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

The Little Goldfish Who Fell In Love

In the world that we live in, goldfish are defined as a type of carp who were loved for their golden color. These days, you usually see them as pets from carnival game prizes or in pet stores waiting to be bought. On planet Earth, everyone in the world have to follow certain laws that affect everything. Such as the law of gravity where basically whatever goes up must come down. Such things must be there to explain why...well, we basically stay on the Earth and how we all function. In the imaginary world of Ponyo, the most recent Miyazaki film, we are brought into the beautiful aquatic world of Ponyo. From there, we are swept up and come upon the land where the humans dwell. If you read this, you might think that this is pretty similar to our world and you would be correct. For the most part, the world of Ponyo is very much like our own where people go about their business living their lives and going about to and fro in their vehicles. In the world above, people are ruled by the laws of physics as well as the creatures underwater. The normal aquatic life all swim the same way. In fact, Ponyo, a goldfish who becomes the center of attention in this animated film swims very much like how a normal film would swim. It's just has a huge humanoid face for design purposes. She is the daughter of a large and powerful being of the sea and to a wizard who wishes to abandon his human birthright because of the damage that humans as a whole caused to the sea. Immediately, we are brought to the attention that in this world, people with magical abilities exist. Old wives tales that involve the sea suddenly become true and thus, the world that we once knew is blown asunder. For in this world, Everything follows some law of physics, but if you have special powers, then those laws don't need to apply to you if you don't feel like it.

The two main characters in the film, Sosuke and Ponyo, are around the age of five. The movie in very involved in how they view the world to the point that the artistic style is almost like how really young children would see the world sometimes. Both are children of families that are not always together due to similar reasons. Both the father of Sosuke and Ponyo's mother must attend to their jobs on/in the sea. Sosuke is your average five year old little boy. He is curious about many things around him and is self-involved and doesn't fear much. Actually, he almost drowns at one point because he was trying to get back Ponyo. At another exciting point of the story, we see Sosuke running on top of a wooden fence, but we see him leaning past the point of balance. So due to dramatic purposes, and maybe momentum, Sosuke is able to do such a thing and it seems plausible. Even though this is a love story, it is a very innocent concept of love. One where it is the most pure, not polluted with other worries that often plague the more older people in life. Which leads the topic to the older people in this film. All the other children, adults, and seniors ground the feeling of this world as well. They act and react to things as well would in real life. If they fall into the water, they would eventually sink. They all run at a certain pace, and even when the old grannies regain their ability to walk again, they run at a medium speed, probably around five miles per hour. We also come upon Lisa and the father of Sosuke. They're pretty normal as well. Except for Lisa's uncanny ability for speeding down the driveway, she's pretty normal. The laws of gravity applies to her especially when she was pouting on and around her bed. She lies in a very depressed pose and you clearly see the weight of her on the bed. A point where things kind of break is when Lisa opens the large can of beer in anger and the beer foams out as if there was a large amount of pressure inside the can before. So when characters are angry, things on or around them might be affected to add to the mood. One very good fact on this subject, would be about the hair in this film. It can sometimes defy gravity at certain points when the character is either excited or angry or surprised. When Ponyo's father is using magic to shrink Ponyo back into her regular size, his hair sticks up wildly to display how much he is stressing against Ponyo's magic. Another good example is around the same period of time, Ponyo's father also sweats huge beads of sweat that doesn't fall, they kind of just stay there. Another good example of hair would be when the grannies are underwater, their hair acts like it isn't effected by the motion of the ocean probably to lessen the attention from them to the more important characters in the scene. Even nature around them reacts the same as our world does. There is one point when Lisa and Sosuke are in the car and a huge storm is a brewing. Hills of waves are developing fast and they must get home fast. But before that, we see a road block being blown by the wind. Foreshadowing the point when at the side of the road, the wind picks up so much, that it picks up Sosuke and tosses him over the railing. For the wind to have that much force to pick up a 40 pound child, it must have at least the same amount of force as Sosuke does. In fact, it has the force that would toss Sosuke, but not Lisa or the car that they were in. Another major force in this film is the water. It has a special quality that Miyazaki surely realize, for it acts as a force of it's own, as if it is a creature as a whole. At some parts, parts of the water look like little fishes. Things in physics also apply to water as well though. When water is dripping, it drips in small round drops instead of teardrop shapes which often symbolizes water dropping. Like the slinky example that was shown in class, all the mass comes back down as one. At one point after Sosuke runs on top of the fence, we see a sequence where, in slow motion, the water leaves the bucket as one large mass and splashes on Granny Toki's face. There is no real force holding the water back, so it continues on forward. Also, when Ponyo is spitting water at Sosuke or anyone else, the water travels in a parabolic arc. Waves comes up upon the shore, or in some cases, hills, as it would normally. Under the water, things move as a constant slow speed if they aren't moving that much and even if the creature moves, they act like they are going against some sort of pressure. For the water is pushing against the object as well. A good example would be when we see the underwater net pulling the trash and random fishes through the water.

In contrast to all of that, we have Ponyo. From the very beginning, we understand that Ponyo is special. For one, she's larger all of her sisters.And secondly, she has the ability to act like a human child, like when she uses the jellyfish as a blanket in the beginning of the movie. Grandma Toki also describes Ponyo as a fish that brings tsunamis due to the weird nature of her having a face. We are also brought to the attention, by Gran Mamare, that if Sosuke doesn't accept Ponyo for who she is, then Ponyo will turn into foam. A concept that was first used by author Hans Christian Anderson in the book, The Little Mermaid. She is so special, in fact, that with her own will, she grows arms, feet, and teeth. Not even her father is able to hold down her power and desire to be with Sosuke. When Ponyo is in the bubble, she exerts so much pressure that the bubble stretches to a point where she almost escapes right then and there. When she does escape though, she does it with style. It is here where she first shows what she can do. In fact, she walks on water and on the wall. For her to do that, she would have to weight less than the water and for her to walk up the wall, she would have to have little to no gravity effecting her. When Ponyo is sucked into the room with the magic water, she floats down slowly like how a leaf would. This was to show her process of turning even more human, much to her excitement. The scene climates with her and every other creature literally bursting out of the underwater house up towards the surface at extreme speed. For her to move that fast, we must understand that she and the others are magically influenced. They shoot up as if little to no pressure is pushing back at them to the point that even when they break the surface of the water, they jump out at an extremely high height. Which leads to one of the most beautiful scenes in animation history. The scene where Ponyo is running along the waves. For her to do that, she must not weigh that much as well run at the same constant speed of the waves. Other examples of Ponyo running on water would be when she runs back to the baby to cheer him up as well as when she's carrying the front end of the enlarged toy boat, she continues to run on top of the water until she stops, then she sinks. She's also stronger than Sosuke, as seen when they were carrying the toy boat. Also, when Ponyo is blowing into the boat to start it, she is able to blow so much air into it that it kind of pushes Sosuke away. One of the most gravity defying scenes is when in the end, she kisses Sosuke and turns back into her human form. She doesn't continue falling, but stays in the air while transforming. That in turn, might be a design choice as well.

Ponyo isn't the only being in the film that is able to use some kind of magical force. There are many other characters in the film that show abilities to perform. One such character is Gran Mamare, Ponyo's mother. She is such an important being of the sea that when she first appears, she's huge. When you see her, all of her movements are slightly slower than a normal size character. But when she shrinks, her movements speed up a little. Another noticeable thing about her is that her hair is constantly moving as if her hair is made of the sea. Another character that shows abilities to defy normal physics is the tsunami and moon. In one point of the movie, the tsunami is seen standing still, with a large amount of ships at the base of the wave. Tsunami's normally don't increase size drastically until it's closer to land, not where it's in the middle of the ocean. Ponyo's sisters also able to break the bounds of physics when they come in contact with the magic water. They increase in size and become part of the water in fact, which was mentioned earlier during this essay. Bubbles are also something that is very interesting in this movie as well. They acts as a shield from the water, but at some points, it also feels like it has water inside them as well like when Gran Mamare puts Ponyo into a bubble and it floats in the bucket. It goes down slowly as if it's underwater.

In the world of Ponyo, things are pretty much like how are in our world. Things follows the laws of physics, but the difference would be that in this world, there are beings that are able to defy the laws of physics and even cause things around them to act differently as well. From Sosuke, a normal young five year old boy who is acting on the pure innocence of a promise to protect. To Ponyo, the goldfish who found love and was able to transcend all leaps and bounds and in turn cause something that in the end benefited everyone. The laws of physics applied to all beings in this movie, but when certain beings feel like changing things in order to get to their goal, they can break the laws. So in the end, what we see is the adventure they have that strengthen their bond with each other.

Outline of First Term Paper

Physics in "Ponyo"

I. Introduction – The Little Goldfish...

• a. Physics still apply
  
• b. Ponyo: The girl who walks on water
  
• c. Beings or parts of nature are able to defy the laws of physics
  
• d. Thesis statement: Everything follows some law of physics, but if you have special powers, then those laws don't need to apply to you if you feel like it.
  

II. Physics in the world of Ponyo

• a. Sosuke and Ponyo
  
• b. All the older characters. (ie. Lisa, the father, the old ladies)
  
• c.Hair in Miyazaki's film react according to the person's emotion

• d. water
• e. The world under the sea
  

III. Ponyo: The girl who walks on water

• a. Ponyo walks on water in two part of the movie when she escapes from her father's underwater home.
  
• b. When she is in the room, she floats down slowly back and forth like a leaf.
  
• c. Ponyo and her sisters bursts out of the water at extreme speed.
  
• d. Running on the waves
  

IV. Beings or parts of nature are able to defy the laws of physics

• a. Ponyo
• b. Gran Mamare
  
• c. The Tsunami and the Moon
  
• d. Ponyo's sisters
  
• e. Nature itself
  

V. Conclusion

• a. Summation of points
• b. Restate thesis

Extra Credit - Cartoon Museum

Here is a picture of me and my friends with Ron Dias. The artist who was the guy that loaned all that wonderful artwork from various films that he worked on. It was really a wonderful night.

Running Jump - Tracker

Image of the jump

Video of the jump recorded

Here is the video of the 5 jumps.

Drop Reference

Mini Portfolio

Who doesn't like a few drawings of feet?

Most of these images were from Bunny's "tidepool" class where we had to develop two paintings based off of a version of the Little Red Riding Hood story. In one, we were suppose to develop a happy forest scene while the other is more of a dark and moody scene.

Plain-air study at Kelley Park.
The spot I picked kind of reminded me of "The Secret Garden"-like entrance, but with a metal fence entrance instead of an old wooden one.

What can I say about myself...Hmmm...Well, I like to be happy. I think almost everyone would like that. I believe that if I am happy, then the people around me would be happy as well. Things just start from a smile. I am also pretty playful and childish most of the time, but I can be studious when I need to be.

In art, I am trying to understand color and line more while also developing my sense of story as well. Some of my favorite artists include Bill Tytla, Glene Keane, Mary Blair, Arthur Rackham, T.S. Sulivant, Heinrich Kley, N.C Wyeth, and Andrew Wyeth.