Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Here are three stereoscopic 3D images I created:

My still life

Photo with myself inside

Student Housing- San Jose State University

It is an interesting assignment to do! I enjoyed making my photos into 3D effects.

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

Original photo:

My maya scene:

Rotates 45 degrees:

Original photo 2:

My maya scene:

Rotates 45 degrees:

Lighting is more challenging and complicated than I think, but I did my best for this project. I also did two of the photos to get more practice....It really takes time.

Building a Scene in Maya with Bonus Points: Lighting your scene

Here is the maya scene I created:

[Extra Credit] I also made three lighting scenes of this one:

One Point

Two Point

Three Point

Third Term Paper: Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 80 and 90; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline of the Third Term Paper

Special Effect: large scale of a small objects or animals in the films.

Introduction

l   In most monsters movies, monsters are shown in a large scale to represent the fear of overwhelming.

l   To create this special effect, film makers need to build up equipment and tricks when they are film the movie.

l   In order to explain how film makers to make characters large and scary, here are the two example live-action films:

n   Godzilla (1954)

n   Pacific Rim (2013)

Godzilla (1954)

l   Scene: Godzilla walks through the city, and destroy all the buildings.

l   As the first Godzilla film, Japanese company Tomoyuki Tanaka uses hand-crafted objects and low camera angle to make the monster looks huge.

n   The monster of this film, Godzilla, is actually a human in a robber suit.

n   But all buildings are small hand-crafted models, so when adult-sized Godzilla walks in the fake “mini-city,” it looks really huge.

n   The cameraman also uses lots of low-angle shots to make Godzilla look scary.

Pacific Rim (2013)

l   Scene: When the Becket brothers controls their Jaeger to fight against the monster at the beginning of the film.

l   Since Pacific Rim is filmed in recent years, the director has more freedom and technology to build up special effects.

l   Mostly done with the computer simulation (CGI)

n   In “Pacific Rim,” the fighting between Kaiju (monsters) and robots is done by three-dimensional animation during the post-production.

n   However, the director still build real pilot seat simulator (the head of Jeager) and put the actors inside. The pilot seat will physically shake so the actors will feel more intensive inside than they are surrounded by green screens (digital/visual backlot)

Conclusion

l   To create large scale objects, hand-crafted objects and camera angle ticks are needed.

l   Although CGI supports films to create giant characters, directors still need to establish some scenes or models as references.

l   This special effect is more complicated and needs more tricks and time to make it real. 

Stop-Motion Character Animation

Here is the stop motion animation:




I worked with Edie and Olivia, and we had an amazing time together!

↑Here is how we worked.

Edie and I placed the characters and Olivia directed us where to put them in appropriate positions. We used chopsticks and pasted them behind each characters so the characters can "jump" in the air. It is challenge when we have multiple objects doing actions at the same time, but we made it works. After we shot all the photos, we used Photoshop to move chopsticks and hands out. We also changed color temperature for some frames if they are so different than others. Then, we put all the photos in flash, the film is done.

This is my first time to do a stop motion animation this long. The only 36 seconds kept us two days for shooting and editing. Yet, I really have good time with my friends. Together, we solve problems, work, and think interesting ideas. It is fun to work in groups at this time.

Second Term Paper: Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

        Thanks to the development of technology, computer animation has become a new stage to animation and films. Special effects, such as exaggerated powers and supranational fights, increase the entertainment of films. However, to get interesting effects in both live-action and animation world, the rules of real physics are pushed so far that turns unreal. In other words, physic of the films turns to be more dream-like, or idealistic to entertain people. As an example, Newton’s third law is often changed in the film.

In the reality, Newton’s third law describes the relationship between two objects and the forces acting upon them. According to the lectures from Phys 123 class, when an object exerts a force onto another one, the second object will simultaneously give a reacted force which is equal in magnitude and has opposite direction to the first object. It is why the balloon can rise to the sky, and why the Earth rotates around the Sun. Although action and reaction are the basic in the real world, they often get ignored or changed in action films. To really explain how action and reaction is different in the film world, we will look at the following three films: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Kung Fu Panda: The Secret of Masters, and Iron Man 3.

The first example, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, an action comedy film directed by Doug Liman, contains an obvious mistake in Newton’s third law of physics. The film focuses on a hit man couple and how they deal with their love when they realize they are lying to each other. Fighting from a modern building to their own house, the conflict develops into firearms war to kill each other before their identities exposed. Jane Smith decides to shoot her husband with her shotgun, but her husband escapes. This classic couple “quarrel” scene actually ignores one of action and reaction effects, which is recoil of the gun. Based on Newton’s third law, recoil is the backward momentum of a gun to balance the forward force of the shooting bullets. Also, the strength of recoil depends on bullet’s speed and weight of the gun. Recoil not only influences the gun itself, but also transfers to the shooter through the body. Therefore, as powerful weapon as shotgun, the recoil should be strong enough to force Mrs. Smith moving back or even feeling the pain. According to IMFDB, Internet Movie Firearms Database, the gun holding by Mrs. Smith is an H &K Fabarm shotgun. Here are the fighting scene from the film and a test shooting video for H&K Fabarm in the real world:

Based on the first video shown above, the man responses to the recoil when he pulls the trigger. His upper body moves back, and he even scream “Aw!” to show his pain caused by the recoil. Compared with this man, nevertheless, Jane Smith does not either move back or feel pain at all in the film. Moreover, she still can strafe John Smith and almost destroy her whole house by using both shotgun and machine gun later. Even the man in the video screams “Aw!” when he pulls the trigger, a slim lady like Jane does not hesitate or slow down her shooting frequency. Therefore, the shooting scene works much smoother and faster since the shooter does not have to stop and release the pain caused by recoil. As a result, even though the physics in this film does not include the recoil from Newton’s third law, it actually helps the director to get compelling of firearms battle in this scene.

In addition, sometime films not only ignore action and reaction rules, they also exaggerate this law too much. One example is from a short film of Kung Fu Panda series, The Secret of the Masters. Directed by a new studio called Duncan, the Kung Fu power in this animation is often increased so much that becomes an impossible case to be seen in reality. In this animation, Master Oogway calls up three young masters, Rhino, Ox and Croc, to beat the evil Cat Sisters. To make this ideal come true, Oogway and three young masters have to pass through mountains and deep cliffs first. Oogway grabs each character’s hand, and throws them into the sky; they become bridges so that Oogway is able to across the cliff. The physic in this scene is very questionable since Master Oogway does not use much strength to throw the three huge animals into an incredible height. Essentially, we all know that turtle is much smaller than rhino, ox and crocodile, so Oogway’s weight must be lighter than the other three. Also, the power from an old turtle, like Master Oogway, is definitely weaker than the others. Thus, it is nonsense to see Master Oogway holding Rhino, Ox, and Croc up in the real world. However, in this scene, he tosses up rhino, ox and croc by just touches their hands gently in few seconds. Without pushing the ground by legs to get a reaction support, three men fly to the height we cannot even calculate out. Even though their weight is much greater than Master Oogway’s, the old man still has his “Kung Fu power” to fight against gravity, and make the young men respect his supernatural, mysterious strength. Therefore, when the audience senses the oddness of Master Oogway’s Kung Fu, the curiosity about his secret power catches our eyes, and develops this character’s image.

Similar to Master Oogway’s power of Kung Fu, there is another example about exaggeration of Newton’s third law in Iron Man 3. In this film, Tony Stark has to face new powerful enemy, Aldrich Killian, who injects a special virus called Extremis and becomes a superhuman. Killian can generate extreme heat to melt Tony Stark’s iron suit. It seems despaired because Stark’s iron man suit cannot fight against with Killian anymore, until Virginia Potts, or Pepper, jumps out. Pepper is also injected with the same virus as Killian, so she earns the power. She jumps into the battle when Killian is trying to destroy Stark. She kicks Killian’s waist with her right foot. Receiving her strength, Killian flies six feet away until he hits the wall behind. At this moment, if we are paying more attention on Pepper instead of the gracious special effects, we will immediately find out that this film made a mistake on this climax scene. Based on Newton’s third law, when Pepper gives a force to Killian by her leg, there is also a reaction force acting on Pepper at the same time. The reaction force is equal in magnitude but opposite in direction with the kicking power; consequently, this backward force will make Pepper’s body move backward. It means Pepper should push the ground by using her left leg to create another force against this reaction effect, so her body will not be unbalanced and fall down. Yet, Pepper does not respond to the reaction at all. After she kicks Killian at least six feet away, Pepper keeps her kicking pose and staying at the same place for a moment. Since the rule of Newton’s third law is changed, this scene is showing how strong Pepper is after she turns into a superhuman. Moreover, it gives the shocked ending to the audience about how Iron Man will develop in the next movie.

From Mr. &Mrs. Smith, Kung Fu Panda: The Secret of Masters, to Iron Man 3, we can see and understand how Newton’s third law is redefined in the film world. Although the rule is changed sometimes in both live-action and animation films, these adjustments or differences support films to develop scenes, characters and story. According to Art Babbitt from Walt Disney Company, “Animation follows the laws of physics—unless it is funnier otherwise.” I believe this quotation can apply to all the CGI movies—science fiction is not wrong to twist the physic facts; it just represents an ideal dream for people and films they made.