Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

For this assignment, we got to create our own 3D images.

The process was both simpler and more difficult than I thought it would be. In a nutshell, you simply take a picture, move the camera a couple inches to the right and take another picture, being careful not to rotate the camera. Then, in Photoshop, you put the pictures into one file, turn off the red channel for the right eye, and voilà! You have your stereoscopic 3D image. However, the difficult part was making sure the camera did not rotate, and knowing exactly how far to move your camera to take the second picture.

The following pictures were my best attempts to create 3D images.

Of the three, my favorite is the one with the palm trees because it was the most successful. I was delighted to see how well it turned out. It was almost like the trees were right there! I showed my friends what I had made, and some of them asked me to make 3D images for them. Hopefully they will like them!

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

For this assignment, I had to recreate a scene in Maya using a photo. I had to replicate the camera placement and the lighting. Although we only needed to do one, I decided to do two because I thought they would be fun and challenging.

Here is the actual photo of the first scene:

And here is my recreation:

Here is the actual photo of the second scene:

 

 And here is my recreation:

I think the second one was much tougher to do because getting the shadows and reflections to cooperate was much more difficult than in the first one. It was a fun assignment nonetheless. Perhaps I will continue working on it another time to see if I can make it match the photo better.

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

In Maya, I created a scene with a floor, a wall, and my initials. I applied three-point lighting to the scene to make it more interesting.

First, I applied a strong spotlight as my key light:

Next, I used an ambient light as the fill light:

Last, I used a directional light as a rim light:

Building a Scene in Maya

For this homework assignment, I was required to create a scene in Maya using a floor, a wall, and the initials of my name.

I wanted to have the letters interact, so I leaned them on one another as if they had lost balance and were holding each other up.

I later added lights and created a scene with three-point lighting.

Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination

This weekend, I visited the Star Wars Exhibit at The Tech Museum.

There were a lot of great things to see. They had models, props, maquettes, and costumes on display, and some behind-the-scenes videos as well. They had some stations with activities for children to have a hands-on learning experience, such as changing the wheels on R2D2 to suit his terrain, how to design a robot walk, and how to effectively build a moisture farm on Tatooine. Despite the very cold temperature inside, I stayed until they were closed. There was just so much to look at! I would have stayed longer if the staff hadn't told me to leave.

I was so busy looking at all their displays, I almost forgot to take a picture of myself at the museum. Luckily, I remember just before leaving!

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 95 and 85; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

For this assignment, I collaborated with my classmates Edric Yamamoto and Catharina Sukiman to create a stop-motion animation of a character. Originally, we wanted to animate some Transformers solving a Rubik's cube, but when we realized how complicated that would be, we decided to look for a simpler idea.

We had to think about what other kinds of interesting "characters" we had access to. After sorting through many ideas, we thought about shoes. We realized we had easy access to little boy's shoes because of Edric's son. I also happened to wear my boy's sneakers that day. We decided to use Edric's shoes, his son's shoes, and my shoes to show the age of our character. With that concept, this is what we came up with:

In preparing our set, we tried our best to have good lighting with clean background.

We taped paper over the hanging lights to diffuse the lighting and to prevent it from creating a glare on the hard wood floor. These lights acted as fill lights. To the right of our set, we placed a tall lamp to be our key light. We set up a step ladder and clamped a plank of wood to it. We then clamped the iPad to the plank of wood, and in doing so, we created a large downshooter. With tape, we marked off the edges of the camera's view. We also used tape to mark the x- and y-axis positions of the shoes to make sure they didn't stray too far from their starting points.

We each took turns animating, directing, and taking pictures so that the workload was equal. When there were multiple characters on the set, we each took charge of one character each, and Edric's wife was kind enough to take the pictures for us while the three of us animated.

We shot parts of our animation on 4 frames per second and 6 frames per second. We animated the four walk cycles for each age we showed (little boy, boy, teenager, adult). We did our best to animate the contact, passing, up, and down positions for each walk cycle. In order to lift the shoes, Edric made wedges and blocks of varying heights out of cardboard and tape.

When we were done filming, Edric composited all the sequences together while Catharina and I tried to find music for our animation.

This was a very fun assignment to work on. Thank you for giving us this assignment, Professor Garcia! I found stop motion very enjoyable, and I plan to play around with some more stop motion in the future.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

In today’s films, there is an ever-growing demand to make the impossible come to life. Animators and visual effects artists are getting becoming better masters of their craft, and they make it harder and harder to differentiate between scientific fact and cinematic fiction. When it comes to animation, audiences have come to expect stunts and gags that defy the laws of physics. One principle that is commonly broken in animated movies is that of action with an equal reaction. In the films “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “The Croods,” and “The Incredibles,” this occurs in scenes involving jumps.

In “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” Flint and Sam walk into a house made of Jell-O. Flint walks through the Jell-O without much effort, but a minute later, we see him and Sam bounce high into the air as if the floor were a trampoline. When Flint walks into the Jell-O, the tilt of his body implies that not a lot of force was put into pushing through the gelatin, and the Jell-O seems easily breakable. In the scene following that, Flint and Sam should not have been able to stand on the floor, much less bounce around the room, without falling through. When Sam and Flint walk and bounce around the house, the pressure under their feet is a lot greater than the force Flint put into walking into the Jell-O because the base of support is a lot smaller and the amount of pressure applied is greater. There are many instances in which the fact is sacrificed for fiction, but the audience is willing to overlook this because it adds comedic effect.

The film “The Croods” opens with the Crood family coming out of their cave for the first time in days. Eep bursts out of the cave, jumps onto her father, jumps onto the cliff face, runs across the wall, and jumps up on top of their cave. This series of shots contains many actions that defy physics. For instance, when Eep jumps onto Grug, Grug doesn’t seem to move very much. Although Grug is very sturdy, Eep is built in such a way that she should have been heavy enough to warrant a larger reaction from Grug. This is an example of action with a lesser reaction. When Eep jumps off of Grug’s back, she jumps very high, but she doesn’t have the anticipation to match it. Also, her path of action is exaggerated to look more arched and fluid. She seems to travel along a half circle, which is not realistic. She starts traveling vertically before she starts moving horizontally. If we were to track her position horizontally, it would look like she slows into the motion. In addition, Eep should not have been able to run across the cliff face with such ease. Gravity would have pulled her down before she even ran two steps. In order for Eep to be able to run along the wall in such a way, she would first have to be traveling horizontally at a high speed so that inertia would hold her against the wall long enough for her to run across. Despite the many instances in which the laws of physics are broken, the audience is still able to accept the impossible because it brings the scene to life.

“The Incredibles” is a film in which many physics principles are broken because it’s a universe in which superheroes exist, and superheroes are often exceptions to certain laws of physics. However, in the case of gravity, Mr. Incredible is not exempt. During the final battle scene, Mr. Incredible is fighting the Omnidroid. He lunges at it, tackles it, and it falls to the ground. One way in which the scene was exaggerated is the fact that Mr. Incredible should not have been able to knock over the Omnidroid. Heavier objects taking longer to move when they are at rest. At his current weight and speed, the Omnidroid should have stopped Mr. Incredible in his tracks. In order to knock over the Omnidroid, Mr. Incredible would need to either weigh more or travel faster. Either way, the law of inertia would have kept Mr. Incredible moving long enough to at least make the Omnidroid budge. Also, the surface of the Omnidroid is much too smooth for anyone to be able to get a good grip on it. Mr. Incredible’s hands should have slipped across the surface, and his entire body should have just shot past its target. Another example of why this scene is not realistically plausible is because Mr. Incredible and the Omnidroid are several stories above the ground, yet Mr. Incredible lands on the ground unharmed. As tough as Mr. Incredible is, it’s easy to believe that he doesn’t sustain life-threatening injuries, but falling from that height should have hurt him in some way. Furthermore, if objects fall at the same rate, Mr. Incredible should not have separated from the Omnidroid as they fall from the building. Although Mr. Incredible has less mass than the Omnidroid and would have a lower terminal velocity in comparison, he would still fall at the same speed as the Omnidroid. Air resistance would not have been a large factor in Mr. Incredible’s falling speed because the Omnidroid would have blocked any incoming air resistance. Although the physics in this scene is impossible, the action is still believable and it adds entertainment value to battle.

In the three films, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “The Croods,” and “The Incredibles,” it’s clear that jumps are often exaggerated by breaking the laws of physics. A basic knowledge of physics makes it easier to tell which shots are based on cinematic fiction and which are scientific fact. Although animators do not always accurately follow the principle of action and reaction, these scenes are still believable. The audience is able to believe the impossible.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Unrealistic Jumps; Action and Reaction


INTRODUCTION

• In today’s films, there is an ever-growing demand to make the impossible come to life.
• Animators and visual effects artists are getting better at their jobs, and they make it harder and harder to differentiate between fact and fiction.
• Often times, movies break the principle of action with an equal reaction.

BODY

• “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”
• The Jell-O house should not have been able to bounce them.
• If they are able to simply walk through it, then jumping on it should have broken the surface and they would have fallen through.
• Sam cannon-balled into the Jell-O pool, but Flint’s belly flop didn’t break the surface of the Jell-O.
•  The texture in the timing of their jumps were added for entertainment value.
• Their paths of action are greatly exaggerated.
• “The Croods”
•  When Eep jumps onto Grug, Grug doesn't move much.
• Eep is fairly heavy, so there should have been a bigger reaction from the unexpected weight.
• Eep's path of action when she flips from Grug's back onto the rock is incorrect.
• She begins traveling mostly vertically before she moves horizontally.
• Eep should not have been able to scale the wall with such ease.
• She was not traveling fast enough horizontally for there to have been enough force to hold her against the wall.
•  "The Incredibles”
• During the final battle scene, Mr. Incredible should not have been able to knock over the Omnidroid.
• In order to knock over the Omnidroid, Mr. Incredible would need to either weigh more or travel faster. At his current weight and speed, the Omnidroid should have stopped him in his tracks because he does not have enough momentum.
• Mr. Incredible should not have had enough traction to hold on to the Omnidroid. He should have slipped across its surface
• If things fall at the same rate, Mr. Incredible should not have separated from the Omnidroid as they were falling.
• Falling from such a high distance, Mr. Incredible should not have landed unharmed.

CONCLUSION

• Although there are many instances in which animators do not accurately follow the principle of action and reaction, these scenes are still believable, and the audience does not question it.
• A basic knowledge of physics makes it easier to tell which shots are fiction and which are fact.

Reverse Video Reference

For this assignment, we had to film ourselves mimicking characters in 2D animations. Normally, we film ourselves acting out the scene we are trying to create, and then animate based on that video reference. However, this assignment required us to closely examine an animation, and then try to replicate it with our own bodies.

I found this assignment very difficult, as I'm sure most other students did. There were some strange things to work with. Poor perspective, disappearing limbs, and unbalanced characters are just a few of the challenges of replicating things in reality.

The animation I found most difficult to replicate was C. This may be because it is the longest one and had more actions to remember and keep track of as I acted it out. The other animations took me 5-10 attempts until I got one I liked, but animation C took me 27 tries, not counting the practice runs that I didn't film. I was quite frustrated, but other than that, I thought this assignment was very interested, and it taught me how much we really need to take into account when filming our video reference.

A.

B.

C.

D.

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

When I first read the requirements for the assignment, I actually had a hard time trying to decide what to do. I wanted to do something that was unique based on the little toys and things I owned. I looked at my shelf and there were so many things to choose from. After considering many possibilities, I looked at my ? block from Super Mario, and I suddenly remembered I had a little Mario mushroom to go with it. Sadly, I didn't have a Mario doll to use, so I grabbed the cutest little figure I had, which is Remy from Ratatouille.

For this shot, there were many things to consider. How would Remy walk with immovable legs? How would I get him to anticipate for the jump if he couldn't bend his waist? How could I get the mushroom to look as if it is coming out of the cube? I eventually decided to go with a more cartoony walk for Remy. For the anticipation for the jump, I tilted him forward by propping dice under his head to make it look as if he were bending down. To make the mushroom look like it was emerging from the cube, I actually had to start off with a smaller blue object because the mushroom was too big to hide behind the block. I hid a smaller pompom ball behind the cube and transitioned into the mushroom.

In terms of planning, I used a ruler to calculate how far the mushroom should fall between frames. I planned it out on a separate sheet of paper, but in order to keep a clean background for my shot, I used the ruler to measure the distances along the X and Y axes to figure out out the position rather than putting marks on my background. I may have done some of my math wrong, but I did my best to fix the timing in QuickTime.

Physics in the World of "Megamind"

Imagine yourself taking a walk at a park on an ordinary day, and you see a girl swinging on the swing set. Everything seems normal at first, but what if the girl didn’t slow down at the apex of each swing? That would undoubtedly catch your eye, because you know that after each swing, there should be a brief moment when the girl should hang in the air. When it comes to physics, people can usually sense when something is off. However, when it comes to animation, sometimes, these things are harder to catch. Often times, animators will break the laws of physics in order to make the film more interesting for the audience. This is true in the animated film “Megamind.” Although the world of “Megamind” often follows our laws of physics, there are many instances in which those laws are broken in order to create entertainment value for the audience.

One area in which the laws of physics are broken is path of action. In one scene, Titan tosses Roxanne Ritchi over a building. While she begins by traveling almost completely in a vertical direction, she begins traveling horizontally when she reaches the top of the building. This can be seen in the following image:

 

 Although this breaks the laws of physics, it makes the scene more dramatic as Roxanne falls through the sky. Another example of a strange path of action is when Titan flicks the mayor with his finger. Titan’s flick should have sent the mayor in a backward direction, but instead the mayor went flying upward. In the following images, the leftmost is from the mayor's point of view.

Titan is taller than the mayor, meaning the force from Titan's flick should be sent horizontally, if not downwards. Therefore, it does not make sense that the mayor flew upward. A third instance in which a path of action defies physics is when Titan throws Metro Tower during the final battle of the movie. Titan threw the building from a very high location, so by the time Metro Tower hit the ground, most of its force should have been directed downward instead of horizontally. Despite this, Metro Tower barrels down the street, chasing after “Megamind” (which was actually Minion in disguise) and Roxanne at an alarming speed.

Not only are there strange paths of action in this film, but there are a few moments where inertia seems to be absent. When Metro Man is first introduced in the beginning, he is seen juggling three babies. When Metro Man returns the baby dressed in pink, he tosses the baby back to its mother. This doesn’t seem all that strange until we consider the fact that Metro Man’s hand was under the baby, and not behind it.

This shot could closely resemble the well-known tablecloth trick where one pulls a tablecloth from under a flower vase. In this case, the baby should have stayed where it was (like the flower vase), while Metro Man's hand was pulled out from underneath (like the tablecloth). Later on in the film, Titan is introduced. He greets Roxanne Ritchi and presents her with a cart full of flowers. As he emerges with the cart, he spins it on one finger very quickly.

The spinning should have caused the flowers to fly out of their containers, but they remain in place in order to better convey Titan’s cockiness. During the final battle between Megamind and Titan, there is a scene where Titan rips the door off the invisible car, and Megamind is clinging tightly to the inside of it. When the invisibility wears off and Titan finally sees Megamind, Titan throws the door into the air like a discus. The force that was put into that throw should have shaken off Megamind. The only way Megamind could have stayed with the door is if he were holding onto it with a grip of superhuman strength. The lack of inertia in some scenes such as these helps to give more appeal to these moments.

Alongside with path of action and inertia, there is a third way in which the laws of physics is broken, and that is through inconsistencies in resilience of objects. One example of this is when Megamind puts on his Black Mamba suit and controls a giant robotic combat suit. As he marches out in preparation to do battle with Titan, we see that the weight of his suit causes the asphalt crumble beneath his feet (left).

However, when he jumps onto the roof of City Hall, the building looks fine (right). He can even spin on the steeple without breaking it. This shows both an inconsistency in the weight of the robotic suit as well as the stability of materials, but it creates a dramatic effect as Megamind walks down the street. Another example of inconsistency is when Megamind tries to trap Titan in a copper dome. At first, Titan is able to peel away a sheet of the copper like a malleable metallic material.

However, seconds later, Titan blasts through it as if it were made of rock. Instead of peeling or shredding, the copper shatters and breaks. This shows an inconsistency of the flexibility of the copper material and how it reacts to force, but it lends itself to creating a more dramatic effect as Titan breaks free of the cage. A third example of inconsistent resilience just after Megamind and Roxanne discover that Metro Man is still alive. Megamind, disbelieving what he is seeing, reaches over to Metro Man’s face, and touches it. Metro Man’s face reacts like normal skin as Megamind presses and squeezes his face.

However, when Roxanne gets angry and begins throwing objects at Metro Man, his face does not react at all. In the following image, Roxanne has just smashed a guitar onto Metro Man's head, but his face remains unchanged.

Likewise, Hal's face is just as unchanging as Metro Man's, since they have the same superhuman DNA. In the image below, Megamind punches Titan in the face while wearing his Metro Man imitation suit, but Titan’s face barely shows any change at all. This shows an inconsistency in the elasticity of Metro Man's and Titan's faces, but it shows how physically strong they are.

Although these are some jarring inconsistencies, the audience doesn't notice them as much because they lend a more comedic effect to the movie.

Throughout the movie, it is clear that the laws of physics are broken in path of action, inertia, and inconsistent resilience. However, each time the laws are broken, we can see that it is not because the animators didn't do their research; the animators are simply pushing reality. The animators were able to push the situations to the extremes, and still make the audience accept it as part of the movie. Breaking these laws serves to create a more entertaining film for the audience, and "Megamind" was a highly entertaining film because of it.

Physics in the World of "Megamind" Outline

Introduction

• Animated feature film: "Megamind"
• Although the world of "Megamind" often follows our laws of physics, there are many instances in which those laws are broken.

Body

• Cushioning (Slow in, slow out, and overshoot)
• When Megamind rolls chair back toward Roxanne, there is no slow out.
• Metro Man throws baby into stroller, and there is no overshoot.
• Hal flies into street lamp pole, but the pole doesn’t budge.
• When Hal catches Metro Tower after it tips over, he barely moves.
• Hal and Metro Man seem to have no problem suddenly changing direction while flying, but Hal couldn’t stop in time to prevent himself from being grabbed by “Metro Man”
• Arcs
• Hal flicks Mayor, but he should not have travelled upward.
• Metro Tower shouldn’t have skidded since it landed with a more downward force.
• When Hal tosses Roxanne over a building, she first travels vertically, but not horizontally, but when she gets to the top, she goes over the building.
• After Hal throws Megamind and the car door, Megamind’s trajectory doesn’t match up with the direction he was thrown in.
• Inertia
• When Metro Man tosses the pink baby back to its mom, the baby should not have travelled forward because Metro Man’s hand was under it rather than behind it.
• When Hal throws the car door, Megamind should have been shaken off.
• Centrifugal force: When Hal gets the flower cart for Roxanne and spins it, the flower vases shouldn’t have stayed in cart.
• Unexpected Resilience
• Metro Man juggles three babies, and the babies’ spines/necks should have broken
• Megamind’s giant robot suit breaks concrete while walking, but doesn’t break building when he jumps on it.
• With the amount of force needed to knock over Megamind’s giant robot suit, Hal should have destroyed the floor of his apartment when lunging at him.
• Megamind swats Hal with his giant robot suit, and Hal skids into the ground.
• Hal bends the copper cage like malleable metal, but then breaks it like stone.
• Metro Man’s face moves when Megamind touches it, but doesn’t move when Roxanne throws things at him. Likewise, Hal's face shatters metal, and his skin doesn't move.

Conclusion

• The laws of physics are broken many times throughout the film
• Breaking these laws creates more entertainment for the viewer.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

For this assignment I had to film reference of myself doing a running jump.

 

We the had to put our video files in to a tracking program where we tracked the center of our waistline.

Here is a video clip with the tracking points on it.

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

For this assignment, I had to drop an object, and track its path as it fell. I chose to use my rubber duck again.

I dropped the duck six times. Here is the video. I had to combine three separate clips together because my camera can only capture 10 seconds at a time when shooting in 30 fps.

Shooting Video Reference

For this assignment, I filmed myself tossing a yellow rubber duck in the air. We are testing the "Fourth Down at Half Time" rule.

This actually wasn't as straight forward as I thought it would be. I followed the directions, but I still had to mess around with my frames in order to get the desired effect. The last frame is actually not the frame right before I caught the duck. Also, frame 5 was not a quarter way down, nor was frame 6. I found that the point half way between frames 5 and 6 fit the Fourth Down at Half Time rule though.

explOratorium

On Thursday, I went to the Exploratorium with a few friends. I had never been there before, but on Thursday evenings, the Exploratorium is open to people 18 years and older.

It was strange because I expected it to be like the Children's Discovery Museum, but here, there weren't children running around. (Which meant I got to sit in the monochromatic room testing the flavors of the jellybeans in peace)

The Exploratorium was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. There was no way I could have gotten through everything in one night! At every turn, there was something new and fun to play with. Especially since I caught sight of the animation station, where I ended up spending a good half hour. I am definitely going to go again, and someday, I'll get through every exhibit!

Mini-Portfolio

Hello! My name is Jessica Tong. I'm an animation major at San Jose State University. I'm currently the secretary for the Shrunkenheadman Club, the school's animation club. Originally, I wanted to focus on Visual Development, but after taking our program's beginning 3D animation class, I decided to emphasize in 3D character animation. I still enjoy painting, but there's nothing like breathing life into an inanimate object.

Last semester, I participated in a gallery in which 151 artists were randomly assigned one of the original 151 Pokemon. The artists were to make a piece portraying their Pokemon in whatever way they want. This was my painting, done in acrylic paint on 7"x7" cold press illustration board.

Here is a digital speed painting I did. I think I spent about an hour and a half on it. This taught me that I lack confidence in my hard edges and darker values.

This is my final reel for ANI 129b. We worked on many assignments: posing our characters, quick studies of simple actions, and long shots of actions.

This is my sack pantomime, my final animation for ANI 114. The idea was to animate a flour sack as if it were a human, using only miming motions to convey its reactions.

The First Post

Hello, Professor Garcia!

My name is Jessica Tong, and I am very excited to take your class. Most of my A/I friends have taken it already, and I've heard nothing but good things! Thank you for being such a dedicated teacher!

Here's to a fun semester!

- Jessica