Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

This was the coolest project ever. I had no idea it was so easy to make a 3D image. Now I feel like I've wasted me life away. 

This one doesn't work that well, but I included it, just for the requirement of having me included in one of them. 

I think this one works the best. The image still looks very clear, and the horizontal bars in the middle ground are suuuuper 3D.

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

This was hard. It seemed like no matter what I did, it wanted to highlight the side of the object. I think the main issue is that I'm not getting bounce light.

Here's the photo I referenced...

I tried a second time. Here's the photo...

 I think I got the lighting angles fairly accurate, but it seemed that no matter what I did, the object wasn't lighting properly. Turns out, the polygons aren't properly divided on the model, so light doesn't hit it correctly. Even though it's backlit, I was getting a highlight on the front. I made some sloppy adjustments to the polygons to lose the highlight, but I think it's not getting proper bounce light because of this issue.

Here's the other angle (forgot to do this with the first attempt).

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

key light

key light + fill light

key light + fill light + rim light

Building a Scene in Maya

(SK)

"Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?" Essay Outline

I. Introduction
1. Movies are constantly trying to raise the bar with wild fight scenes; seems like characters are sent flying further and further from a punch.
2. Very common for fight scenes to violate the action/reaction principle, if not completely disregard it.

II. Example 1: Hellboy (2004)
1.(32min) Hellboy is hit with a backhand that sends him flying through a row of 3 display cases and then a window, none of which slow him down.
2. Not even close to convincing; to being carrying enough force to crash through all those cases without slowing down, he would need to be going much faster.
3. Monster who hits Hellboy doesn't appear to be hitting any harder than an average boxer.
4. He would need to be swinging with a tremendous force and would show more reaction.

III. Example 2: Thor (2011)
1. (25min) Thor is able to jump what looks like easily over half a mile, at an incredible speed, yet there is no reaction on the ground beneath him.
2. Ground is ice and is shown shattering around him, every time it is hit, no reason that it wouldn't at least crack from him jumping with such an enormous force.
3. We can accept that he's a god, and can jump that far, but the ground beneath him should still be realistic.

IV. Example 3: Robocop (1987)
1. (35 mins) Robocop grabs the barrel of an automatic rifle a criminal is holding, and bends it down.
2.For the barrel to bend, the man holding the gun would have to be supporting the gun with an equal amount of force, otherwise it would simply be ripped out of his hands.
3. Man would have to be strong enough to bend the barrel himself, if he is able to hold the body of the rifle up, as Robocop pushes down on the barrel.

V. Conclusion

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The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe: X2: X-Men United

“X2: X-Men United” is a film, released in 2003, that follows a group of superhuman mutants that are trying to integrate into the regular world. Each mutant has his or her own special powers, whether it be the ability to walk through walls, heal instantly, control fire, manipulate weather, or anything else imaginable. The film does a decent job of convincing the viewer to go along with this fantastical reality because it is grounded in the real world, and one way in which they convey this is by following real science. When the film effectively uses real physics to explain and rule these supernatural powers, the film successfully convinces the viewer to suspend disbelief and accept the story as it goes on, while moments that illogically disobey real world physics, essentially put the film on pause.

The most common issue in films, in regards to physics, would be accurate gravity. “X2” features characters that can fly or levitate, and the viewer can accept that this is part of the reality. The opening scene introduces a character named Nightcrawler, who is able to teleport anywhere. This scene is very well done for the most part, because we can instantly identify what his capabilities are and beyond these powers, he seems to move realistically. On the other hand, when something looks implausible and cannot be explained by the character’s powers, it stands out as being questionable. Most commonly, the issue is when characters are sent flying through the air from being struck or thrown. If a character has the ability to jump high or can survive a huge fall, we can accept that, but there’s no reason that he or she should not follow the laws of Earth’s gravity when the character does not have the ability to fly or levitate. In one scene, the character, Wolverine, is seen leaping horizontally off of a balcony to pounce on his victim. Wolverine has the ability to heal almost instantaneously and has medal claws, but has no sort of powers that would allow him to defy gravity. He jumps outward off the balcony railing, not upward, meaning he begins falling as soon as his feet leave the balcony railing, but he is in the air for roughly 45 frames. Using the formula: (distance in inches) = (number of frames) x (number of frames) x (1/3 inch), that would mean that Wolverine should have fallen around 56 feet in that time span. While the shot makes it hard to judge, the interior, second story balcony can’t be more than 25 feet high, meaning he should have fallen more than double the distance in that amount of time. Of course, while no one is going to the theatres with a calculator to check that every fall is accurate, the scene obviously looks wrong, whether or not the viewer can identify exactly the reason why, because we can intuitively spot inaccurate falls, especially one as exceedingly incorrect as this example. While the amount of time it takes for a character to fall may jump out at the viewer, there are other visual cues that may be even more obvious.

The parabolic arc of an object or person that is falling can be identified instinctually. When we see a basketball flying through the air, we can very quickly see whether or not it will reach the hoop. Baseball players can predict where a ball will land because our eyes can see the angle and speed of the ball and instinctually see the parabolic arc it will follow. So, when something does not follow the arc that our eyes predict, we know that something is wrong. In these very common scenes where characters are sent flying through the air from being struck or thrown, not only are they in the air for far too long, but they generally don’t follow the proper arc, either. In the finale fight scene featuring Wolverine, he is struck by a villain, so hard that it sends him flying almost 30 feet across a room, which takes around 22 frames before he hits the ground. He is thrown upward a bit and doesn’t seem to hit the apex until 17 frames into the fall. He should be hitting the apex around 11 frames into the fall, at the center of the arc, but instead he appears to suddenly drop at the end. He is thrown again, moments later, this time into a concrete pillar and he has an airtime of around 24 frames. In this instance, he travels across the room almost perfectly horizontal, somewhere between 40 or 50 feet. For him to travel with nearly a flat parabolic arc, he would have to have been thrown like a fast ball. In one whole second, he should be dropping around 16 feet, but instead falls less than a foot before he crashes into the pillar. The throw should have taken less than a quarter of a second, for that path of action to be accurate, so instead he appears to be floating, making it obvious that he is swinging from ropes. There are several instances of this sort of thing occurring that ruin the believability of these fight scenes and take what is intended to be a powerful strike and make it look like a push. Accurately depicting a throw that hard may not show up well on film, but the impact would appear much more devastating and effective.

Limitations to these characters’ supernatural powers add plausibility, so when they are able do something that is not explained by their power, again, the viewer is able to spot it, instantly. The character, Pyro, can manipulate fire, but cannot create it; Nightcrawler needs to be able to see where he’s going to teleport; Cyclops needs to wear protective glasses to contain the energy that shoots from his eyes. The character, Magneto, is able to create incredible magnetic powers, but his abilities are limited to only manipulating metal. He is able to fly, or levitate when he is wearing metal because he can telekinetically lift metals, and as viewers, it is easy enough to go along with this. The filmmakers do a great job of reminding us of his limits, with the scene in which he is kept in a plastic prison cell. There is no metal near him, so he is essentially powerless. Unfortunately, he is then visited by a prison guard, who had previously been injected with a needle filled with iron. Magneto lifts the guard up into the air and extracts the iron (in a powdery form), out of his skin, and once it is all out, the guard drops from the air, dead. You could argue that the powdery iron wouldn't lift the man in the first place, who is over 200 pounds, because, each grain of iron has such a tiny surface area, that it would simply shoot out of his skin once Magneto levitated them, but without a doubt, the man shouldn't continue to levitate in a vertical position all the way up until the last bit is extracted. Magneto pulls the iron through the guard’s chest, so even if you can get over the fact that the last few grains of iron in his body are able to support his weight, he should still be hanging from his chest at the last moment, and his center of gravity would swing his legs forward. Because of this inaccuracy, it appears that Magneto is able to levitate the man for a moment, even after the metal is out of his body. Another example where the creators contradict a character’s powers would be the scene in which Professor X is able to freeze an entire room of people where they stand. Professor X has incredible telepathic abilities, but has no physical powers, so it is assumed in this scene, that he basically put everyone’s brain on pause. The issue with this is that several people can be seen frozen mid step or in the middle of an action where they are left off balance. Bipedal walking has been described as “controlled falling,” so to stop someone mid step, their center of gravity is shifted forward, and they would not be able to catch themselves. If he has no telekinetic ability, then you could assume that many of these people would fall over. These seem to be very nit-picky details, but they are obvious enough to distract the viewer.

X2: X-Men United was a groundbreaking film for the modern superhero genre, because it was one of the earliest superhero films to attempt to make the viewer feel as though the fantastical characters could possibly exist in the real world. At the time of its release, the film was great, but after Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight franchise took this concept to the next level, the bar has been set too high for superhero films to get away with such obvious mistakes and disregard for correct physics. While film-goers are able to suspend disbelief when it is made logical, unreasoned anomalies will quickly catch your eye and distract from the movie.

Changes From Outline:

I made some minor changes from my outline, to better emphasize my stronger points. While the information is basically the same, I felt that changing the main points better organized the body and were more applicable to the thesis. 

Outline for 1st Term Paper

A. Introduction

1. Introduce film: X2: X-Men United.
2. Film is grounded in reality; intended that viewer feels as though this could take place in the real world.
3. While mutants can do supernatural things, it's intended that they still follow real physics.
4. Hypothesis: For the most part, this works well to create believability, leaving any moment that parts from this as glaringly unreal. 

B. Inconsistent gravity

1. Works well; gravity typically feels real. 
2. Magneto defies gravity, but it isn't distracting because it is explained by his supernatural abilities.
3. Doesn't make sense in several fight sequences when characters don't fall at the correct speed. 
4. Wolverine jumps off balcony; falls uniformly and in a somewhat straight path, rather than parabolic arc.
5. Fight between Wolverine and female counterpart, supposedly hit hard enough to send them flying across the room; aren't moving fast enough for the path of action.
6. In the same way we can identify where a baseball will land, it's easy to spot when there path of action is incorrect.

C. Magneto's power is unreal, but made somewhat believable by attempting to follow physics.

1. One of the most visually appealing powers; most difficult to pull off.
2. Plastic jail cell reminds viewers that his powers only affect metals. 
3. Prison escape scene, mass of metal doesn't appear to stay consistent.
4. Powdered metal wound not hold up the large mass of man, and he doesn't fall until all is pulled from his body. 

D. Limitations add to believability

1. Nightcrawler needs to see where he's going when he transports or he can end up in a wall; Pyro can't create fire, only manipulate it
2. Professor X has ultimate mental abilities but doesn't control physical properties.
3. Freezes room; while he may be able to stop their brains, many would be off balance in mid step, center of gravity is forward when stepping

E. Conclusion

1. Realistic physics allow the viewer to suspend belief over supernatural powers. 
2. Instances where physics are wrong and unexplained take the viewer out of the moment

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Here is my drop animation of a suicidal figure model. I used my Nikon SLR on a tripod to shoot it, and I hung the model with dental floss from the top of my lamp. I used 20 images, but they aren't all timed to 1/24th of a second. Some hold longer, some shorter.

I used photoshop to create the GIF. It was pretty easy to put it together, but I found it pretty difficult to work out the timing, because it doesn't preview in real-time. I thought I had it all perfect the first time, but once I saved it out and played it in Quicktime, it looked like he was rocketing into the ground. The timing still isn't perfect, but I feel like it's pretty close at this point (I cant decide if it's a little slow at the top.)

Mini-Portfolio

I'm an Animation/Illustration major and this should be my last year at SJSU. Considering this is my 8th year and I've taken enough classes for three students, I think it's about time. Even Van Wilder had to graduate sometime, and I'm passing him up by a year.
I think I'd like to go into visual development, or possibly story. Who knows. I like drawing pictures, so whoever will pay me a lot me for that, that's what I want to do. Here's some doodles I did this summer...

Here's an animation I did. It's unfinished, so it's mostly on keys...

The First Post

This will be a blog for homework from Physics of Animation. Maybe pictures of food, too.