Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Hoping I did some of these right. I did these with the magenta and green 3D glasses.

My room (Depth)

 A picture of me

 A place on campus that is recognizable 

AND...

Bonus 3D Maya Scene from 129b

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

The assignment was to reproduce/ recreate this object in Maya. My renderings are okay. It was really hard trying to get that penumbra angle lighting. I was trying to figure it out in the attribute editor, but nothing was working.

Real photo:

My images in Maya:

Building a Scene in Maya

Basic Maya Light:

Extra Credit:

One point lighting:

Two Point Lighting:

 Three Point Lighting.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

No term paper is being submitted.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Introduction

When we watch movies, we usually are caught up in the moment or action of the scenes that we tend to not notice things that may or may not be able to happen.

A.   Action and Reaction  

1.     For every action force, there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction.

B.    Movies that break this law:

1.     Iron Man at (1:45:47) 

2.     Transformers (1:50:40)

3.     The Incredibles  (00:37:40-00:00:38:00)

Body

A.   Iron Man 2008

1.     Near the end at 1:45:47, Iron man was able to catch a car with a family inside that was about 10-15ft in the air because the villain drops it. He caught the car when he was on ground with little reaction or recoil from the weight of the car. Even when his suit was around 17% capacity.

2.     What is wrong with the scene is that a car weighs about a ton or two, add a few hundred pounds with the people inside. The car does not fall at terminal velocity of course because it falls a short distance, but the weight of it and Iron Man catching the car should have had a bigger reaction. The timing seems fine, bit the recoil or overshoot was stiff. The reaction is the force it took to catch the car. Gravity of car pushes down, iron man does not have enough recoil to show his resistance/ force upon the car.

B.    Transformers 2007

1.     Around or start of 1:50:40, the scorpion type robot’s jumps while rollerblading towards Optimus Prime on the highway. The force of the jump and tackle has them falling off the bridge highway ramp.

2.     The opponent scorpion robot’s takeoff of the jump did not seem to have enough force to take down Optimus. It did not bend its knees enough to generate enough force. The machine was also on wheels so I do not know if that reduces the friction of moving forward on wheels and the ground.

3.     Also when they fall down to the lower level of the ramps, the impact should have caved in the roadway since they would both seem to weigh more than an average car and that there are two of them.

C.    The Incredibles 2003

1.     Mr. Incredible hits the giant robot maybe about 30ft or so and robot hits tree, but tree does not break from impact.

2.     Robot this time smacks/ hits Mr. Incredible into (what appears to be) a bigger tree yet the tree breaks from impact.

3.     Breaks action and reaction because of weight of the bigger object’s force did not react the breaking of its tree. Tree should have broke from the impact of the force. The air time of the robot may have been slow but the mass of the object should have at least knocked the tree down if not break it than Mr. Incredible breaking his tree on impact.

Conclusion:

CG or animation, sometimes rules have to be broken to make characters seem believable.  

Stop-Motion Character Animation

    Well this was fun! In it's own way. I planned on doing a simple walk with clay characters but it was taking too long to make and it started to get messy. So I just used my older brother's Beast War toys again. I did plan on just using one character, but for some really odd reason, my mind went all crazy and wanted to add more characters to the story. I planned out a battle scene in the backyard cabana's pool table room. it was actually hard moving the rat characters because the joints were so loose that the it could not stand up. I had to either use my hand or tape to make it stand up. It was also hard moving the camera around.

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

Walk 01

Walk 02

Walk 03

Walk 04

Term Paper 1

Rise of the Guardians

The world of 3D animation is evolving. The characters and environment are becoming believable and the storylines are more engaging. We get so caught up in these films that we feel as though we are part of that movie’s world. But what is it about these worlds that make it believable? Dreamworks 3D animated film: Rise of the Guardians is set in a world that is similar to ours, but the main characters are beings that we have believed in when we were children. It has (Santa Clause) North, (the Easter Bunny) Bunnymund, the Tooth Fairy aka Tooth, and Sand Man. But the main protagonist of the movie is a folklore being that some of us have never even heard of: Jack Frost. The big four (North, Bunnymund, Tooth, and Sandy) are trying to stop an old threat from harming the children of the world and they need Jack’s help in order to do so. But Jack is someone the children of the world do not believe in and he does not even know why he exists too. As the movie progresses, Jack Frost learns who he is and what is means to be what he is.

Rise of the Guardians is a great 3D film. This movie is set to be in the world we live in now or close to it so the physics of that world are similar. The only difference is that magic plays a big role in breaking some laws of physics. The ways that the Guardians break some of the laws of physics is that the speed of which the characters move and stop, their sense of weight, and the way some of them travel is a bit impossible. Magic helps them, but let us see what rules of physics they break.

Momentum is not really a rule, but a product of mass and velocity. It helps with Newton’s second law. This happens with North’s sleigh. The Guardians are alerted that Tooth’s tooth palace is under attack. Tooth leaves first so North offers a ride to the rest to go fly in his sleigh. The sleigh as it is introduced is a grand old transportation made mostly of wood, but there are some metal parts there also. As it takes off with North, Bunnymund, Sandy, and Jack, it starts off with an alarming velocity and just goes off into the ice tunnels. The next scene about the sleigh’s momentum is when it lands in Tooth’s palace and find Tooth searching around looking for her fairies. It even lands on a short ledge with a short of amount of time. This can only happen in that world. In our world, if you were to move a heavy object, it would take a longer time to stop it. It is also the same as stopping the momentum of the heavy object. If the sleigh was lighter, that could have explained the sudden start and stop, but I am guessing that the modeler of the sleigh wanted to make it feel like an old grand piece of transportation. The reindeer though are either a bit smaller or just as big as the sleigh could explain the sudden acceleration, but it still should have started slow at first because of the weight the reindeers have to pull to get to a running start. Ice could have shortened the time to make momentum, but that would also have to affect the reindeer too causing a delay if there is no friction. Another thing or character that defies momentum is Pitch. This also happens at the tooth palace. Right after the Guardians realize the teeth and fairies are gone. Pitch is able to move at incredible speed yet somehow stop suddenly as Tooth is trying to catch him around her palace. Pitch also ends up behind Jack and moves very quickly from his spot to get away from Bunnymund. Pitch is technically based off a human. His momentum does not take as long as the sleigh, but he has incredible speed to be able to zoom off fast and yet stop suddenly. There are other factors of broken physics that come into play.

The sleigh

These are the scenes where Pitch seems to be moving so fast with not much momentum to stop himself.

The next rule that is broken is the law of acceleration or terminal speed of an object. This all has to do with Newton’s first law. Law of acceleration has to do with motion. An unbalanced force causes an object to move. It all depends on the size of an object or subject and the speed of the object or subject. Terminal speed has to do with an object going as fast as it can until air resistance balances gravity. Somehow in Rise of the Guardians, the legends are lighter than they appear so some of them defy those rules. North, Bunnymund, Jack Frost, and Pitch are the characters that do just that. They seem lighter than they appear. At the tooth palace (again) the Guardians are chasing Pitch, but Pitch jumps off one of the tall tower ledges and falls/ runs to escape. All of the guardians jump off the ledge too. The drop seems to be at least 300 feet or more. Yet North and Bunnymund (Sandy and Tooth do not count since they could fly on their own) land on their feet! That is way too impossible to happen in real life. You would be dead. A regular person falling at that point would hit terminal speed. A person would at least gone about 115mph give or take, but landing on their feet would be impossible. Another scene of this would be when Jack is falling from the sky after using a great deal of his power to blast Pitch away for the time being. As he is falling, Tooth suddenly just catches him without a much of a reaction to his weight. Jack maybe may not have hit terminal velocity, but Tooth’s reaction still counts. This situation is kind of like the Superman catching Lois. Lois was falling already at terminal velocity. Superman then comes in at full speed and catches her as he is still going the same speed. He should have cut Lois in different parts from flying at that full speed. Near the end of the movie, Jack Frost hits his abyss mentally and physically because Pitch a few moments before has thrown Jack down a crack in between the glacier. From the camera angles, it shows that the fall could have been about 6-8 stories down. 5 stories are at least fatal, but Jack is not injured as much as if he should be. Other times that the characters seem weightless are when they are all helping out Tooth by collecting the teeth from around the world. Especially North’s way of traveling from house to house is impossible too because he would go down one chimney and somehow pop up through the next doors chimney. Not only is the way that they move and not injure themselves, but also they way they each travel breaks some physics.

Another physics bending rule in Rise of the Guardians is the Guardians way of travel. For Tooth, it would be her wings. The character design for Tooth is a human hummingbird hybrid. For things that fly, they need enough force or lift in order to carry its weight. The thing with Tooth though, she has wings of a fairy than more of a humming bird or any other bird. Her wings do not seem to have the strength to lift her or even carry her anywhere. Tooth’s wings also would not be able to have the thrust to get her into the air. Her wings would have to accommodate her weight so the wings should have been a lot bigger. North’s snow globes or portals are basically wormholes. North uses them as a shortcut to get to Tooth’s palace and even his yetis use one to bring Jack Frost to the North Pole. Now wormholes have actually not been scientifically proven yet in our world. There are theories of how they could work, but we do not have either the technology yet to prove it. Jack Frost’s way of traveling is by the wind. He somehow is effortlessly able to manipulate it so he can fly. That is physically impossible for our world. Hurricane winds up to 70mph can blow us away or make us tumble, but we are not able to fly in such wind. And lastly, Bunnymund’s tunnels are a bit exaggerated.  Bunnymund’s moss covered tunnels are just as slippery as the ice that North’s sleigh goes through. Not only that but the tunnels run horizontally underneath the earth’s surface. The scene where Bunnymund takes the Guardians through the hole into his tunnels, why does it seem, as they are falling/ sliding? There would not be enough force, acceleration or some type of speed to get them all the way to Bunnymund’s home. They were sliding as though they were on one of Jack’s ice paths. Only the Guardians are able to break such rules of physics.

Snow Globe portal

The physics of Rise of the Guardians may be similar in ways to our world, but that is for the world they set it up in. They are able to break the laws of physics because their characters are more magical than they are truly human or real. It is magic that gives them the ability to do what they like. Laws of physics may have been broken, but not to the extent to make something look fake or comical. The movie was designed to make kids believe again and that this movie is just like their world. 

Term Paper Outline: Rise of the Guardians

Introduction
A. Introduce Rise of the Guardians
B. Thesis - The movie may look convincing, but there are some physics it has to break by using magic.

Body

The speed that the guardians travel and the way they stop (Slow out)
- The sleigh should have taken more time to have stopped at the tooth palace.
- All of the guardians or legends have incredible speed
Wind is able to push or make Jack Frost Fly
- Incredible speed of Guardians getting teeth and leaving gifts.
- How the kids and guardians stop at the end of the ice road that jack made.

Only the Guardians seem to be almost weightless 
- All of the Guardians landed on their feet (especially North) from jumping out of the tooth palace.
- Fight between Sandy and Pitch, when Sandy throws him around with a whip, Pitch should have been very injured.
- Wind is able to push or make Jack Frost fly
- Effortless backflip jump that Frost makes onto Jamie's desk
- Guardians land sometimes effortlessly at the last battle
- Jack being thrown to an ice wall by Pitch and landing about 3-4 stories down.
- Effortless backflip jump that Frost makes onto Jamie's desk

Only Guardians are able to understand each others helpers or minions
- North's Yetis and elves do not speak or speak gibberish
- Bunny Mund's eggs and egg statues do not speak
- Tooth's faires chirp or squeak
- Sandy doesn't even talk at all and nor do his dreams.
 
Ice and moss seem to be just as slippery as each other
- North's ice tunnel for getting out with his sleigh
- Bunny giving the other guardians a try out in his tunnels

Conclusion
- The movie is made to feel realistic, but it uses magic to break some of the laws of physics in order to convince the audience that the characters are believable.

Random tidbits:
- As children start to lose beliefe in the Guardians, more the guardians be come "realistic" or more human.
- Everyone is standing on top of a frozen lake (even the sleigh)

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Planning for this project was pretty hard. I wanted to go for something creative, but somehow simple. I then referenced a ball drop that will eventually bop Megatron (t-rex) on the head. Shooting the beginning and the end of the clip was fun. I didn't really have plan a beginning or the end, but that was the most creative part I think. But taking pictures of the ball drop was very hard. I had my sister help me out with a ball hanging on a black string and stick. It was so hard just trying to keep the ball steady and making sure it was aligned with my camera's plan because just a little movement would make it sway. I drew on my camera's screen so the ball could be aligned. We had to have done it 3 times just strait through. I then started playing around with the images on Adobe Premier and started to add more frames and took out some for the drop. The music is from the Beast Wars animated series and so are the action figures. This project was pretty fun. I really wish I had more time to play around with the ball drop, but I'm happy for now.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Ref:

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Video Reference

Fourth Down at Half Time

Mini-Portfolio

My name is Grace Lacuesta and I am majoring in Animation/Illustration, but with more of a focus in animation. I am a fourth year and have taken all of the lower ani classes and have passed ani114. Right now I am currently enrolled in ani129b and ani115. The last science classes I have taken were Geology and Biology classes. If I wasn't doing anything in the arts, I would major in Geology. After college, I am hoping that I'll get a job. If it's a job in a big or small company, I'll be happy. I look forward to getting out there and giving it all that I have.  

This first picture is from a page from my portfolio I am currently trying to improve. These are people sketches from ani114.

This picture is also part of the same portfolio. These are the final paintings done for ani113b.

And this video is my final animation for ani114. The sack pantomime is all about emotion and showing it through body language. Our main goal for class was to give the sack a personality and since it doesn't have a face, we have to show it by body movement or gestures. My sack pantomime is about a spoiled brat who realizes that he did not get what he wants for Christmas. I would have uploaded a bit more edited one, but it's kind of a big file. 

The First Post

Hi everyone in Physics of Animation! Looking forward to a great semester with all of you and a better understanding of the subject. Thanks for reading!