sequences suggest an overlooking of the aforementioned acceleration principles; we start to notice it better when the Ents come on the scene, those long legged giants, not too far off descendants of trees, which chose to stay out of the war until the sequence in question, when they all gather to fight the armies of evil by stomping on them and throwing massive boulders. But before all that (which, incidentally, looks very proportionate to how it would look in real life), the Ents have to walk to Entwood, their special place of gathering, and they do that in small intervals throughout the entire film. The two hobbits, Merry and Pippin, hitch a ride on the main and most important of the Ents by the name of Treebeard, gripping to him as to a large tree. Now, there are several such scenes, mainly for the purposes of dialogue, but the one I want to focus on is when the three characters enter into Entwood, a small glen in the middle of the woods and greet the others of their kind.

Even in the beginning of the relatively short sequence, we see that something isn’t right: the hobbits, clinging to the giant’s arboreal visage, move across the screen rather slowly given the estimated height of the tree person. If the average height of a hobbit is 3.5 to 4 feet, it becomes easy to guess the giant’s height when the three of them come into full view a few seconds later: Merry is sitting on top of the giants head, and measuring down from there, the Ent is approximately 5.5 hobbits tall, about 22 feet in all. Seeing him from head to toe, also allows for easy steps per frame measure; and here we see that it takes him no less than 60 frames to take a single step! Given that the movie’s frame rate is about 24 fps, that makes his walk 2.5 seconds per step, resulting in 5 times slower than the average speed of 12 frames per step. So far, the visuals match the calculations, unless we include the probability that the hobbits would not be able to ride as comfortably and smoothly at a height of 20 feet; be they as they may creatures used to harsh environments, the Ent simply would not be able to place his feet thus smoothly on the forest floor. However, the bigger issue is the background, as it doesn’t seem to match the speed of the giant’s gait. If he is 5 times as tall as a small human, and moves 5 times as slow, would he not travel 5 times the distance? And that does not seem to be conveyed in the short segment. Seeing the world on horseback, or moreover, the back of an elephant, already seems fast to us; so the background must at least be blurred or appear to move by at a more than average speed.

A similar problem occurs in the Iron Giant, in the scene towards second half of the film, when Hogarth, Dean and the Giant are at the lake. Hogarth is in the water, beckoning his iron friend to come into the lake as well; at which point the Giant turns around, goes amongst the trees and jumps in, creating an enormous all-sweeping tidal wave. We don’t see as he walks into the forest, but we hear each mechanized step; it takes him nine steps total to achieve a run and propel himself into the air, at least twice his own height. He is airborne for at least 8 seconds before reaching water, making the fall 25 feet per second (200 ft / 8sec). What becomes problematic in this particular sequence is the sheer height and mass of the giant; given those perimeters, he could not possibly push himself off the ground almost instantaneously and achieve that kind of flight afterwards.

We cannot see all the Giant’s movements, put judging purely by sound, it seems that it takes him no time at all to accelerate. To calculate his jump magnification, let’s estimate that his push time is no more than 2 frames and his push height a little less than a third of his total height, about 30 feet. Therefore, 200 ft / 30 ft = 6.7, the number of times by which his jump height is magnified. We can see clearly that the numbers simply don’t add up. A creature that size cannot just sweep into the air without proper preparation and acceleration, unless he has other means of propelling himself into the air besides strength and counter force.

And on the subject of force and acceleration, the opposite occurs with much smaller objects. For instance, in Prince Caspian, we see the fighting mouse, Ripacheep, bring down four grown men in armor with only himself and his sword. Just as the unnatural acceleration of too heavy objects occurs in the previous examples, here we see projection of too heavy a force from a small source. As in the Iron Giant, we don’t see his movements but the sounds and the eye trace is there, giving us an estimated speed of about 90-100 miles an hour. When he comes out of the grass and we see that he is indeed 1.5 feet tall, the proportions of an abnormally sized rat, it becomes plausible for his movements to be swift – he is a rodent after all. Yet the striking force remains a mystery; we know that the reaction must be at least equal to the action in order for movement to occur; moreover, the net force must not be lesser and the object acted upon may not be heavier in mass than the one that acts upon it. In all probability, a creature of that stature, i.e. 1/5 the size of a human, would weigh the proportionate amount of about 30 pounds. What it ultimately comes down to is Newton’s simple formula for the Second Law, F=ma. Going by estimate, we can say that m=30lbs and a=90 mph, coming to 2700 N on all four defeated soldiers. Given that the laws of the movie obey the laws of nature in our own universe, this would make an impossible strike, since N would have to equal at least 13,000, or the force projected by a human adult.

After this brief look into the world of all three films, we begin to understand just how altered our perception of the natural world becomes based on what we observe from entertainment sources. While one world was a replica of our own, except an animated version, the other two were based in the real world with heavy reliance on CGI to fulfill the missing pieces. From this we can only conclude that whether animation is the only means of communication or the spice that helps the main film be functional, it very often strays far from the truth to fulfill its objectives. Still, if its sole purpose is to please the viewer and enhance the story, all three fills do a great job of fulfilling that ultimate goal. 

Outline for the Second Term Paper

For the second term paper, I will be considering the classic principle of Action-Reaction, specifically of how exceptionally large and heavy objects seem unnaturally light in their behavior, and how small and light things seem to do unbelievable amounts of work for their size and weight.

Take for instance the Iron Giant. The animation is flawless, moreover, exemplary, so that our disbelief is suspended almost throughout the entire time. However, there is more than one sequence which makes us doubt as to how a creature that size could move with such facility. The scene that comes to mind in this case is about two thirds of the way through the film, where the giant dives into the lake after the boy, Hogarth. A metallic monster of that size is not likely to jump that quickly, hover through the air that slowly and then make a splash that would only occur after a really big fish. If that is not enough, there are plenty of car chases and people chases through the unharmed streets that would support the same idea.

In the second place we have the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which is mostly all battle scenes, and most of those are falling heavy objects. However, it’s the scene where the two hobbits are carried on the shoulders of the ent (tree person) that doesn’t make sense visually: the background is too slow, and the survival of the poor hobbits is questionable.

Continuing with the family genre, we see a similar thing happening in Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, where a mighty warrior in the shape of a mouse is able to knock down several grown men and more in the space of a few seconds, being about five times less their size and weight. In this case, the action reaction principle is reversed, as it applies to a smaller object having by far the superior power: legendary as he may be, the mouse would never be able to defend against an army in this world or Narnia.

In short, the action reaction principle is there, whether we take time to look for it or not. It is the thing most of us love to criticize in animation as well as live action, no matter how enjoyable the film.

 

Mid-semester Survey

This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html).

Stop-Motion Character Animation

This was my first claymation ever! I've never tried it before, but was always fascinated by it because it combines my two favorite things in the world - sculpture and movement. I didn't have any stuffed animals or dolls handy, so for this project I decided to make a rough little figurine, something simple but resembling a human. It turned out better than I thought, and faster, although I had to reshoot it. It only took 108 frames on twos, so I guess minimalism is always the best option if used correctly.

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

Clip A:





Clip B:






Clip C:





Clip D:







Clip E:

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

The Physics of Chicken Run

The world of animation has always been a place where we could easily escape to and get away from the problems that plague real life or simply for entertainment. But among CG and 2D films, none does it quite as well as Nick Park, the creator of the feature claymation Chicken Run. Flawless as it may seem, though, Chicken Run has its own share of physics faults. It is these faults that I would like to address in this essay.

             For example, we see that the gravity on Mrs. Tweedy’s farm is the same as in our own world; the reaction, however, is not equal to the action when characters push things around; and the faster movements, such as running and flying, are also kept inconsistent with the number of frames they would normally take up. The counter theory is that in order to push the contrast between the human world and the chicken world, the laws are a little bent whenever the chickens are interacting; that is why we also see ridiculously outstretched reactions happening with minimal applied force, as well as slow-motion style jumps and flying. In a word, the film’s established action and reaction principles contradict themselves when necessary.

            Throughout the majority of the film, we primarily see dialogue and the characters walking at a relatively even pace, which is not enough to give us a clear idea of the gravitational forces behind the scenes. Going chronologically, throughout the opening credits we notice things that would lead us to believe that the gravity works the same as in our world: for instance, the farmer throwing Ginger, the main chicken character, into the abandoned coop; Ginger being pulled on a wheelie in a dark tunnel; and at the end of the sequence, the farmer nudges Ginger on the back, making her stumble and fall over. Other hardly noticeable factors include the leaf of paper falling in a typical downwards arc after Rocky the Rooster’s initial entrance. Yet whereas the animators could actually use real paper to achieve this, the real artistry is seen at the end of the first flight training sequence, when the clay feathers float in the air, making the viewer forget their abnormal thickness and mass. On the opposite end, we see the challenge of representing heavy objects, such as when the truck pulls up to the house the second time, carrying heavy machinery: here, the settle becomes really noticeable; we see the truck’s frame rise up and then fall softly on the wheels above as it comes to a stop. Finally, the climatic moment offers a great number of examples of appropriate gravitational pull with eggs being hurtled to the ground and characters nearly falling out of the flying apparatus in the process.

            While these might be unextraordinary examples, they become significant factors in suspending our disbelief when coincided with unrealistic representations of fast action. The few major scenes in Chicken Run are enough to convince us that its makers breached a bit too far into slow motion for the flying to be believable; therefore, it’s safe to say that there are too many frames per second in every flying sequence than need to be, making the laws of flight different from our own. To use one of the above examples, Rocky’s first flight into the farm holds our attention for approximately ten seconds from when we see him in the distance to his crash landing into the wind vane. It is slow enough for the rooster to wave as he passes by the chicken standing on the ground, so one begins to wonder if it is in fact a flying bird or a projectiled one. The crash convinces us of the latter, and later on in the story it is confirmed that Rocky is a circus bird shot out of a cannon. If we estimate the distance relayed to us from the farm to the location of the cannon, it is about a mile away. Without speculating further into the impossibility of the bird’s survival from such a violent outburst, or at least the prospect of it’s keeping all its feathers, we can estimate that the cannon’s angle is somewhere between 35º- 45º. Given the total flight time (t), it is easy to figure out the velocity (v) by plugging in the gravitational acceleration (g = 32.2 ft/ss, standard on Earth). Therefore:

2V= g x t   or  v= (g x t)/2

This gives us :

v = (32.2 x 10)/2

v= 161 ft/ss 

Or in miles: 161 ft/1 sec = 5,280 ft / 3600 ss   gives us 109.7 mi/hr.

The bird itself is about 1 foot high, as we can clearly see when the chickens surround the farmer. Given the acceleration chart, we can figure out that in order to travel over a hundred miles per hour would take between 75 and 85 inches per frame, which clearly is not happening; Rocky is traveling approximately the length of his body (12 or so inches), making the velocity only under 20 mph. Given all these factors, it is both impossible for Rocky to travel that slow from a cannon only a mile away, or if it is in fact slow motion specifically there for effect, it would be impossible for him to travel over a 100 mph and suspend himself enough to wave. And since it does not look like slow motion, there are evidently too many frames in order for the flight to read as it would in life.

            The same is true of the finale, where we see Ginger battling Mrs. Tweedy on a twinkle light wire suspended from the flying crate. Again, the possibility of realistic lift off is impossible both in terms of the flying machine’s velocity and weight, and the background behind Mrs. Tweedy. The first is prone to suspicion given the fact that it would take an apparatus of that size a much greater speed in order to get sufficient lift, much less to hold up while being weighed down by a human being. Second, we see that Mrs. Tweedy’s head, which cannot be bigger than 20 inches, is moving at a rate of 13 to 15 inches per frame, making the velocity no more than 25 mph. Either the birds’ plane is too slow, making its flight impossible, or the frame rate is wrong.

            The third on the list of oddities is the entire correlation between action and reaction in this movie. Undeniably, some motions are flawlessly executed, such as the tennis ball bouncing off the wall as Ginger waits to get out of confinement. For the most part we see that in this world the reaction is not always equal to the action. The toy catapult throws a turnip some dozen feet across the room in only two seconds. Given the arm’s tangential speed, the throw would be instantaneous and not take as long to reach its target. Plenty of comedic examples of the same nature occur during the first flight training episode. A chicken strapped to a box is thrust forward with the help of a stretchy band only to fly forward when the box stops abruptly, proceeding to bounce off the fence at the same speed as she flew into it. While the inertia might make sense, in this case the kinetic force would not be bounced off the fence but instead be absorbed into it. Approaching the end, we see Ginger’s attack on the farmer as he opens the chicken coop; she is able to gain his face almost without crouching, standing five feet below. That kind of jump would normally require at least twice the crouch time and magnification.

            A competing theory might state that these incongruities are seen only when chickens are interacting, therefore, the world of chickens has a different set of reaction laws from that of people based on size, etc. It is true that in the world which the Tweedies inhabit things go a lot more smoothly: we even see the Niquist effect when Mrs. Tweedy spins one of the round blades from the pie maker. However, there is no physical mix up when the chickens and humans are interacting. In fact, this theory does not work because the chicken’s size does not make any difference when it comes to reaction timing; moreover, we see that such exaggerations only occur in climatic points of the story, where outstretched comedy furthers the story. We see humans and birds act similarly side by side, as when Mr. Tweedy is fixing the pie-maker and the chickens are building their plane; nails are pulled from boxes with natural force, fabric cut, gadgets spun at appropriate timing. In the dance scene, the same force applied to produce unreal spins does not have the same effect.

            In conclusion, we get a clearer idea of what a claymation universe consists of and what elements it retains. The gravity might make things believable, yet other principles are subject to alteration. Yet no matter how simple or complex, every action goes toward progressing the story line, therefore is filled with meaning. It is at that point that perfect timing becomes questioned when the perfect outcome of a scene is at stake. Yet when both find a way to blend in a smart and funny way, that is what makes a classic, as Chicken Run deserves to be.

 

 

Outline for the First Term Paper

In this essay, I will be talking about the physical laws in Chicken Run. As a claymation, it has the best of both worlds: the appearance of reality (since most of the props are real, besides the sculpted characters) and the cartoony feel of animation, which makes for great entertainment.

But which parts are exaggerated for entertainment and which are stretched for the sake of storytelling and animators’ convenience? In this particular feature, where the world of chickens exists side by side with the world of humans, the scenes that obey the factual laws and those that are “tweaked” are intermixed for proper affect.

            First, the laws of gravity are the same as in the real world. We see many examples of it by seeing the farmer and his wife going through the motions much the same way as we would expect any human actors on screen. The car pulling up, heavy machinery falling, resistance when handling heavy objects as opposed to light ones – all show that there is a gravitation pull.

            Second, we see that the reaction is always equal to the action. Things fall down naturally, characters collide when pushed around, etc. (Examples: around the chicken feed, defending against the farmer, building the flying machine - hammering nails, cutting fabric, handling tools, etc)

This established law is broken in more than one scene, primarily for entertainment value and the pacing of the action. For example, several catapult scenes, exaggerated flops, spins, kicks, etc. Some things come too hard, others are too easy.

Third, the flying principle follows the normal number of frames. When objects are tossed around, when characters are thrown through the air, and the final flying machine sequence, all display the eye’s natural perception of flying on screen.

This law is broken as well in a few scenes that emphasize the importance of that moment in the story. There, either the character or the background slows down to a fairly readable rate, where the viewer can easily perceive the action. (Examples include Rockies first entrance, Ginger and Mrs Tweedy hanging by the rope in the end, and a number of small scenes.)

Overall, both following the scientific principles and overlooking them creates a great visual!

 

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

This is my first time doing a stop motion animation, though I am quite experienced in the traditional 2D. And even though there is no drawing or technical skill involved, this was still harder than I thought and did not come out to my liking even aftr several hours of tweeking. To create the bounce effect, I marked the floor for each stage of falling a la Chai, removing the second 1/2 division. Overall, it seemed to work...

Video analysis of path of action

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Video Reference

FPS: 30

Mini Portfolio

Above are some examples of my work from previous semesters. Most of it is preparatory sketches along with two finished pieces from Bunny Carter's art 113b class, which dealt with illustrating two separate forest environments with different lighting, atmosphere, mood, etc. The video is my latest creation form animation class. Since most of my background training comes from doing complex renderings in traditional media, like the pen and acrylics shown here, I wanted to do something loose and reminiscent of the typical sketchbook style for this specific assignment; the ballpoint pen squiggles also helped stylize the story pretty uniquely. As much as I want to enhance my work with strong visuals and an atypical sense of aesthetic, whether it's animation or visual development, I want to back it up with commonplace rationality of storytelling and adequate sense of rhythm; most importantly, I want to communicate to my audience in a way that's simple and visually pleasing. Along with my current experimenting and practice with programs like Maya and Photoshop, I hope to create lots more compelling pieces that will embody all these things!

The First Post

After the first day, the class looks more exciting than ever!