Stereoscopic 3D Images

Lighting a Scene in Maya

1 point lighting



2 point lighting

3 point lighting

Building a Scene in Maya

This scene was built with google sketchup because maya had a lot of issues with installation.

"Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction."

Gravity is always a variable in everyday life as well as in any movie. In our world we do not acknowledge the physics of gravity as often because we interact with it everyday. As with movies, we typically assume that if they take place in our world or even outside of it, the issue of gravity should be consistent with the laws of physics. This is not always the case though. Gravity is often misconstrued in order to add a sense of humor, increase dramatic effect, or balance a film. In the movies Ice Age (2002), The Dark Knight (2008), and Star Trek (2009) examples of gravity being misused becomes prevalent, but without such changes these movies would be faced with further challenges that would take away from the entertainment value that they are originally made for.

The movie Ice Age does a good job staying true to the physics of gravity, but breaks it from time to time to add humor and a sense of silliness to the tone of the movie. In the opening scene we are presented with a prehistoric squirrel grasping onto a nut. It is snowing out and we see the squirrel hopping through the chilly environment. From the first few seconds of the movie the audience can see that gravity is acknowledged, thusly we assume the scene is taking place on earth.

The squirrel plops around in the stormy conditions in an attempt to bury his beloved nut. As a result of his pressing attempts at burying it in the ice, he inadvertently cracks the surface he is standing on. This causes a rapid snapping of the ice as the crack runs up the side of glacier, over the top, and then back down. The squirrel stares back at the scene in horror as a ginormous chunk of ice breaks free and falls downward.

The momentum of the falling of the glacier sends the rouge piece into motion. The squirrel begins to run away from the rapidly paced glacier that is hurling icicles towards him. He manages to out run this threat only to see that another very identical glacier is moving from the opposite direction. The squirrel changes course and starts to run towards the audience to escape being crushed.

He almost makes it out unscathed but is pinched just at the end as the glaciers come into contact with each other. We can assume that the squirrel is stuck on the ground level when he gets pinched because his escape game occurred there, but this is not so. As the squirrel is ejected like an impenetrable rubber ball might be, we notice that he is popping out from the very top of the two glaciers. How he managed to go from ground level to the top is not acknowledged, but allows for him to have a more comical and lengthy fall to the ground.

Gravity is once again misused here. As the squirrel is pushed out he shoots upward for a moment and then downward. The shot changes and we watch the squirrel fall through a layer of clouds and downward towards a distant ground level below. Although we can assume the glaciers are pitted on the edge of the cliff, the scene appears to be occurring at a much more monumental height due to the clouds and ant sized trees below. The squirrel falls for about five seconds until he lands on a steep incline. If gravity had been treated correctly in this scene the squirrel would have fallen from a lower height. Since this was not the case, and he did fell from a higher height, it would have made sense for his flight to the ground to be much longer but for the sake of amusement this is not so. The scene was successful, although inaccurate when it comes to the physics of gravity.

The inaccurate use of gravity is seen again in The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne stands atop a building in the middle of a city. The building he is standing on top of looks to be well over 100 hundred stories tall. He stands atop the roof with a uniquely styled gun, which he aims at a building a few hundred feet below. This tells the audience that this is the building he plans to enter.

He stands on the edge with his bat suit on and jumps into a free fall. This fall last for about three seconds before he snaps his cape out. Batman falls for about another two seconds while his cape takes form and becomes completely functional. Once his cape has stiffened to allow for flight, he lowers his left side to make a wide right turn. At this point our hero is no longer falling or losing altitude. Batman is able to glide the cityscape freely and seems to have no trouble navigating about.

This seems highly unlikely. Batman only has a very limited amount of time to take flight before he hits the ground. A fall from 100 hundred stories would happen incredibly fast, about 5 seconds. The time it took for Batman to jump and get situated is the same amount of time it would have taken him to meet up with the pavement below.

Another piece of this scene that breaks the laws of physics is his ability to navigate and travel so smoothly. Once batman opens his cape he takes flight toward his target building below. In order to exaggerate batman’s flying capability, the makers decided to have him enter on the reverse side of the building, which allows for more flying to occur. Batman only seems to lose a little bit of elevation during his flying and seems to know exactly which window to smash through. He is able to enter by folding his wings in and using his body as a wrecking ball; this gives him the trajectory to smash through. The most precise navigational tools would need to be in effect and a means of flight more sustainable than a glorified hang glider for such a feat to be possible. This is the main scene in the movie that highlights Batman’s ability to fly so it makes sense that it was drawn out a bit. The audience wants to see batman fly and the creators want to please the audience, so in the end, for dramatic effect, the scene pays off.

The newest Star Trek movie breaks a handful of rules as well, but it makes an attempt to compensate with excuses. An example of this is the onboard gravity that the enterprise provides. The only way to have gravity in space is to be large enough of an object to have enough gravity to make a difference, or to be rotating at such a rate that it is manufactured. In the case of Star Trek this onboard artificial gravity generator allows for the the cast to act with their feet on the floor. Although this takes place in the future, the laws of physics shouldn’t change.

This onboard gravity is apparent in the climatic black hole scene (as well as in the rest of the movie). Once Romulan refuses help from the Enterprise crew, they shoot down his ship. The gravity from the very close black hole is now able to suck up the damaged ship to never be seen again. The Enterprise though is also extremely close to the black whole and the crew start to lose control of their ship. Scotty yells “the gravity well has got us!” and captain kirk replies “Go to max warp!” Since the movie is taking place in the future max warp is a bit vague of a term, except we can assume that it’s the fastest their ship can go.

This max-warp speed is not enough to clear them from danger. Out of desperation they start launching detonators into the black hole. Their hope is that the blast from the explosives will help push them from the grasp that the black hole has on the ship. The detonators explode because the intense gravity simulates an impact. The explosion is so large that it looks like multiple nuclear explosions. The energy from this explosion sweeps over the Enterprise (without damaging it much) and pushes it out and away from the black holes jurisdiction.

The science of this scene is not disregarded, but certainly manipulated. Given that the context of the film takes place in the future the creators are able to invent ineventions that bypass common laws of physics. It would also have been incredibly difficult to not have had onboard gravity on the ships because filming the scenes would be difficult for the crew to shoot and hard for the audience to watch.

Animated films and cgi benefit from breaking the laws of physics because they are able to control shots, scenes, and scenariors that can drastically improve the over all quality of a film as was the case in Ice Age, The Dark Knight, and Star Trek. All three of these movies bend the laws of physics in one way or another. In all cases I am glad they have. When animated or cgi films are made they are naturally given the option to create their own universe of rules. The fact that so much is being created and made up by the artists it would seem odd to not see to that kind of movie manipulation occurring. Breakig the laws of physics is these types of movies improves the quality of the film while at the same time pleases movie goers with cool effects, clean shots, and consistant action.

Outline for Second Paper

I. Introduction
A.Gravity can easily be misconstrued in order to balance a film, add humor, or increase dramatic effect.
B. I will look at 3 scenes, one from each movie
1.Ice Age (2002)
2.The Dark Knight
3. Star Trek (2009)

II. Body
A. Gravity in Ice Age
1. Opening scene with squirrel and nut.
2. Squirrel gets launched so high out of a glacier that is on the side of a cliff that he starts falling back down through the clouds. He lands on a steep incline and starts bouncing his way down the hillside.

B. The Dark Knight
1. About 30 minutes into the film Bruce Wayne plans to break into a skyscraper office.
2. He is a few blocks from his target window entrance. He leaps off the roof of a very high building and manages to break into the exact window by flying through the cityscape with his cape.

C. Star Trek
1. Towards the end of the movie the star fleet is trying to fly out of the suction created by the nearby black hole.
2. The physics of the scene is off because of the ship needs to be pulling much harder to escape a black hole being that close. Also, the gravity maintained in the ship is unrealistic. They might have a virtual gravity machine, but this would be impossible in reality.

III. Conclusion
A. Gravity can be misused in many different ways to exaggerate a scene for emphasis.
B. Gravity is misused in many animated/CGI films in order to add to the tone of the movie. As long as it is crafted neatly in with its context it works.

Mid-semester Survey

"This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."

Character Animation

For this assignment I decided to try a different method of creating a stop-motion animation. Instead of shooting with my digital camera as I did before, I decided to try out the SAM software. I chose to use a lamp because of the bendable neck and it seemed like the best object for being repositioned. I picked my couch as the location because I knew it would be suitable for my webcam but it would also provide a clean set for my characters. I knew that I wanted my lamp to be searching for something because lights help us find things, and since my set took place on my couch (where things go missing), I decided that a dollar bill would be a suitable object to go "missing" and perplex the lamp into frustration.