Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Misread the deadline so I'm getting this in a bit late but I enjoyed this assignment quite a bit. Thanks for a really cool semester. :)

Recreating Camera and Lights in Maya

I'm sure the renderings will show how new I am to Maya. Trying to figure out how everything worked was pretty difficult..but here's the final result.

Here is the photograph

My badly rendered attempt to copy. I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to get the ambient lighting. 

I don't know how acceptable this is. I think I turned this image too far around and the light is really contrasty. Oh well...hopefully I can learn from my mistakes once I take Ani 51A.

Building a Scene in Maya

"L A"

Special Effects in Animation and Live Action

My first two term papers were both above an 80. I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline for Third Term Paper

1. Introduction:
a. Thesis: Car flip scenes in films, depending on how the shot is set up, can use either practical effects or CG and depending on how well the physics are portrayed determines the believability.
b. Introduce two scenes to be discussed from Batman The Dark Knight and Wanted.

2. 18 wheeler flip scene from The Dark Knight.
a. While some CG was used, such as with Batman's cycle, the 18 wheeler flip itself used practical effects.
b. Because of the use of practical effects, there was no need to for an artist to figure out how gravity would take hold of the truck. The shot does seem to slow the speed at which the truck is flipping but it is done more for the audience to take it what is happening rather than to cover up any physics flaws. It performs tipping motion in that as it reaches the apex of the flip it holds for just a bit and then very quickly catches speed falling to the ground.

3. Car flip/bus tip scene from Wanted.
a. Towards the end of the car chase scene, the car that the two main characters are in flips over a group of police vehicles colliding into a bus causing it to tip. This scene heavily relied on CG.

b. Because it was done with CG, several problems arise from the physics. As the car begins to flip, it begins its flight before hitting the cop cars and seems to almost jump off the ground instead of having the flip be caused by contact of hitting something. When the car hits the bus, the shot is sped up when coming into contact and slowed down for when the bus is actually tipping over to cover up any flaws in the physics that might be there.

4. Conclusion:
Of course practical effects are more expensive to use than CG so many times it is not considered economical to use this option; however, for obvious reasons, it does give a certain quality to the film if practical effects are used. If the CG route is taken, then must be fairly accurate if scene is to be believable

Stop-Motion Character Animation

Animation: Leda Annest
Photo taking and video editing: Jasmine Reyes

For this project my fellow classmate and I decided to do an ocean scene. We were having trouble coming up with ideas based off of materials that we had available to us. The story is simple, a fish trying to find a family to be a part of. We executed the shots on the floor, as we thought it would be best for the particular scene we were doing. We used materials we had in our apartment picked off the leaves and flowers outside our apartment. We wanted to create some sort of a background to add depth to the scene. A simple blue drapery seemed too dull and not very readable; especially since our materials were pretty abstract. Overall we're pretty happy with the result; though figuring out how things would move under water per say was difficult.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

It takes an acquired taste to have an appreciation for scary movies. Many people when asked if they favour this genre will automatically say no. A reason for this is that setting of the stories tend to mirror what we know as reality. They are generally normal people, either in the past,  present, or future who have unexplainable “paranormal” or horrific things happening to them. Even without studying physics, one can describe things that happen in these films that would not happen in real life, yet they often are able to make people imagine enough “what if” situations and cause fear. A big thing used to add the thrill is when objects in the film, be it inanimate or living beings move without any force. Situations like these are often involved in films with paranormal happenings. In physics we know the reason objects do not move is because there is a balance of forces that keep it from moving. Only when one of the forces become unbalanced to the other causing movement. Three scenes that will be focused on will be one of the chair scene from Poltergeist, the ouija board scene from Paranormal Activity, and the climax of The Babadook.

Poltergeist was released in theaters in 1982, directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais, and Mark Victor. It follows the story of the Freeling family, who moves into their newly built home in a suburban area. What the family quickly discovers is that it is haunted and weird things begin to happen at the house. The youngest family member, Carol Anne, claims it to be the “TV people”. In the beginning of the film, one of the weirdest thing to happen in the beginning of the story is that the chairs have the ability to move on their own. In one scene the mother, Diane, neatly sets the chairs around the table. She looks away for a moment and when she looks back completely startled. The chairs have magically appeared to be stacked on top of one another on the table. She turns to Carol Anne and asks “Was it the TV people?” Carol Anne calmly replies with an “uh huh.” Diane then asks “Did you see them?” Carol Anne then replies, “uh uh. Can you?”. In a following scene Steve, the father, is just coming home from work. Diane rushes out shouting that he needs to see something. She drags him into the kitchen where one of the kitchen chairs is now in the middle of the kitchen floor. Diane tells him to watch what happens. Moments later, the chair begins to shake and then slides quickly across the kitchen floor into the eating area. Diane then proceeds to sit Carol Anne down where the chair had been in and she too slides across the room. The family can find no logical explanation as to why this is happening. It is not until much later on in the movie that it is revealed the suburban neighborhood has been built on a giant indian burial ground and that the Freelings are unfortunate victims of the angry spirits’ wrath.

Paranormal Activity was released to US theaters in 2009. It is directed and written by Oren Peli. Though the setting and part of the story is different, it follows a similar plot to the 1999 Blair Witch Project in that people attempt to videotape weird paranormal activity. In the case of Paranormal Activity it is a young couple who has just moved into their new San Diego house and wanting to document the strange things that were happening. Both of these films have their frightening moments, but what Paranormal does use that Blair Witch does not make use of moving objects on their own. One of the most memorable scenes would be with Micah’s ouija board, which is used in hopes to converse with the spirit in the house. Katie, his girlfriend, gets extremely upset as he disobeyed her wish that he would not get one and both of them storm out of the the house. Shortly after they leave the house, what is believed to be the spirit enters the room. Strange but subtle noises begin and there is a breeze that blows on the couple of plants that are in the room. Following that, the planchette quickly begins to jerk around as if it has a completely separate force moving it; unaffected by the unexplained breeze. Towards the end to this scene, not only does the planchette stop abruptly but it also lights the board on fire, even though there was no shown evidence of any kind of friction, especially on such a smooth surface, that could cause combustion. The film is completely littered with examples similar to this and without them, would make it a much duller film. Compared to the Blair Witch Project, while it is still a bit scary but it’s more due to anticipations of what you think might happen and not due to paranormal activity that defies the laws of physics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evoa_UWUob
The third scene to be looked at will be is from The Babadook, which was released late 2014 and directed and written by Jennifer Kent. The story tells of a stressed and severely depressed single mother, Amelia, who has a lot of trouble raising her son, Samuel. Sam is constantly telling everyone of a monster who hides in his wardrobe, calling it the Babadook. It is thought that the boy has severe psychological issues but what the mother soon discovers is that the Babadook is quite real. Over the course of time, things begin to escalate with the mother being possessed by this monster and attempting to fight it off and protect her family. In the climax, Amelia has been able to escape the possession of the Babadook; however, that does not mean that the monster is gone. Samuel looks up at his blood drenched mother and says “You can’t get rid of the Babadook” and Samuel is what seems to be immediately pushed to the staircase and then flies up it to Amelia’s bedroom. Amelia runs up the stairs to save her son as she finds him being thrown against the wall several times. She then grabs Samuel and jumps onto her bed and the bed begins to violently shake under them. Again, there is not any presence of a being doing this and when Amelia calls out the monster asking what it wants from them, it physically appears across the room; no where near her or Sam.

This scare tactic is probably the oldest trick in horror and thriller films and yet even today it still can completely frighten people, especially with the high tech special effects we have now. Moments like these, where the adrenaline begins to increase and the goosebumps form on the skin, are what make these films memorable. We know so well that objects cannot move on their own that when they do we absolutely need an explanation as to what is happening, especially if the story takes place in “our world”. When we cannot receive that logical explanation is when we tend to jump to irrational conclusions. How much these films can mess with people psychologically, in a harmless sense, is what makes them so fascinating for me.

Outline for Second Term Paper

1. Introduction   a.Thesis: Horror and thriller films more often than not defy laws of physics, even though the setting of the story is suppose to be set in our world and reality. The biggest factor that is flawed are when objects are moved without any real apparent force that suggests that something is moving it, even though there is no other proof. Physics tells us that no object moves until the forces upon this object are unbalanced which is why when seeing that inanimate objects move, it leads the audience to believe that something is there, it’s just invisible.
2. Introduce the three scenes to be discussed: Poltergeist (1982), Paranormal Activity (2009), The Babadook (2014)

2. Chair Scene from Poltergeist:

1. Diane is eager to show Steve how in the kitchen things are able to slide across the room and uses a chair and Carol Anne to demonstrate.
2. There is no presence of a being in the room, in the story it is caused by "The TV People" and neither Diane or Steve put any force on the objects to make them move forward and no character finds that magnets or anything in any way caused this to happen.

3. Ouji Board scene from Paranormal Activity

1. Once Micah and Katie leave the house, after a moment what seems to be a breeze blows into the room, cause the plants to shake. Shortly after the finder on the board begins to quickly move around the board and end with lighting the board on fire.
2. Even with the unexplained breeze moving the finder goes against the direction of the board and moves in a quick jerky motion.

4. The Babadook climax scene

1. Samuel is swept up the staircase away from his mom; basically flying up the stairs.
2. Samuel thrown against the wall several times without showing any force and once him and his mom get on the bed, it begins to violently shake, even though the monster is directly across the room

5. Conclusion:

We initially know, without even having to study the laws of physics, that objects even including people cannot be move unless there is some kind of unbalanced force causing it. When a film then defies this, it adds to the spookiness and thrill of the scene that, had this not been done, would have not left the same impact on the audience.

Reverse Video Reference

This assignment turned out to be a bit trickier than I originally thought, particularly the second walk. I now understand another reason why the rubbery cartoons of the 20's and 30's don't feel very believable, because you try doing any of the characters moves AND make it as fluid as they do and it's extremely difficult. Maybe if I'd had several more hours to practice I could of done it better. I really liked the last two. I liked being able to put a lot of attitude into them!!

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

The Laws of Physics in Coraline

Coraline is a stop motion animation film based off the book of the same title by Neil Gaiman. It was produced by the studio Laika House in 2009 and directed by Henry Selick, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. The story follows a young girl, Coraline Jones, who has just moved to a new town with her parents. In the beginning of the story, Coraline is completely frustrated being in this new place, with only her overworked parents and some odd neighbors to talk to. Little does she know is that someone is watching her and she quickly discovers in the bricked up small door in their living room leads to the mysterious fourth section of musty old victorian house she lives in. She discovers her “other parents” who give her everything she could possibly want. While in the beginning it seems like a wonderful place to be, Coraline soon learns that her life is in danger and that she must save herself, the souls of the lost children the other mother has eaten and even her actual parents.

While watching the film, there seems to be a different set of laws of physics for both the real world and “the other world”. The actual world physics seem fairly similar to what our reality would be like. It gives the audience a feeling of familiarity, even though they have never been to this exact place. There are some cases where this is not true, for example some of the paths of action some characters move, but for the most part, the real world is pretty accurate. As for the “other world”, the physics are in many ways completely different, forcing the audience to feel a sort of strangeness, while watching Coraline explore. This gives the film contrast among the worlds that Coraline is in, showing that this “other world” is not really reality. It also shows how much she stands out compared to the rest of the characters there.

In the other world "the other mother", as she goes by, has created three wonders for Coraline. They are the garden outside the house, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's home, which is located in the basement of the house, and Mr. Bobinsky’s home, which is where the attic of the house would be. The first couple of things I discovered while watching each wonder be revealed to Coraline was how slow the speed was in certain parts and how force was occasionally reduced. A reason for this could be for visual appeal and to emphasize on the mood of the current scene and other things are also only left with the explanation that “magic” did it. There are also times when gravity is also defied.

When Coraline visits the other world a second time, the other mother tells her to go out to the garden where her other father has a surprise for her. Now the garden at Coraline's real home appears to be a miserable place compared to the garden in the other world. The other garden is colorful and welcoming. The first thing that appeared off in this wonder were the hummingbirds who are the some of the first creatures to welcome Coraline. Their wings move so slowly to what the expected rate of a hummingbird’s would be, the only thing that really let’s you know that they are hummingbirds is due to their shape. The reason for this may have been due to the fact that this is a stop motion film and to be able to get a quick blurry action with a physical puppet is probably pretty difficult. However, because they are not flittering around quickly as actual hummingbirds do, this gives them a bit of a friendlier feeling; as if they were to fly any faster, they might hurt her. Another thing that I found interesting as well is how as Coraline walks through the garden is how the flowers react. As she passes by, they all bloom and open up for her with no form of force needed. The only explanation for this to happen it is caused by magic. Everything in this world has been created and is controlled by The Other Mother. Not one part of this world actually exists, it is just more or less a painting created specifically for Coraline to persuade her that she should stay there. Because of this reason, anything can happen, so long as the other mother wants it.

When Coraline goes to visit the other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's home, she finds that their original home is no more and that it entirely consists of a giant theatre. The elderly woman perform a huge musical number in honor of Coraline, including a trapeze act. Within this extravagant performance, there are several times where the speed and acceleration at which the two are moving, particularly on the trapeze, seems to be a little slow, when they are swinging by themselves. Halfway through this act Miss Forcible throws herself from her swing and Miss Spink latches onto her and the two thus swing from the same trapeze. Towards the end of their performance as well, Coraline is then grabbed by Miss Forcible and joins in the acrobatics. While there is a lot of edits during this scene, the change in the period this human pendulum is created does not seem to to take longer but instead stays the same rate of speed as when the women were swinging by themselves.

In the real world, Mr. Bobinsky is known to Coraline as the limber, extremely tall man who is training his mice for his circus and buys disgusting smelling cheeses to condition them. In the other world, the other Mr. Bobinsky already has his circus together and performs an elaborate performance for Coraline. While the first time visiting this wonder is quite fantastic, when Coraline goes back in search for the third eye belonging to the lost children, it becomes a disturbing experience. What is left of the other Mr. Bobinsky at this point is nothing but a bunch of rats, which were formerly the circus mice. While he is made up of rats however, what looks like his body, basically on his circus outfit at this point, slithers around the the floor around the pillars in the room, as if gravity has no effect on this creature, yet still falls and hobbles over at other times. He is also able to stand up in a somewhat upright position and move somewhat human-like even though what's left of him is again, only his rats. Another thing regarding force regarding this wonder has to do with the cotton candy cannons. When Coraline first came upon this place, things of cotton candy were shot out for her enjoyment. The force at which the candy was blown out during the first visit compared to the second visit is vastly different.  In the first visit, the force at which the candy blows out is quite smooth and flowy and even floats above the head of the consumer waiting for it to be catched. In the second visit however, the force at which the candy blows out is fast and aimed towards Coraline to stop her from running out of the room.

With each eye of the lost children Coraline finds, the more the world begins to fall apart, literally. As she captures each one hidden in each of the three wonders the place goes completely grey and appears to turn almost into stone. Once she has collected all three eyes, the outside part of the world is basically shattered apart; as if the spell has been broken. There of course is no real world explanation that can explain this other than that. This happens again one more time during what is known as the web scene. At this point, Coraline has outsmarted the other mother, whose looks have now disintegrated, showing that she truly is not her mother, but an creepy spider-looking witch. When the witch becomes completely infuriated that she is on the losing side of this battle, with a stomp of her foot, the floorboards of the room spiral up revealing nothing but a web for Coraline to fall into.

Even with what I have listed in this paper, the list of things that are completely different about this magical world could probably go on for a long time, which concludes as to why this is probably one of my top favourite animated movies, if not my absolute favourite of all time. After discovering the distinct difference in how the physics of both worlds exist makes it even more interesting and in some ways disturbing, for the shear fact that from the beginning, the physics give a subtle red flag that there is something off with this new place. Whether or not the difference in the physics of both worlds is just me reading too much into the film or not, I love the contrast and having been able to pick at the film for what stuck out. I now view the film being a lot more disturbing than before, for a number of different reasons.

Law Of Physics in Coraline-Outline

1. Introduction:

1. Introduce Coraline (stop motion, 2009 1:40:00)
2. Thesis- While the physics in the real world are usually accurate, there are several laws that are broken in the other world giving the feeling that it is in fact not reality.

      2. Speed slowed down and reduced force: The rate at certain jumps and throws throughout the film are done, it feels as if it things are slowed way down.

1. Cotton Candy cannon’s in the other Bobinsky’s house blows out candy rather softly the first time but when used to decoy Coraline from escaping the blows are sped up
2. Speed at which the women swing from the trapeze is slowed down.
3. Rate at which the hummingbirds and paper dragonflies wings move
4. When the other mother’s hand is jumping object to object to get to Coraline
5. rate at which the rock falls down the well (seems to float down)

3. Gravity at times seems to have no effect

1. Gravity of women on the trapeze (appear to be floating sometimes)
2. The cat jumping from tree branch to tree branch

4. Some arcs weirdly being off

1. Other Wybie throws a rose to Coraline
2. Mr. Bobinsky when tossing himself over Coraline.
3. arc at which Coraline throws the cat towards the other mother

5. Conclusion:

Due to it being stop motion, there are some setbacks that the animators may have had due to the fact that they are dealing with actual puppets instead of drawings or controlling them on a computer. However, the majority of the issues defying physics always seem to involve, whether purposely or not, “The Other World”, which makes it feel quite unrealistic.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Original footage of the run and jump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxfBgeRd53E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XhKRelJnkg&feature=youtu.be

I apologize for the quality of the second video. The camera couldn't focus on the computer screen and the resolution got worse once I uploaded it to youtube.

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

url for my reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeYims5wqyg

Pretty interesting assignment. I'm not sure if I plotted the points at the end correctly, since one of them looks a bit out of place. I attempted to fix it several times but I ended up with very similar results.  

Shooting Video Reference

And here is the video of me tossing the ball, along with the link!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4tsJdrVrUU&feature=youtu.be

Mini-Portfolio

Hello! My name is Leda Annest and I am just starting off my second year in SJSU's A/I program. I have a lot of interest in story development and cinematography. While I am thinking of pursuing that area of specialty, I am not entirely sure yet. This semester I'm taking Ani 112B, 113A, and 28.  The last somewhat science class I've taken sadly was three years ago at my community college, sadly, which is a big reason why I am looking forward to this class!! 

The first piece I'm displaying is not my own but one of my favourite artists, Eyvind Earle. This piece I believe is called "Winter".  

The second piece I'm displaying is a plein air painting I did over the summer at a park back home. 

Because I'm just beginning to explore the field of animation itself, I don't have any personal work to show. I will then post one of my favourite short films Orgesticulanismus directed by Matthew Labaye. Every time I watch this film, I am completely mesmerized by both the simplicity of the message and the beauty of the animation. 

This is the link as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz2BaDkhwmA

The First Post

I'm super excited about this class and this semester! Yay!