Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Bike rack by the Student Union


Library 4th floor


Me by the entrance to the Bowling alley and the computer lab of the Student Union

Lighting a Scene in Maya

3 point lighting



2 point lighting



1 point lighting

Building a Scene in Maya

my initials AY for Alex Yip. i used cylinders and spheres to create my name. i scaled and edited the points to arrange them as it is.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

In the cinematic world audiences are given wacky characters and fantasy driven lifestyles. Comedy film combined with animation always has the laws of physics being broken. It exposures the broken laws to add humor as well as portraying the crazy character’s actions. Newton’s 3^rd law states that to every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. Basically it is the interaction of all forces that causes an unidirectional force. Action and reaction act differently on objects. Movies and shows like Dragon Ball Z, A Goofy Movie, and The Simpson’s Movie break Newton’s 3^rd law. The animators like to break the law in order to create some effect in the audience like laughter or suspense.

Dragon ball Z is an anime show about Goku, a Sayian who comes to Earth to cause total destruction as a baby but is prevented when he gets to earth. He is raised by a family and taught the martial arts. Sayian is the Japanese version of Superman in my opinion. Some characteristics that Sayians have are super strength, flight, create energy balls, and transform into super beings. Given these characteristics he is able to do and withstand unnatural forces. He is able to break the 3^rd law of physics with his powers. When evil forces try to enslave the planet earth, Goku is there to fight. During the fight fist and punches are exchanged. When Goku fires and energy ball, when any projectile is fired there is always a reaction, his body does not move back as the same force as the projectile. This almost unnatural process is to add the super human ability that he has been born with. To follow up with the projectile, as is beams towards his enemy and impacts him, a large explosion occurs as smoke rises and dissipates to create a moment of suspense. The smoke clears Goku’s enemy is still in the same position and untouched. With those kinds of forces there must be some reaction, the energy had to have an impact. The character should have been thrown back from the impact and well as Goku who launched the projectile. The unstoppable enemy shows us that the character is an ultimate villain. This view of unhumanlike abilities makes us wonder if we could someday be indestructible to break the natural laws of physics.

In a Goofy Movie, is about Max's attempts to impress Roxanne by imitating his idol's antics is not looked upon favorably by the school principal. The principal has a word with Goofy, who then decides it's time for a bit of father and son bonding: a fishing trip to Lake Destiny. However, Max isn't thrilled with this idea since he won't be close to Roxanne. The basic plot is the father and son reconciliation as they head out on open road. Max did a performance of his idol in front of the entire school where he impersonated a famous singer with cool special effects on the stage is then caught by the principle. While waiting for the talk with the principle, he knows that his punishment is going to be harsh. While waiting the Roxanne walks up and talks to him. She then asks him to a friend’s party. Max is full of happiness that he starts dancing with the secretary while she is in her office chair. The secretary is a pretty heavy character as she is probably more than twice the weight of Max. Max swings the secretary around in circles then snapping her back and forth with ease. Max is basically mambo dancing with her as if she was light as a feather. He makes is seem so effortless that is breaks the 3^rd law. In reality Max would have to use his own weight to force the large secretary to move. The snapping motion would have made max to fall forward to compensate with the weight. The actions would have been slower and not fast like the cartoon. The scene was animated to convey the emotion of joy and happiness in Max to the audience. The scene shows us how goofy the movie is going to be.

In the Simpson’s Movie, Homer has to save his family and the rest of Springfield from EPA who utter wants to destroy them. The town of Springfield is enclosed by a giant glass dome to quarantine them from the rest of the world because of a mutated animal which was caused by Homer’s mistake. Homer’s family manages to escape through a sinkhole and try to live their life in Alaska until they saw a commercial of a future national Park that would replace Springfield. That is when the Simpsons try to save their town. Towards the end of the movie, Homer’s family is captured by EPA and detained in the armored truck. Homer is trying to rescue them by setting up various road signs that says “SOP” instead of “STOP.” As the stupid drivers stop at each sign Homer arrives with a wrecking ball machine and tries to break his family free. Once he swung the ball towards the truck it barely taps the trucks wall then the ball returns and crashes through the cockpit. The ball carries Homer as he is stuck to it. The ball swings in to a giant rock and the side of the house multiple times causing no damage except to Homer. Then the ball finally drops. There are more physic laws that were broken but the 3^rd law caught my eye. The law is broken because when the wrecking ball should have smashed the rock into pieces and demolished the house with the amount of force and weight of the ball. Unless the ball was super light. In the Simpson’s case the law was broken to add humor to the scene and to show that Homer had it coming to him. In reality size of that ball would be able to break any object within its path and homer would have been dead. However, since it is a cartoon, Homer who was stuck to ball was like a big cushion absorbing all that force. He prevented the rock and house from being destroyed. The movie stays true to its humor.

In conclusion, these animated movies and show are examples of how the 3^rd law can be broken. Since it is broken it adds more realism to the storyline. Another part is that animation and comedy is mixed together always has some natural physic law broken. There is funnier and exaggerated scenes that appeals to the audience.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Outline for the Second Term Paper

I. Introduction – Physic of action and reaction principle.
a. background information
b. Newton’s 3rd law
c. Dragon Ball Z, Goofy Movie, Simpson’s Movie
d. Thesis: Animated Films like to exaggerate the laws of physics to create more action and excitement among the audiences.
II. Dragon Ball Z
a. Projectile
i. Thrown objects doesn’t move the character when hit.
ii. Show power and strength
b. Fighting
i. There is no reaction when the character gets hit or when characters collide
ii. Show their superpowers
III. Goofy movie
a. Goofy
i. In contact with objects
ii. When the car hits the pavement
IV. Simpson’s movie
a. Homer
i. law broken – Guns firing
ii. the avalanche and the house
V. Conclusion
• a. Summation of points
• b. Restate thesis

Stop-Motion Character Animation

i used string attached to a pole to hold up the teddy bear and a dslr camera to shoot the movements. i would slide the string across the pole to move the teddy bear across the screen.

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).

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

Clip A



Clip B



Clip C



Clip D



Clip E

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Appleseed
Appleseed is a 3D computer generated movie full of guns, war, robots, and tech gadgets that will fancy any guy. This movie incorporates motion capture in the characters adding realism into the animation. Appleseed takes place during a post apocalyptic Earth where global war has consumed the world in 2133. As a result majority of the human population was killed from non-nuclear weapons. Thus a new utopia was created to prevent the extinction of humans; technology has created Bioroids which are clones of humans. Both Bioroids and humans coexist together; however, there are people who are willing to destroy this relationship. As the technology advances the basic laws a physics are bent or nullified. The introduction of Mech robots and cyborgs are given incredible strength. Their reinforced armor is able to withstand bullets and harsh physical activity. Mech robots piloted manually by humans allow human to act more powerful in the movie. These scenes display the laws of gravity, Newton’s laws of motion and inertia, and timing. The laws of physics are true despite the new technologies the people have created.
The laws of gravity still apply even 100 years from now. It is evident that the laws of gravity are still true in the future. For example, in the beginning of the movie, then the tank is shooting at Deunan the rate of the mini gun and the ejection of the bullet casing display that as one projectile is launched, the weights of both objects hit the ground at the same time. It reminds me of the demo when two metal balls are release, one is dropped and the other launched. As they are released at the same time both balls hit the ground at the together. This theory applies to guns in when the bullet is fired the casing that hold the bullet ejects and falls to the ground at the same time the bullet falls.
The possibility of having antigravity transportation is already here, yet it isn’t personalized to people yet. At our current standing we have developed magnet levitation in trains as a form of fast travel. The first recorded magnet train was in England 1984. In the movie, their future is with the development of floating cars. With their new technology it seems possible that they have achieved antigravity without any tracks or magnets. Their explanation for floating cars is high frequency oscillation. The car is able to hover and turn over any obstacle. In one scene, Deunan is in a car chase. To avoid being hit she stirs the car around a corner and into an ally. You are able to see the car make a complete sharp turn and hover over the walls of the build. Compared to the wheeled car that was chasing them, it was crashing through everything. Their future technology with cyborg-senses as computers helps them achieve levitation and smooth maneuverability.
One scene is when Deunan jumps out of the skyscraper in order to get into her mech vehicle. As she is falling the mech which is probably the weight of a large truck is falling right behind her. Eventually the mech catches us to her and she is able to get inside and pilot the mech. The rate of the mech vehicle is falling faster due to gravity and size of the object. The effect of inertia also plays with the falling of the mech suit and Deunan.
The Law of Inertia states that an object moves with constant, uniform motion until acted on by an unbalanced force. This also takes into effect terminal speed and air resistance. Initially when falling, the speed is accelerated but air resistance causes the motion to become more uniformed after a certain distance. In other words, the terminal speed is when a falling object increases until air resistance force equalizes gravity. Further more the mech suit has more air resistance than Deunan because of the size, thus the mech suit falls faster.
In reality there is a force that slows down an object. In the beginning of the movie when the mechs jump out of the plane and land on the ground. The mechs slide forward in the same direction as the plane was moving at the same speed. The mechs start to lose speed as they hit the ground relative to the plane. Then that unbalanced forces slows them to a halt. However there is another scene where this law is bent. Towards the end of the movie when Deunan runs and jumps out of the skyscraper the motion of her body should be in an arc. But as she jumps she attempts a half arc the plummets straight down followed but her mech suit behind her. I can tell that the purpose of having her fall straight down was to dramatic and artistic reasons. But in reality she would have been moving forward and completed the arc once she hits her lowest point.
Newton’s 3rd law states that for every action there is and equal and opposite reaction. It is evident that in the movie when the mechs are shooting their heavy caliber gun, the recoil is great in relation to the size. As energy is exerted in one direction the opposing action is pointed in the opposite direction. Since there are a lot of weapons used, the recoiling reassures that we are in the same universe and that the basic laws still apply. Another example is when the mech suit jumps off the ground and fly through the air. As the mech suit jumps from the ground, the ground exerts a force in which it causes the suit to move up ward. When the mech suit is flying, it pushes back on the air and the air pushes forward on the suit. In the movie there are plenty of examples of Newton’s 3rd law whether it is jumping to punching, everything action has an opposite reaction.
Timing is drawn out in the fighting scenes to expose the complexity of the move and precision of the character’s action. The slowing down of time is also used to convey emotion and actions of characters. It is a technique used in cinema and games. I believe that the slowing down adds realism to the scene. I am able to see the complete action from finished to end instead of seeing a motion blur. One scene, Deunan does back flips and jumps to dodge her enemies. Time is slowed down and she is in the air for about three to four seconds when in reality she would be up for about two seconds. Other factor that you can tell that time is slowed down is the sounds of the gun shots and sharp knives slicing through the air. The sounds are deeper and less sharp. The slowing adds suspense as the knives merely passes by her head as she back flips. Also we are able to see the full range of movement of the body as it prepares to execute the stunts. Everything in slow motion is always better in my opinion. There are more suspense and emotions are intensified. For example, when Deunan sees her old teammate that she hasn’t seen in months, the camera is close up to her face as she turns her head slowly to the direction of her friend. Her eyes moves and focuses on her friends face. At this moment I could feel that she is recalling all the memories she had of her friend. I knew that she was shocked and also happy to see her friend again. Slowing gives the audience an ability to experience what a character is feeling as well as viewing the suspense of physical actions.
The universe that Deunan lives in is similar to our in that the physics is still the same. With the advances in technology we are able to defy gravity and protect the body from natural physic laws. I believe that these physics add realism and dimension to the movie since it is computer animated using motion capture. I think that the movie focuses on telling the story by being real and close to live action movies;thus, you don’t notice these small details.

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Physics in "AppleSeed"

I. Introduction – humans and robots in the future. Is it possible?
a. Laws of gravity or technology playing with the forces?
b. Timing to draw out the intensity of the action
c. Newton’s 3rd law
d. Thesis statement
i. The future allows the basic laws of physics to be broken with new advances in technology.
II. Laws of gravity
a. falling objects
i. bullet cases
ii. debris from explosions
iii. characters
b. airplane transport gets shot down.
i. falls in an arc
III. Timing to draw out the intensity of the action
a. dodging kicks and punches
i. jumps in the air
b. able to see the action and the complex moves
IV. Newton 3rd law
a. Using the weapons on the mechanical machine
i. recoil of weapon
ii. Actual repulsion of gravity?
b. fight scene
i. two characters kick each other at the same time
c. jumping off build
i. law broken - Character lands on the ground without and reaction from the ground or body.
ii. Gravity is still correct.
V. Conclusion
• a. Summation of points
• b. Restate thesis

Stop-Motion Animation of Falling

i used a DSLR camera and used photoshop to create the animation.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

This is from the 4 video clip.

The First 2 jumps. The lighting and position of the camera isnt that great.


Here is the four jumps with better lighting and positioning.

Tracking Vid Analysis

Shooting Reference

At 30 FPS

Bio

Im currently a Art student trying to apply for the BFA in Animation. What got me into art was in high school in my 3d animation class. i was instantly hooked on creating models and playing around with the program's features. i got a lot of experience with the class and i began to take over the teacher's position because he was a math teacher. then on i wanted to purse this field and SJSU would help me realize my potential. i hope once i graduate i can get a job as a computer animator.

here is some of my work

First post

my first post and my first blog :)