stuff

CTN expo - extra credit

Here is an image of me, Chris, and two of our other friends that went to the convention and actually was front watching Peter de Seve demo-ing!

Lighting of a Scene

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Building a Scene in Maya

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

For every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction. That is what Newton’s Third Law of Motion describes. This law clearly dictates the law we all abide to; and is something that we as animators must keep in mind of if just about everything we try to animate. Only in certain cases can this law be ignored though. It isn’t that the animator wasn’t aware of this law, but it was more like to give a sense of movie reality. In movie reality, a consistent cause and effect must always happen in order for it to make sense. This is often used for the effect of magical effects or acts of super human strength for certain characters as well, such as Superman. These “super characters” are often what people are attracted to, but in order for those characters to exist, logic must take a backseat in order to make sense. The only problem is how much should we ignore this law of motion? In fact, we shouldn’t even ignore it at all. A lot of what happens in movies, things looks off because our eyes are usually trained to look at things in a certain way. As in the example in class of the Hulk leaping incredible distances in just a few leaps, even with the Hulk as powerful as he is, in reality, we know that nothing that big would be able to jump that high. That kind of action wouldn’t happen, unless you have some kind of recoil that would match the distance that he jumped. In which case, the ground would most likely look like as if it was impacted by a meteor. Other such characters also break this rule in order to give a specific desired effect in the movie that they belong to. It is not through ignorance that these characters are given special abilities, but through understanding this law, is where we are able to take it apart and break it. That is also something where the movie world is able to produce. That is why we, as humans, are also attracted to such thing. Things that we cannot do, but at least we are given a reason to understand. We will be given a reason to believe a field mouse, a panda, and a space alien are able to do fantastical feats.


In the movie “The Secret of NIHM”, we are introduced to Ms Brisby. A normal female field mouse, mother of three, with one major difference, she talks. Throughout the movie, we are informed that she must embark through dangerous tasks in order to save her sick son. This all leads to the fantastic ending in which she is given the power to save her family from certain death. In the end, we are given a feast for the eyes where Ms Brisby uses the power of the necklace to lift up the large cinderblock. Through explanation of the powers of the necklace, we are made to believe in such a miracle. Ms Brisby weights around one pound while the cinder block probably weights in the area of twenty to twenty-five pounds. Earlier in the film, a whole team of rats were used in an attempt to pull up the cinderblock. The amount of force acting on the block seems to be logical. It is around the same as if a team of humans tried to lift a block from say…the pyramids in Egypt. All this action before the final act is all to prepare the viewers in believing that what happens is beyond any normal means. If there was no magical force, Ms Brisby would have been dragged into the sinking mud along with the whole cinderblock. This is like the class demonstration about mutual repulsion. If the person on a skateboard pushes against a brick wall, due to the massive weight of the brick wall, the reaction force of the wall pushes the man back. In this case, the person is replaced with a magical force coming from Ms Brisby and the necklace and the wall would be the replaced with the cinderblock. In order for the force of magic to pull up the cinderblock, the magic must have an action of at least twice the force of the cinderblock since the cinderblock is sinking as well. So, with the help of a magical force, Ms Brisby is able to save her family from certain doom.


As in the movie “Kung Fu Panda”, we are introduced to Po, a normal talking panda. Po lives in a village set in an alternate reality of China where the people consists of animals, many of them herbivores. Not unlike Ms Brisby, Po is pretty normal in the beginning, at least in the world that he represents. Unlike Ms Brisby, the power that Po receives is not through a magical necklace, but through believing in himself (And some martial arts training of course). Near the beginning of the movie, we see Po attempting to look over the palace gates in order to see the Furious Five’s demonstrations of might. After a couple of humorous attempts to get a peak at the demonstrations, Po seats himself to a chair which has some rockets attached to it. Lighting the rockets, they comically propel Po into the gates and then straight up. For one thing, if something like this were to happen in real life, I believe that the chair with the person wouldn’t really be going anywhere. It would most likely explode and catch on fire if anything. Po weights around the same weight as a three hundred pound person. For the action of the rocket propelled chair to be pushed up, the reaction would have caused the ground to break and create a small crack in the stone that the chair was on, in the same manor that the Hulk should have done to the ground that he leapt off of but less extreme. Another example would be near the end of the movie when Tai Lung charges at Po, but much to Tai Lung’s dismay, once he impacts with Po, he gets bounced up straight into the sky. The recoil of Po was only him clenching his butt cheeks in order to prepare himself for the impact. This gives the effect that Tai Lung charging at Po was canceled out due to Po’s stomach. But in fact, from what we learned in class, action forces and reaction forces never cancel because they act on different objects. For something like that to happen in real life, Po would have been pushed back at least some distance before Tai Lung was moved away from him. Also, the bounce up was unrealistic for comedic effect as well. From what it looked like, it seemed as if the reaction of Po’s stomach was at least four to five times against Tai Lung’s action. Tai Lung bounced off-screen, but from the action of Po squinting his eyes in order to see Tai Lung in the air, it looked like Tai Lung was propelled at least a mile up. Thanks to the belief of oneself, Po was able to save others from the threat of Tai Lung and all of China.


In “Lilo and Stitch”, we are first introduced to this crazy little alien, Stitch. Stitch is very unlike Ms. Brisby and Po where he always had his powers and knew about it straight from the beginning. Made to be a weapon of mass destruction, he was immediately charged to be put down; but due to his intellect and super-human strength, he was able to escape and ends up crash landing onto the island of Hawaii. Lilo mistakes him for a pet dog and decides to adopt him. Through many adventures, Stitch grows a liking to Lilo, but Jumba, the scientist that created him wants him back, so trouble ensues. One of the things that happen is that Jumba shoots a plasma ray gun at Stitch, but due to Stitch’s ability, he is able to catch the plasma as if it was a toy ball. Very much like how superman isn’t affected by bullets, Stitch isn’t really affected by the plasma from the gun either. The force of the plasma is canceled, but not all of the reaction is canceled. To me, the reaction force would be Stitch catching the plasma. For a bullet to go through flesh, the creature would be pushed back a little causing the creature to fall backwards. After many more adventures and perils, Stitch is able to stay with Lilo and they both lived happily ever after.


For every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction. Through the understanding of Newton’s Third Law, animators are able to break this law in order to give the characters a sense of magical or super-human strength. Through specific preparation for the viewer, the writer of the show must create scenes that show that happens that involves such characters is indeed an act of super-human strength or magical ability. Doesn’t matter if the character is a mouse, a panda bear, or a space alien, in order for these characters to be believable, we must be trained to see what they can do. As we have been done all our lives weather we are conscious of it or not of Newton’s Third Law. Through these special abilities, they lived happily ever after, at least until the next sequel…

Stop-Motion Animation

Many thanks to Mark the helping me with this and allowing me to use his stuff.

Analysis of a Walk