Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

Reference Photo

Re-creating the Lighting

Turning the Camera

Building a Scene in Maya

No Light

One Point Light

Two Point Light

 

Three Point Light

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 95 and 100; I will not be writing a third term paper :)

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

      We all watch movies for many different reasons. Some people want to escape, some want to be educated and some want to laugh; but no matter what genre you love, above all we want to be entertained. And sometimes directors choose to play with the laws of physics in order to keep up that entertainment value. One principle they love to experiment with is Newton's Third Law, which states that for every action there is a equal reaction in the opposite direction. By playing with this rule, directors can create interesting action sequences, although maybe not very realistic. The genres such as sci-fi, action and fantasy tend to do this the most often, but it can be seen in almost any film. In the films Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Matrix and the TV show Firefly, Newton’s Third Law is ignored in certain cases to enhance the drama of the scene.

     The film Scott Pilgrim vs the World is based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Mally. The story centers on a young Canadian musician named Scott who falls in love with Ramona Flowers. However, in order to win her Scott must defeat Ramona's seven evil exs who are coming after him one by one to try to kill him. The director of this film stayed true to the story's original graphic novel roots, so many of the fight scenes are impossible and over the top to say the least. For example one of the exs burst into coins upon death, and one grinds his skateboard so intensely he spontaneously combusts. The fighting style was very much influenced by video game style fighting, so there were many challenges in bringing this story to life on the big screen, but most fans agree that the director was very successful.

     The third evil ex that Scott has to fight is Todd, who posses psychic powers thanks to his strict vegan diet. Scott and Todd are standing a few feet apart, facing each other when Todd plays a note on his guitar. The force of this sound-wave throws Scott backward, and he crashes through a bench, 3 walls (at least on of them brick) and a table before finally coming to a halt. As he is destroying all of this property, the audience can clearly see Todd still standing in the room, completely unaffected by the force of his music. Now obviously this miraculous stunt is attributed to his mystic vegan powers, and apparently vegans are immune to Newton's Third Law, because this is not how the scene would have happened in real life. The action force in this case is Todd's sound-wave pushing against Scott. The reaction force would be Scott/the air between them pushing back on the guitar and Todd. If the sound-wave was truly that powerful, it would have blown apart the guitar at the very least, and probably thrown Todd through a wall as well. However this does not happen, and Todd doesn't even seem to be bracing himself or feeling the effects of his music at all. In this case the director obviously broke Newton's Law on purpose. This extremely unbalanced action/reaction force fits with the film's comic book style and adds intensity to the scene. Also, they had to go through quite a bit of effort to get this shot, with CGI and wire work, so its clear the director knew this would never happen naturally. 

     The television show Firefly was only on air for one season, but it was incredibly well done and still has a cult following years later. The show follows a group of smugglers who work together on a spaceship trying to make ends meet and avoid being tracked down by the Alliance. The main character Mal and his first mate Zoe fought in the war against the Alliance so they know their way around weapons, and with their not-always-legal line of work they often have to use those skills. The show is set in our universe, just with more advanced technology, and for the most part it portrays things like space travel and the fight scenes in a very realistic manner. The space western theme lends itself very well to this gritty realistic style of television.

     However, no western (space or otherwise) is complete without a shoot-out scene, and there happens to be one in the pilot episode of Firefly. Zoe each other. One enemy on a horse roughly 10 feet away aims his shotgun at Zoe and hits her square in the chest. She flys back several feet and lands flat on her back on the ground. However, the man who fired shows little reaction to the guns recoil. If the bullet's force was that strong, according to Newton's Third Law there should have been an equal reaction in the opposite direction, in this case pushing against the man with the shotgun. Even if he was very strong and bracing the gun against his shoulder, he should have been knocked off the horse to the reaction force of the bullet. Of course, in reality his reaction is appropriate, but the action force of the bullet on Zoe is impossibly exaggerated. The forces simply don’t add up.

     Now don’t worry, she doesn't die because she was wearing a bulletproof vest and she survives to pull of an impressive, yet scientifically inaccurate, shot a few moments later. While still lying on the ground, Zoe raises her neck and shoulders enough to see a enemy trying to escape. She raises her pistol one-handed and kills the man, all while still lying on the ground. This sequence in particular caught my eye, because my friend owns that gun and I have fired it at the range once. The gun is a lever action pistol know as the “Mare's Leg” because of its impressive kickback. This gun is meant to be fired from the hip with both hands, but for newbies like me you can also fire it with both arms fully extended in front of you at about shoulder level. Its important to keep the arms extended, because if you hold the gun too close to your face it will hit you and probably break your nose as you fire. When Zoe fires her arm is extended, but she only has one hand on the gun. She also has her back on the ground, with only her head and upper shoulders off the ground. Her other arm is on the ground, so the only thing supporting her upper body is her ab muscles. When she fires the gun, her body does not react at all. Her arm doesn't jump up, and her upper body isn't forced back to the ground at all. The reaction force of the gun pushing back on her should have had some visible effect, no matter how strong she is. Now once again, I believe that the director chose to film the scenes in this way to make Zoe seem like a stronger and more powerful character. She was in the army for years and survived when most of her unit did not. For the most part the show's fight scenes have very realistic physics, so I think they can get away with smaller inaccuracies like this. 

     The Matrix is a film who's very plot is based on breaking and twisting what we believe to be laws of the “real world”. The film follows a computer hacked called Neo who learns that what most people perceive as the real world is actually a simulated reality created by the machines to subdue the human race so they can be used as an energy source. Morpheus tells Neo that in the Matrix things like gravity are simply computer programs, that can be bent or even broken if you know how. Using this idea, the characters can jump impossible distances, move extremely fast and even dodge bullets.

     In one scene Morpheus is trying to teach Neo this concept in a “training program”. They begin to fight each other, with increasingly impossible moves and actions. At one point Neo leaps forward while kicking Morpheus several times. As he jumps and kicks his forward momentum does not slow, and Morpheus does not react to the kicks at all. He does block the kicks though, and the reaction force from him blocking should be pushing back on Neo. This reaction force should slow Neo's leap and alter its trajectory, but it does not and therefore violates Newton's Third Law. This happens several times throughout the scene. At one point Morpheus kicks Neo square in the chest and Neo flys up and backward about 10 feet. Once again this is a violation of Newton's Third Law, because the reaction force of Neo flying away is not equal to the action force that was exerted on him. Morpheus does not put much his body weight into the kick, so it shouldn’t have been strong enough to send Neo across the room. Of course, its difficult to call this movie scientifically inaccurate when the characters themselves state the are purposely breaking the laws of physics as we know them. The director is very aware of Newton's Third Law and looks for places to break it, because it helps strengthen the plot of the film. 

     The laws of physics are often bent, and sometimes even broken, in most action/sci-fi/fantsay films today. While it occasionally may be due to ignorance, for the majority of these films I believe the directors purposely go out of their way to exaggerate the natural physics of fight scenes. They often will have unbalanced action-reaction forces, with the action being too powerful and the reaction being very under-powered  But it takes quite a bit of effort to have these superhuman actions, and directors often use a mix of CGI, stunt doubles and wire work to achieve them. Because they have to go through so much effort, there must be a reason behind it. I believe that most directors choose this style to make the heroes feel more heroic or to enhance the drama of a battle scene. The main goal of films is to be entertaining, and as artists and directors we have to use every trick in our book to keep the audience engaged. As long as the effects are well done, I have no problem with directors choosing to play with the laws of physics from time to time.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Second Term Paper: Newton's 3rd Law

I. Introduction
a. Action reaction principle - for every action there is an equal reaction in the opposite direction
b. Directors often purposely break this rule to enhance plot points or the feeling of drama/ struggle in many films
c. Films/Shows: Firefly, The Matrix, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

II. Firefly
a. Classic western shootout scene
b. man with a rifle on a horse fires and Zoey is knocked back several feet and lands flat on her back, but the man isn't force back
c. If the bullet knocked her back that far, the man should have been forced of his horse
d. while on her back, she fires her Mare's Leg one handed with no signs of recoil at all
e. My friend owns that gun. I've fired it, and with both hands the nose still flew up. It has a very powerful recoil. Unless she is made of metal she should not have been able to fire it that way with any accuracy

III. Scott Pilgrim
a. Todd the Vegan strummes his guitar, and the sound wave throws Scott backwards, breaking through a bench and 3 walls before finally coming to a halt.
b. If the sound wave was actually that powerful, it would have broken the guitar and thrown Todd back as well

IV.The Matrix
a. Fight scene between Neo and Morpheus in the "training program"
b. Neo jumps forward, kicking Morpheus several times. His forward momentum does not slow and Morpheus does not react to the kicks.
c. Morpheus should be forced back from the action of Neo kicking. Also, Neo's jump trajectory should be altered from the reaction force from Morpheus
d. Morpheus kicks Neo and he flys backward about 10 feet, but Morpheus doesn't move. If his kick was that strong he should have been thrown back as well

V. Conclusion
a. movies often exaggerate the action reaction principle by having the "action" be too powerful, and the "reaction" very under-powered
b. it takes a lot of effort (via special effects or stunt doubles) to create this effect, so they aren't doing it on accident. I believe many directors choose this style to make the heroes feel more heroic or to enhance the drama of a given scene

Reverse Video Reference

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The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe: Alice in Wonderland

One of the beautiful things about the medium of animation is you can do things that would be quite impossible and unrealistic in live action, and in fact some stories almost beg to be animated. Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” from 1951 is one of those stories. Alice is a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole into an unpredictable world of nonsense known as Wonderland. Alice soon realizes this world is obviously not part of our reality and she is unsure what to expect around each corner. The physics of Wonderland differ from the real world in several ways, often in unpredictable and exaggerated manners.

Wonderland’s Action-Reaction principle is very different from the real world and also very unbalanced. In the real world, Newton’s Action-Reaction Principle says that “For every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction”, but Wonderland’s Action-Reaction Principle would go something like, “For every action force there is an exponentially larger reaction force, related to the character’s emotions, in whatever direction it feels like”. For example, the White Rabbit jumps around quite a bit, and when he does this his glasses will rise off his nose a small amount from the force of his jump propelling his body upward. However, the more excited or agitated he his, the higher his glasses fly, even when he is physically not jumping any higher than before (figure 1). Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb’s hats also illustrate this principle; in certain scenes they appear to be jumping 12 inches off the ground, yet their hats fly up several feet above their heads a do a full loop-de-loop before settling back down! The hat could not have gained that much momentum from their jump, so it almost appears as if they are alive and moving on their own (figure 2). This principle also applies to forces exerted on characters as well as inanimate objects. When Alice is stuck inside the White Rabbit’s house while she is 20 feet tall she violently sneezes, launching another character more than 50 feet into the air (figure 3). However the unbalanced force only acts upon the one character, because the force of her sneeze does not blow open the shutters of the house, break the windows or force Alice through the wall at all. Then there are cases where something should be exerting a large force on a character, but it appears to have to have no effect. At one point several characters of varying sizes are running in a circle as large waves periodically wash over them. The waves are 4-5 feet high (which is well above all of their heads) but there is no change in the speed or direction of their run (figure 4). We would expect the animals to either be pushed over by the waves or see them push back against the force of the water to maintain their position in some way, but they simply keep running without acknowledging the force of the water at all. It is hard to predict exactly what will happen with an Action Force in Wonderland, but the only thing you can say for sure is that the reaction will be different than our own world.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Gravity works in strange, unpredictable ways in Wonderland, and sometimes seems to be entirely optional. Falling people and objects often seem to hang at the top of their arcs for an impossibly extended period of time. Many characters seem to go into slow motion at the top of their arcs, and I would almost call it the “8th down at half-time rule.” When small Alice is falling into the pool of tears, she slows into the top of the arc for almost 20 frames, then appears to fall several feet in only 8 frames (figure 5). This is the most extreme case, but many times different characters seem to stick at the top of a jump for longer than physically   possible in our world. Then there are some characters, like the Chesire Cat, seem very floaty in their movements despite their larger mass. Several times his hindquarters rise up above his head, without him pushing off from the tree branch he is sitting on (figure 6). His movements do not slow in or out, but happen at a very slow and even pace. This gives the viewer a slightly unsettling feeling, because he is the only character who consistently moves in this way. It appears that the gravity of Wonderland and how it acts upon a character is directly related to that character’s emotions and mental state. The White Rabbit does not have very much hang time, because he is often in a rush and moving very quickly. The Cheshire Cat is a very relaxed and carefree character, so much so that gravity seems to forget about him all together.

Figure 5 

Figure 6 

The liquids of Wonderland are ones that should be familiar to you, like tea and water, but they behave in very unfamiliar ways. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare are rather violent with their tea cups, so it is understandable that there is some splashing and spilling, however these splashes have very unusual and unpredictable arcs. When the cup is abruptly lowered, the tea will splash up 3-4 times the height of the drop and hang at the top of the arc for a few frames.Another example can be seen when the cup is moved to the side very quickly. You would expect the spilling drops of liquid to appear to trail behind the cup, because they are still at rest from the previous position, but the splashes jump straight up into the air. The tea also defies gravity in more extreme ways, like when the March Hair cuts a cup in half down the middle then pours tea into that half (figure 7). Another liquid that has its own unique physical rules is the red paint the cards use to paint the roses red. The paint is obviously very runny, because it drips off the rose bushes very steadily after they have been painted, but while it is still on the brush it behaves in a very different manner. As the card wave the brushes around, the paint trails behind like hair, but always “snaps” back into the brush like elastic. This does not seem so strange at first, but the trailing paint does not follow the brush, it takes its own path and appears to move of its own accord before coming back to the brush (figure 8). Before we examined how a character’s emotions can affect inanimate objects, so perhaps the frantic behavior of the cards simply infected the paint.

Figure 7

Figure 8

There are a few examples of Wonderland physics behaving like real world physics, the most notable being the effect of a parachute on a falling object’s terminal velocity. When Alice first falls down the rabbit hole she is falling rather quickly. She would continued to accelerate for a few seconds because it would take that long for the force of air resistance to balance out her weight, but her skirt opens up and acts as a parachute (figure 9). The open skirt gives her more surface area, which gives her a lower terminal velocity and that means she falls slower and will survive the fall. The same thing happens to the Doormouse, who is launched into the air by a firework at the tea party. As he falls he opens up an umbrella, which allows him to slowly float to the table (figure 10). However, the Doormouse probably did not need the umbrella in the first place, because he is so small and light the drop of 8 feet would not have killed him. However, in both cases these “parachutes” slowed the fall by an extreme amount, more than was proportional to the increases surface area.

Figure 9

Figure 10

Wonderland is nothing like our world with regards to physical laws. In the real world, these things are constant and predictable but that is not the case with Wonderland. Most of the differences from our world happen when the characters are experiencing extreme emotions, and these emotions amplify the already exaggerated physics of the universe. There are many more examples than the ones I have mentioned here, and I chose to avoid some of the more obviously “magic” examples, like Alice growing or shrinking throughout the story. However, it is difficult to come up with rules, because nothing is really constant throughout the film. In one scene a character’s hat my fly up 5 feet when they jump, in the next it might stay firmly stuck on his head. I believe these inconsistencies make the work feel more believable though, after all it is a world of nonsense.