CTN Trip

This year I went down to Burbank with some fellow animation majors, and good friends, to the Creative talent network expo. It was my third time going and as a volunteer, I had a great time meeting all types of people in the animation industry.

Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

Outline for the Third Term Paper

Intro

A.      From the very filmmakers have been pushing the boundaries of what they can do with the film media. Movies can illustrate and bring to life things impossible in the real world, Such as creatures that do not exist.

1.       Human characters transforming into creatures is common in many fantasy, action and sci-fi movies.

2.       Throughout the history of film, advances in technology allowed different ways for character transformations to be shown.

B.      X-Men - mystique

C. The avengers- Hulk

Body

1.       X-Men Mystique, is a shape shifting character who can turn into anyone she want. In her own shape is blue and covered with scale like shapes.

2.       To have a character with so many transformation digital effects are needed to animate the transformation

3.       After Mystique transforms back into her mutant self, the character’s look is achieved by a body suit and extensive makeup.

4.       Both use of effects, digital and use of makeup are effective and believable.

1.       The Hulk is all about his transformation, it is essential to make the character.

2.       Over the years the transformation has varied on design due to what was available at the time

3.       In the Latest movie the Hulk in he is completely digital from the transformation to him in his huge green form.

4.       It is apparent that the effect is done digital and that the Hulk is animated, yet he fits in the world around him so it is not distracting. However in some animated sequences the animation does not follow rules of physics.

Conclusion

1.       Special effects has come a long way due to advances technology, this has helped improve transformation sequences in fictional characters.

2.       The use of digital and traditional effects with costume and make up can work together to be effective.

3.       Computer animation and effects has allowed full characters to be animated in a live action film, that blends into the rest of the film.

  

Stop Motion Character Animation

To create Ork vs. Wizard I partnered up with Ariana Barton and Frankie Davis. In the beginning we started brain storming on what we wanted to animate based off the resources we had at hand.  Our initial ideas were based off horror stories and dinosaurs, but in the end we had the idea to animate the classic find the ball under the cup game. We based the story around he game of chance by using Frankie's small War Hammer Figures. Our main hero Ork is forced into the evil wizards lair to save his fellow Ork and defeat the wizards game.
We spent sometime working out the shots we wanted, to tell the story and then set up our scene. Ariana had a card board set that fit the look we wanted and we dressed the scene with other games of chance such as dice and cards. After that we just started straight ahead animation with a camera and tripod. Between all of us we took turns animating and shooting various shots and all worked together on composing and lighting the scene. When we finished shooting we then decided to composite using aftereffects, Frankie and I started timing out each frame and rendering, while Ariana edited the renders and put the short together. We had a great time working together and enjoyed using stop motion to tell our story.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

Much of entertainment from movies, television, and games are used as a way to create new and different universes. We as audiences escape into worlds that are not possible in reality due to the laws of physics. From seeing impossible feats of strength, flying, and alternate worlds, certain laws are pushed or broken to make these fictional stories and action happen on screen. Animation, and the use of CGI for special effects are the way that filmmakers can break these laws of physics, purposefully or not. Films full of action, and alternate states or reality have many instances where these laws are not followed, such as Newton’s 3^rd law. Newton’s 3^rd law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Live action films such as Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, and Inception are both very different types of films, but both rely on CGI and alternate realities, while The Iron Giant is an animated film, all of these have instances where Newton’s 3^rd law is not followed.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is a movie based off a series graphic novels about a young man trying to date a girl, Ramona, who has 7 evil ex-boyfriends, all of who Scott has to defeat, to be able to be with the girl. The film making style chose to keep the feel of a graphic novel with weird action and camera cuts; while also making it look and feel like a video game throughout the whole movie. It is clear from the beginning that the world these characters live in is not the same as ours, yet it is never explained why, or how it is different. However it is more evident in the action of the fight scenes, when characters suddenly have super powers, such as incredible strength. One scene in particular Scott ends up face to face with one of the evil exs a petite young women named Roxy. Many of the actions in this scene do not follow Newton’s 3^rd law. For majority of the scene the Ramona fights Roxy, in a style similar to one seen in a video game. Both characters take out large magical like weapons, that in reality would be too big to use, but they are used with ease. Many times in the fight time slows down and the characters seem to stay in the air until their move is complete, like in an old Kung Fu movie. Regardless of all the other laws that are being broken Newton’s 3^rd law is, when the characters hit each other with a large force and weight and they are able to stop it in mid action with no reaction. Ramona grabs a foot in mid kick, and then after a moment throws the other character back. Later in the scene there is an unequal reaction when Scott gets thrown up towards the ceiling and hits a steel supporting beam, as he hits in the entire beam gets bent by his body hitting it. Due to the make-up and weight of Scott and the beam the amount of damage to the steel is much more than what the action of Scott hitting it would be.

The Iron Giant is an animated movie, which also breaks and bends Newton’s 3^rd law of action and reactions. In this film a young boy named Hogarth finds and befriends a giant robot from space. This movie is obviously fictional, and by being completely animated it is accepted that there are actions or scenes that cannot be done in reality, which is a great reason to animate a film in the first place. Even though it is expected that there are impossible acts in an animated film, these scenes still have to be believable and make sense to the audience and fit in its own universe. The Iron Giant does a great job in doing so, it does not have scenes or moments that take the audience out if the moment or distract from the rest of the movie. However because it is animated with science fiction action scenes there are times when laws of physics are broken. Another reason why the laws are not closely followed is because how animation works, it is a pushed version of reality, and the use of holds and anticipation do not allow Newton’s 3^rd law to be followed closely. Such as in the scene where the giant robot does a cannon ball into the lake. The robot is very heavy and as he jumps into the lake, there is a moment of anticipation as the audience wait for the inevitable huge splash a giant cannon ball would cause. The forces action and reaction that are normally simultaneous have a few frame delay to let the audience see and wait for what is about to happen.

Inception is an interesting film that addresses ideas about alternate realities, where people can enter other’s dreams and create their own world. This movie and the special effects that were used allowed audiences explore new worlds and ideas that are impossible to see in reality. Rules were purposefully broken in this film in the dream world, to illustrate abstract realities that do not really exist. The dream worlds looked very similar to reality but changes in how the world worked it what made them different and feel dream like. In the movie characters who travel into dreams create their own totems, a small object that only they know how it is supposed to work. The main character, Cobb, uses a top. If he is not in a dream spinning the top would act like any other and eventually start to loose energy and fall, but if he is in a dream the top will never stop spinning. The infinitely spinning top is a purposeful break from Newton’s 3^rd law. The dream world cannot act and have the same physics or reality, so changing the laws is a way to show what is a dream or not. The top spinning endlessly is an unequal reaction, the forces are not equal, as they should be in reality.

There are many films that do not pay attention to reality as closely as they should, many laws of physics are broken and take away the believablity of the film. However when done right, and with a purpose pushing reality into impossible acts can further the entertainment, or help illustrate a point. Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Iron Giant, and Inception are all films that do not closely follow reality and do not always follow Newton’s 3^rd law, but many of those times it is done on purpose and for a reason.

Outline for Second Term Paper

Intro

a.       The Laws of Physics are broken, bent or exaggerated in all types of film, for the sake of entertainment.

1.       Both live action and animated films break many laws of physics, such as Newton’s 3^rd law

2.       Every force has and equal and opposite reaction force.

Body

a.       Scott Pilgrim vs the World

1. has many intense and exaggerated fighting scenes.

2. The constant exaggerated violence breaks Newton’s 3^rd law constantly, by having hits and punches causing unequal reactions.

b.      The Iron Giant

1.       Animation uses anticipation to increase the clarity and interest of a scene.

2.       The anticipation causes delays in the reaction force that is supposed to be happening at the same time.

c.       Inception

1.       The movie goes between reality and dream world’s which do not follow the rules of physics

2.       The breaking of the rules are on purpose and done to make the point that they are not in reality.

3.       A infinite spinning top breaks these rules, as the force and reaction are not equal to allow the top to keep spinning.

Conclusion

a.       The laws of physics are broken in many ways and in a lot of films, of all types.

b.      Newton’s laws about action and reaction are used in broken in various ways.

c.       In many ways it is a way to increase excitement and entertainment but also to show how the world portrayed is not what we think.

Reverse Video Reference

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

For the first stop motion animation test I decided to use magnets, as they were easy to control and hold the poses needed. For each frame I moved the magnet and took a shot with a web cam. The star slows out into a shooting action where it then hits a fellow magnet, causing it to bounce off and fall.

The Laws of Physics in the Animation Universe Term Paper

Stephanie DeGiovanni

The Laws of Physics in the Animation Universe

Term Paper

Physics of Animation in the Paranorman Universe

In 2012 Laika animation studios, released Paranorman, a 3d stop motion animated feature, about a young boy who had to save his town from zombies rising from the grave. This movie was very different from those before it from its original story line to its advanced stop motion techniques. Like many stop motion films before it took years to complete the pose to pose animation, with the detailed puppets. Paranorman takes on many challenges that are even more difficult than 2d animation, with intense action scenes and characters moving through the air. These difficult sequences are successful and make the audience believe what they are seeing is believable in the world they are watching. It is however, with a closer look that we see these actions in the world as we know it are not possible, due to the laws of physics of the real world. Animation traditionally has bent and broken many laws of physics, but they are broken to allow for more entertaining yet still believable animation. When it comes to things like anticipation, balanced and unbalanced forces and gravity, Paranorman has created its own laws of physics for the sake of a better story and interesting animation.

Anticipation in animation is used to allow the audience to see and understand what the character is going to do, or what the movement is going to be. There are more frames added before the action happens, instead of the action starting before the audience can understand what is going to happen. Not only is anticipation used for clarity but for comedic or dramatic timing of an action. In Paranmorman there is a scene early on where Norman starts to see visions of the dead rising from the grave. He is located on a stage but is scared and ends up running off the edge of the stage. In the air at the start of his fall there is a bit of hang time before he ends up crashing down to the ground. There is anticipation before Norman makes his fall as he starts to accelerate, however it is the added hang time in the air that does not follow the real world physics.

 Another scene with comedic anticipation and timing is when Norman has to retrieve a book from the clutches of his dead uncle’s body. The dead character is a large and very stiff body which Norman ends up wrestling, the body ends up on its feet and rocks back and forth staying up until it lands on top of Norman at just the right time. This added hang time and slow out to a fall is exaggerated compared how a real body would act in fall. It is moments with such timing and anticipation that give Paranorman a cartoony feel at times.

 There is a lot of great subtle animation going on as well which is a great accomplishment for stop motion, but it is the comedic cartoony moments that stand tend to stand out. Such as the scene where Norman runs into the bully Alvin with his bike, who the proceeds to fall to the ground spinning, something that would not be a reaction in the real world. This spinning choice in movement shows the audience that the character has fallen in an interesting way and makes them perceive Norman riding much faster than he actually is.

When a movie is about zombies coming to life and attacking a town, it is expected that this world will have to make up its own rules of how it works. There are no zombies to research from, they need to work is completely made up, yet these rules still need to be consistent throughout the story and rest of the world. There are times in the film that the zombies rotting body parts are very weak and just fall off or dangle in places, yet in times of action they seem to have superhuman strength and can break through wooden doors and vehicle ceilings. These inconsistencies are noticeable, but still accepted because they are creatures that wouldn’t exist in the real world. The fictional zombie characters super human strength that is plausible due to magical elements, however there are rules that are still broken dealing with force with non-paranormal entities.

 The high speed chase between the kids in the van and the police women on the scooter break real world rules. Again for comedic purposes, the police women rams herself up against the large van trying to get the van to stop, but instead causes the van to almost tip over its side, even though the van is going faster and is much heavier.

 There is then another scene with a large women who is so frightened by a zombie, that she runs away fast enough to go through her wooden fence and leave a hole in the shape of her body.

                With the exaggerated actions and anticipation, it is also the rules of gravity that are bent and reinvented for this fictional world. In the van chase scene the van ends up tipping over and rolling down a hill at a high speed; it makes many rolls and bounces down the hills side. The characters and items in the van seem to act correctly at times in the falls, yet at the end of such a dramatic crash and may rolls, the van lands upright in one piece and all the characters walk away completely unharmed.

 It is actually until much later for the timing of joke that the van falls in into a bunch of pieces after the crash. Another unrealistic fall is when Norman climbs the tower of the town hall to try and confront the witch. He ends up getting struck by lightning and starts to fall but he is then found to have somehow fallen back inside of the building, not fallowing the path of action or arc of such a fall. There is a magical element that propels the story that changes the normal laws of gravity that even Norman is not used to. At the climatic confrontation of the witch, Norman ends up having to get to the witch by floating and jumping on flying pieces of ground that crumble around him without falling. These pieces of the ground just float and rotate in space as if there were no gravity.

In animation, and stop motion in particular it is important to not just tell entertaining stories, but to use the medium to its full advantage and tell stories in a visually interesting way. A lot of the time this is done by making up entirely new worlds that have their own rules and laws of physics. This is the advantage of animation, to be able to push and exaggerate what already exists, to break rules that are otherwise impossible. The paranormal powers such as zombies and ghosts have their own laws of physics that have to be made up yet still believable to the audience. It is its use of anticipation, unbalanced forces and skewed rules of gravity, that allow Paranorman to be a fun and entertaining animated film.

The Law of Physics in Animation Paper- Outline

Introduction

A.      Paranorman (2012)

B.      Thesis- In Laikas stop motion feature Paranorman, many laws of physics are broken to allow for entertaining and still believable animation.

Body

A.      Anticipation

1.       When characters fall, such as when Norman falls off the stage, he has added air time before hitting the ground.

2.       Norman has to retrieve a book from a dead body, for more dramatic purposes the weight if the dead body has slow anticipation in falling and reacting to Norman.

3.       Norman is speeding off on his bike and bumps into school bully who proceeds to make multiple spins before hitting the ground.

4.       Van gets in a very big accident but seems to come out intact until comedic moment when it collapses way after the accident occurred.

B.      Forces

1.       Zombies are fragile and loose body parts but are able to be strong enough to break through doors and car roughs.

2.       Weight of motorcycle cop bumps fast moving van and tips.

3.       Running women is able to run through wooden fence making a large shaped hole in a shape like herself.

C.      Gravity

1.       A high speed van ends up crashing making multiple flips, bounces and rolls, van stay intact and all characters walk away as if it was nothing.

2.       Norman falls from a high tower but lands in a different location

3.       Paranormal powers manipulate the physics that Norman is used to and finds it challenging to deal with floating ground he is standing on.

Conclusion

1.       The laws of physics that are in the normal everyday world that the film is trying to convey, are still not true to actual reality. Entertaining stop motion animation calls for the rules to be pushed and broken to let the audience appreciate what it is they are watching.

2.       Paranormal powers such as zombies and ghosts have their own laws of physics that have to be made up yet still believable to the audience.

Video Analysis Path of Action

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Shooting Video Reference

First Post