Building a Scene in Maya

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were both above 80; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline of the Third Term Paper

Topic: Giant wave and flooding effect

Two movies that created the effect of a flood: The Day After Tomorrow and The Impossible

Body

1. The Impossible
   
   

1. Scene: tsunami first wave hits and floods a resort in Thailand
2. Techniques: combination of miniature scale models, water dumps, and cgi elements and backgrounds
3. Very successful due to actual water used and combination of miniature, practical, and digital effects used

II.     The Day After Tomorrow

1. Scene: wave floods city of Manhattan
2. Techniques: digitally assembled thousands of photographs of Manhattan buildings and streets, Digital Domain designed Storm software to generate volumetrics, ran particle simulations to create semi-random motion paths
3. Also successful with combinations of wide shots of cgi and close ups of practical effects

Stop-Motion Character Animation

For this animation, I first sketched out ideas for my lumberjack character and his props. Then I drew and colored each of his body pieces on construction paper and cut them out. I created joints by hole punching the parts of the lumberjack and connecting them with paper fasteners. To shoot the animation, I taped my phone to a shelf above my desk and carefully moved the lumberjack in each shot. After importing the images on to my laptop, I edited them in Photoshop and timed them out in Flash.

Reverse Video Reference

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Over the years, Hollywood has become infamous for pushing the limits of realistic and believable physics for the sake of entertainment. There are many laws of physics that the film industry has found ways in which to exploit. The films in question this time have broken laws that pertain to momentum and the forces of impact. The three movies that will be analyzed in order of their release dates are: Speed (1994), Mission: Impossible II (2000), and The Matrix Reloaded (2003). Before we delve into our three culprits, first we will discuss the main ideas behind momentum and the forces of impact.

To begin, momentum doesn’t just depend on an object’s speed. Momentum is determined by an object’s mass and its velocity. The force of impact of an object depends on how large of a momentum it has and it is stopped. For instance, an object with a large momentum will take a small force applied slowly or a large force applied to quickly to stop it. The longer the impact takes, the smaller the force of that impact will be. With a basic grasp of these laws of physics, we can move on to the first film.

The first movie in question is Speed, an action-adventure film released in 1994. In this film, a Los Angeles bus is rigged with a bomb that will explode if the bus’ speed falls below 50 miles per hour. In one scene, the bus is speeding towards a 50 foot gap in a stretch of elevated freeway with nowhere else to go. The cop aboard the bus decides to punch it and try to jump the gap. They speed up to 67 miles per hour and somehow manage to safely land on the other side. The problem with this scene is the fact that the bus even makes it all the way across. Instead of flying across, the bus would begin to rotate downwards as soon as the front wheels left the freeway and it would plummet to the ground. The momentum of that falling bus paired with its quick stop would create a large enough force of impact to essentially end the movie right there. Luckily at 67 miles per hour, it actually rotates upwards as if flying off of a ramp, and it lands in one piece. 

The second film that breaks some laws of physics is Mission: Impossible II which was released in 2000. Towards the end of this film, the protagonist Ethan Hunt and the antagonist Sean Ambrose, duke it out in an epic fight scene. At one point when the two agents are on motorcycles, they ride straight towards each other, somehow leap from their bikes, and collide in midair. Without trying to explain how they leapt from their motorcycles while moving at high speeds, most viewers can see or feel that this would never work. First we’ll assume that each man has a mass of about 80 kilograms, or 176 pounds, and that they are moving at approximately 50 miles per hour. Second, we can see in the clip that the impact is absorbed almost entirely on their upper bodies. The momentum of each man is stopped quickly and against another object moving quickly in the opposite direction. This force of impact should have caused some internal damage, and yet Hunt and Ambrose are back on their feet afterwards without a broken bone or scratch on them.

The third and final film that breaks the laws of momentum and impact is somewhat of a special case. Analyzing the laws of physics in any Matrix film can seem like a moot point since the trilogy is breaking them all the time. Nonetheless, some of the scenes seem to follow some basic physics to a certain degree. Our last scene comes from the second installment of the Matrix series, The Matrix Reloaded, released in 2003. In the film, Trinity falls out of a building and is caught by Neo who comes flying to her rescue. To first find out how fast each of the characters were moving, we’ll look at hints in the movie. When Trinity dreams about this event earlier in the movie, we see that she falls from the 65th floor of the building. She falls straight down without any horizontal movement and instantly dies when she hits the car on the street. Assuming each floor of the building is about eight feet tall, we can estimate that Trinity falls for about five and half seconds and is moving at about 120 miles per hour when she reaches the ground. Knowing that speed was enough to end her life, we’ll look at how fast Neo was flying across town to catch her. When Link first sees him flying, he states that whatever it is, “it’s moving faster than anything I’ve ever seen.” Assuming Link knows what the speed of a bullet looks like in the matrix code, we could say that Neo was moving around 1,700 miles per hour. Even if this isn’t the case, Neo is clearly moving fast enough to overturn cars and shatter windows as he passes. This means that he’s at least moving about 200 miles per hour. Knowing that Trinity’s impact at a speed of 120 miles per hour killed her, there’s no way she would survive Neo catching her and continuing to move at full speed. With his body mass, Neo’s momentum would, at the very least, kill Trinity on impact.

These three films: Speed, Mission: Impossible II, and The Matrix Reloaded, all contain poor depictions of the laws of physics, especially as it pertains to momentum and impact. But this doesn’t always ruin a film, as a lot of Hollywood films break these laws to their advantage as a stylistic choice. And in some cases, like the Matrix trilogy, breaking these laws is an integral part of the story. But when the physics of a scene in a film just doesn’t look or feel right, you don’t have to be a scientist to guess why.

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

To create this stop motion animation, I first cleared off a flat surface and set up platforms for a light source and for a ball to roll off of and bounce. Then I recorded several shots of video reference of the ball rolling and bouncing. I imported my best video reference into a program called Tracker and tracked the timing and arcs of the ball. I used small pieces of artist tape to mark the arcs on the wall behind my film set. Using a string pulley system and tape, I suspended the ball into each position marked on the wall. Lastly, I Photoshopped the string and tape out of each picture and compiled those frames into a video. 
 

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Tangled is a 3-D animated film created by Disney and released in the year 2010. It follows the story of Rapunzel and a bandit she meets named Flynn Rider. The animators of this film pushed and took liberties with the laws of physics in order to enhance its smooth and comedic style. Three elements of Tangled that stood out were the strength and weight of Rapunzel’s hair, the exaggerated take offs and landings of characters, and the lack of reaction on certain harsh impacts.

Some of the most obvious unrealistic aspects of this film revolve around Rapunzel’s luscious blonde locks. The weight and strength of Rapunzel’s hair had to be exaggerated and downplayed in order to make certain scenes in the film work. Two main examples of the lack of authenticity around her hair include how easy it is to for Rapunzel to throw and whip all 70 feet of it, and how tight it holds when another human being is swinging from it. According to Steve Goldberg, Tangled’s visual effects supervisor, Disney “calculated that a foot of hair would weigh approximately one pound and so Rapunzel’s hair, at around 70 feet would have weighed about 70 pounds.” 

There are several scenes in which Rapunzel throws the majority of her hair into the air and wraps it around objects or simply gathers it up and runs with it. The animators made her hair lighter than its actual estimated weight in order for the slender Rapunzel to handle its mass with ease. Actually throwing and wrapping her hair around various overhangs, hooks, and people, would have proven to be much more strenuous. Another example is when Rapunzel or Flynn uses her hair as a rope from which to swing. In order to manage the weight of said object, Rapunzel wraps part of her hair around an overhang to create friction. In theory this allows her to carry the weight without force pulling directly from her scalp. In reality, her hair wouldn’t break from the weight of a human being, but it would simply unravel and slip from the overhang.

The exaggerated take offs and landings in Tangled help enhance the film’s smooth style, but are not always consistent with the character’s movement in each scene. Momentum of an object, or in this case Flynn, depends on its velocity and its weight. While running from the Stabbington Brothers, Flynn jumps from a rock onto the side of a tree, pushes off, and swings around it to knock a guard off his horse. The speed at which he pushes off the tree doesn’t allow Flynn to build up enough momentum to accelerate upwards so quickly and swing in such a large circular motion. Another example is towards the end of the canyon scene. Rapunzel swings down to the ground and slides across a puddle to a smooth stop.

The last element in the film which developed its own sense of realism, is one that is quite common in animation and cartoons. This includes a large momentum being stopped suddenly with a large force being applied quickly. The unrealistic quality of this, is that the characters often react to the assumedly traumatic stop in momentum with pained expressions, but always walk away unscathed. The first example of this is towards the beginning of the film when Flynn is knocked out several times by Rapunzel’s frying pan. In this case, Flynn is the force stopping the momentum of the pan. But, as in most animated universes, he walks away without a mark on him. The other two examples both include Flynn moving at a very quick speed and being stopped abruptly. The first occurs in the canyon scene when he flies into a beam at full speed while swinging from Rapunzel’s hair in the canyon but walks away unscathed. The second occurs towards the end of the film when Flynn is catapulted high into the air and onto the horse, Maximus, without showing any sign of pain.

 The biggest logistical problem surrounding the animation of Tangled was of course Rapunzel’s hair. But like most animated films, the crew was able to use the audience’s suspension of disbelief to their advantage. Rapunzel’s hair became lighter and stronger, characters were able to gain and lose velocity without much effort, and normally sudden and fatal stops in momentum left characters unharmed. All of these elements contributed to the film’s overall comical and lighthearted style.

Outline of the First Term Paper

Intro

Movie: Tangled (2010)

Thesis: The animators of this film pushed and took liberties with the laws of physics in order to enhance its smooth and comedic style.

Body

I. Weight

1. The weight of Rapunzel’s hair would make throwing her hair around much more strenuous.
2. When Flynn or Rapunzel swings from her hair, the weight of either of them would cause her hair to unravel from anything it was wrapped around.

II. Exaggerated/Smooth Take Offs and Landings

1. Flynn swings a wide arc around a tree by pushing off of it.
2. Rapunzel slides to smooth and short stop after swinging quickly down a canyon.

III. Impact/Reaction

1. Rapunzel knocks Flynn out with a frying pan and then proceeds to
2. Flynn flies into a beam at full speed while swinging from Rapunzel’s hair in the canyon, but he walks away unscathed.
3. Flynn is catapulted through the air and onto Maximus without showing any sign of pain.

Conclusion

1. The laws of physics were bent in order to maintain its overall style and help incorporate unrealistic elements such as anthropomorphized animals and Rapunzel’s strong but light hair.

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Shooting Video Reference

Fourth Down at Half-time

 

 

Mini-Portfolio

My name is Olivia Keller and I am a fifth year student at SJSU studying animation. I took a basic physics course a couple years ago, so you could say I'm a bit rusty. In addition to this class, I am also taking ANI 115 Intermediate Animation, RTVF 111 Alternative Cinema, and POLS 1 American Government. I've known I wanted to be an artist from a young age, but within the last few years I've taken an interest in 3D animation.

Here are a couple of pieces I put in my mid-program Portfolio last year. The first is a charcoal reversal from one of my first animation classes. The second includes two sketches I did outside of school.

This last video is an animation I completed last semester for my ANI 128A class. The project required us to animate a character either running, kicking an object, or throwing an object. I chose to have my character throw a knife.

The First Post

Here it is. First post. Yep. Here we go.

Hello!