This hands down was the assignment I had the most fun with and I actually got a little carried away doing becasue of how much fun I was having.
Ceaser Chavez Gate red/cyan
Student Union red/cyan
Student Union Tower red/cyan
King Library green/magenta
This one came out a little odd becasue some of the people had moved between shots.
Christmas At the Park green/magenta
Another Christmas at the Park magenta/green
A third Christmas at the Park red/cyan
I'm gonna poke you! Red/Cyan
Extra Credit: Creating a 3D image with Maya
If you're thinking I took the extra credit opportunity as an excuse to model a Keyblade in Maya...You would be right and also it looks really cool in 3D once the thought came I couldn't pass it up. Red/Cyan
Once again the lights in Maya make their appearance. And once more they were as tricky as ever.
This was the photo I chose:
Spotlights seemed to work the best for the lighting effects seen in the photo but there were some issues I Just could not seem to work around such as the glare on the object appearing slightly to the left of where it it on the photo and some light effects on the ground. Shadows however proved to be more co-operative.
And here is the second image this time from above.
For this assignment we had to make a scene with out initials in Maya.
For the appearance of the letters, I looked at Japanese Katakana and Hiragana for ideas and thought maybe I would attempt to male the K and L look similar to Hiragana characters.
In most films involving the high seas, the ocean is going to be the hardest feature to animate to the degree where it will looks realistic.
Before CG was used, scale models with some camera speed ups or slow downs would imitate the ocean, as a result, the waves would not look as realistic due to size.
Fluid simulators are used nowadays in CG animation to simulate water which can to varying degrees be realistic enough to not take the viewer out of the movie.
In addition On Stranger Tides also has on location filming, so they would have been able to use the water from a location shoot as a point of reference for animating the ocean.
Uncanny Valley Ho!
Some of the biggest issues with CGing water is making sure it moves like water. Fake waves are incredibly easy to spot, especially if the movement is not proportional to the size.
On Stranger Tides uses a combination of practical and CG water effects so the chances of spotting a fake wave are rather small as the real waves direct the most attention.
In the case of CG’s water, often it is waves hitting a ship that are amplified real waves, seeing how a majority of the water is shot on location, it was more often a case of putting s CG boat in real water than the other way around.
Real water or fake water?
Due to the combination of real and CG’d water in the film it actually is very hard to find any fake water if it’s there at all.
Or maybe the CG water is just very cleverly hidden by use of mixing it with the real water and sophisticated fluid simulators.
In most cases, it was the ships that needed to look like they were being tossed at sea.
Should you use real or fake water?
If one has the choice, real water would be the best choice but not in scale models, so if a film’s budget allows a large tank can be used to simulate waves.
When the situation does not allow is likely when the animation team had to CG in ocean waves or a CG ship.
A combination of real water and CG water could be the key to avoiding fake looking water in CG.
For this assignment, I decided to tell a story using the first three random items I found at my house.
The Stars of this show are: an old desk lamp, a small wooden mannequin, and a Beanie Baby.
This was the first time I had to pain my arm out as a few times I had to prop up the Beanie Baby's leg with a wand, but use of the clone stamp tool proved to solve that problem.
Watching Kung Fu movies are always fun, especially the fight scenes where martial artists fly effortlessly through the air and take on multiple foes at once. This fight choreography done by Woo Ping Yuen and wirework is seen in the film The Forbidden Kingdom, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Kung Fu Hustle. One of the trademarks of Woo Ping Yuen’s fight choreography is the way how the actors seem to float in the air to give an almost magical sense or all the inertia is completely one sided to add a sense of power to the character or for a silly cartoony effect for comedy. While this can be an interesting effect, sometimes you can’t help but feel something was off about a punch or a kick when the person who delivered it doesn’t budge an inch from where they stood.
In The Forbidden Kingdom, this is evident in the very first fight scene at the start of the film. The Monkey King, played by Jet Li, is fighting off soldiers and sending them flying with his bo staff while there is no visible recoil on himself. In fact this occurs several times whenever immortal characters are fighting, they can deliver a powerful punch or kick but stay exactly where they were. This can be done for a more intimidating effect on the character, as seen several times in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon such as in the restaurant when a quick punch or kick is delivered; or for a very silly, almost cartoony effect in Kung Fu Hustle’s final fight sequence where the hero character sends the villains flying while staying in his initial position almost as if he were part of a pinball machine.
One of the main reasons why movie Kung Fu seems so fantastical and even magical compared to real Kung Fu is that it focuses more on the form and art of Kung Fu. In a real Kung Fu match the fighters move incredibly fast, and while this does work for a very intense fight scene where the hero character actually feels as if they are in danger; often the phys dev choice is to use wire works or “wire fu” to achieve some effect whether it be comedic or magical. The wire works can allow for the actors to be sent flying much further and higher than normal and to allow another character to stay put as they fend off multiple foes. This can make a masterful character seem more intimidating as they can remain in place throughout a fight or make the overall scene incredibly silly when exaggerated, especially when the actor keeps their leg or arm perfectly straight. Other effects this can have is to establish character into the fighting style, such as The Monkey King, who is a master bo staff wielder, but is also very silly. As result the phys-dev needs to ignore the usual laws of physics in order to accomplish such ends, however, much like a superhero jump the push time is shortened in order to make jump seem more plausible.
The Forbidden Kingdom has a combination of fight scenes that lack and contain inertia. You can tell who’s an immortal character by seeing if they experience any recoil or not. If the character is thrown back slightly by a kick they are an ordinary character, of not they are immortal. Examples of where inertia can be found is in the temple fight scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li, when both of them are pulling on a bo staff, Li flips Jackie over him being slightly thrown backwards. The majority of recoil found in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is in moments when a character pulls their leg or arm back after a punch or round kick to prepare to deliver another one with maximum power. Kung Fu Hustle is primarily a comedy, meaning the style of Kung Fu has to also be more comedic as well, one of the tactics used is to speed up the movement which can generate a much more silly effect as opposed to normal speed. However if looked at closely you can see the hero character does retract his leg after a kick to be able to deliver another while generating power from his hips.
The real inertia is still a factor that the phys-dev team needs to take into consideration when stylizing the Kung Fu. Even though Yuen’s choreography takes the viewer to the realms of the fantastic he still needs to factor in how to play out the movements in such a way that won’t take the viewer out of the film. Even a character simply pulling back their leg after a kick can avoid some awkward physics even though they are staying perfectly in place after kicking another character across the room. It all depends on what kind of style the film has. Kung Fu Hustle has a very comedic style where the Kung Fu almost seems like it was performed by the Looney Tunes, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Forbidden Kingdom employ a more traditional style and still need to employ some real physics along with the gliding and one sided inertia as seen in the restaurant fight scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Even though much of the inertia and reactionary force appears to take a day off in many classic Kung Fu films and any fight scene choreographed by Yuen, it is to achieve a particular style, whether it be to establish a character or a tone. In a sense, the Kung Fu film genre can be looked at as a kind of superhero genre in the movements done by the characters. With some careful planning in the timing, even the most outrageous choreography can still find a way to become more plausible. The most basic of reactions such as a leg pulling back can help avoid a stationary character from looking too awkward. Even simply just find a particular style that will be accepted by the audience, in a comedy, much of the humor will be coming from subverting the audiences expectations, and in a classical Kung Fu film there is a sense of wonder and magic. Love it or loathe it, “wire fu”, while completely ignoring the fact that inertia acts both ways, can still provide a memorable atmosphere.
Outline for my second term paper which will cover one of my favorite rainy day movies, The Forbidden Kingdom featuring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
How Good is your Movie Kung Fu?
Kung Fu at the movies!
In Kung Fu Movies everyone seems to be able to fly and take on hundreds of foes at once with an otherworldly grace. In the choreography of these films, such as done by Woo Ping Yuen, there is much more focus on the form and art of Kung Fu rather than the physics.
One of the most memorable things from any Kung Fu movie is how the hero can send a villain flying and everyone flying through the air without any noticeable recoil.
The first scene in The Forbidden Kingdom where inertia decided to take a day off is the opening scene where The Monkey King, played by Jet Li, is seen fighting soldiers off sending them flying without being thrown back himself.
Special Effects
When the regular characters fight you clearly see the action and reaction in a fight sequence, such as Jet Li flying backwards slightly while flipping Jackie Chan over and behind him.
When Immortal characters are fighting sometimes a character, such as the Monkey King, will send a soldier flying using his bo staff without being thrown back himself.
Much of this is achieved with practical effects like wires with some CG included for moments such as the Witch, Ni Chang, extending her hair and using it like a whip. Another instance of CG is the golden light when the Monkey King is released as it knocks down everyone in the vicinity.
Weight and effects
Most effects relating to the Kung-Fu in the film are done practically with wires, which are used for “flying” and are primarily done with immortal characters.
CG is mainly used for backdrop scenery such as the Five Elements Mountain and for attacks when Ni Chang uses her hair as a whip. For the hair whip, its movement goes right to the uncanny valley as it just shoots out when Ni Chang swings her head around, however, that may have been intentional.
The wire effects cause the characters to float around during fight scenes and make it seem like they are flying. As a result much of the inertia is one sided. When the Monkey King sends a Jade Warrior flying by striking him with his staff but there is no noticeable recoil on the Monkey King.
Finding the Inertia
In the temple fight scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li while some noticeable wire work in the jumps you can see inertia in the punches and kicks in reactions and recovery, such as the recovery after a kick or punch.
In some instances of a jump kick the character will be slightly thrown backwards after recoiling their legs as they land. Also, in close range fight sequences, movements are very quick and strong, where inertia can be noticed.
Finding inertia with Jackie’s drunken style is rather easy to follow once you locate his center of gravity. The Drunken Style uses the core over the point of balance to remain stable while throwing your weight at your opponent.
For a fight scene where inertia has completely vanished, while the Monkey King is smacking Jade Soldiers aside with his staff, they are sent flying while he simply continues to move along without any noticeable recoil except for swinging his staff back for another swing.
How good is your movie kung-fu?
The effects more served to portray the form and art of Kung Fu.
CG effects while mostly for backdrops, Chi magic, and Ni Chang’s hair whip mainly provide atmosphere while practical wireworks do the real magic of flying with Kung Fu.
While the laws of physics do sometimes cease to exist in a fight scene, it does allow the viewer to focus on the form of the fighter. Seeing how quick Kung Fu is, it is almost necessary in visual media to slow things down to be able to take it all in.
Over all, the effects don’t take the viewer out of the movie, it allows them to focus on something they would ohtherwise miss.
After finding an empty room where I could move around freely and were no one one would walk in front of the camera by mistake I began recording myself doing the motions from the Module.
I had to watch the videos several times, some rounds for arm movement, others for leg movement, as sometimes I would focus too much one only one resulting in me messing up the other.
Thankfully, in the many takes I did I was able to get the correct movement down.
This was a rather tricky assignment, especially as I actually had to start over a few times after my initial ideas didn't work out as planned. Using my camera, a tripod, a pillow and a dragon plushie I named "Gwee", I created: "The Incredible Bouncing Gwee" gif. My idea was to show Gwee jumping, doing a flip and then landing on the pillow. I shot this on the floor of the living room in my house as it was largest space of empty floor in the house and the room with the best lighting. I had to restart almost 3 times due to my parents closing the blinds.
For the settle, I lightly squished the pillow to show Gwee's weight pushing down on it as well as including a series of mini bounces to avoid the animation from looking too stiff as he "landed" as well as to give a slight trampoline effect for the pillow.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open world role playing game released by Bethesda in November 2011. The game is designed in such a way to make the player feel totally immersed as they explore the game’s world of Skyrim. Players have total freedom to explore every nook and cranny of the game with a multitude of quests, dungeons, and treasure to find. In addition the world of Skyrim would also function as a living breathing world. This was a herculean undertaking by Bethesda, creating the entire land of Skyrim in the virtual world from the ground up, even building a new game engine, to be able to house this world to explore in allowing players to build their own experiences in the game. As an open world game Skyrim needed to exhibit realistic physics in order for the world to be believable to avoid breaking the immersive experience, while still pushing the limits of physics to the fantastic to match the fantasy environment; as well as predicting the actions of the people playing the game.
The central feature of Skyrim, which is usually the first topic of conversation among fans, is the freedom to do whatever you please and how alive the world feels. One of the main reasons a game world can feel life like is how it moves and behaves. As the villagers move about their day, they will engage in activities such as wood chopping, forging, or using the mill, which the player can also engage in as well as shown in the video below.
You can clearly see the weight put into the actions carried out. One of the key elements to include in an animation of movement is weight. We know that a log is very heavy, and if the character appeared to roll it onto the mill too easily, we would notice that it doesn’t look right and would be taken out of the experience. The third action demonstrated in the video, wood chopping, is where we can observe the odd rule. The odd rule is where actions are spaced out on frames 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 which allows for the action to slow in then pick up speed. This allows to give the sense that the object has a great amount weight behind it, allowing the player to translate how heavy something is and how powerful an attack will be.
Walking is one of the ways players will travel across Skyrim before buying (or stealing) a horse. A walk cycle is the feature that can make or break a character. We already know how someone should walk, and if a walk cycle is incorrectly executed, we find ourselves in the uncanny valley and will want to leave. Thankfully, apart from a few small glitches that might occur, the majority of walk cycles are natural and accommodate for directions and crouching. Such cycles allow not only for the naturalism of the world to show but also help to set the atmosphere such as when sneaking through a dungeon avoiding enemies. While sneaking, the character is in a crouched position with their feet set shoulder length apart, because of this stance, they distribute their weight equally reducing the amount of pressure exerted on the floor or ground.
But, what would a fantasy world be without fire breathing dragons, giants, and other fantastical creatures? The very normal world we used Skyrim to escape from. Probably one of the most difficult feats to accomplish in a fantasy environment is to make a creature that does not exist believable. How would one even be able to film reference for a dragon attacking a village? At least with the mammoths, an animator could look at a mammoth skeleton then estimate how they would have moved and reference and elephant’s walk cycle. A giant’s walk cycle is very similar to a human’s which is given a greater sense of weight along with the giant shifting his weight in much more exaggerated way and much slower to give the effect of lumbering.
A creature such as dragon has to be built from the ground up including how it will move such as flying or walking on land. The dragon’s flight follows the rule of aerodynamiclift, where airflow is faster over one side of a surface, in this case the dragon’s wings, which results in an upward force that lifts the dragon into the air. Alternatively, the dragon can also adjust the angle of his wings to reverse the airflow across his wings to cause a downward force allowing him to land. Examples of this can be seen in the video below where the player character has encountered a dragon in combat where the dragon attacks from both the airand on ground.
While the dragon’s presence and weight can be felt when encountering them, especially when landing the whole screen shakes and buildings catch on fire. However, it is to be noted that when the dragons take off and land the ground around them, aside from snow and dirt flying up, does not react proportionately with the ground being torn up or a thatched roof caving in. This may not be immediately noticeable as the player’s main priority is to stay alive, they may be wondering how on earth the houses stay in such good shape whilst being burned and thrashed at by a giant dragon. If a dragon were to really land on the roof of a house, it would cave in due to the level of force the dragon is exerting by his landing.
In addition to the fantastical creatures that populate the land, the player also engages in impossible feats of combat, such as leaping onto a dragon’s head repeatedly stabbing it in the head or wielding powerful magic to heal allies and to incinerate foes. The appearance of magic often appears fluid, especially when it’s being directed at a specific target. As seen in the video below electrical, fire, and healing magic have the most fluid look as it travels from the caster to the target. The flowing appearance is similar to flowing gases or water being moved due to force as if in a stream or smoke being blown away by the wind. This is due to Bernoulli's Principle, if we can suppose that some sort of force is causing the magic to move in its intended direction due to low pressure surrounding it.
Now that we have seen how Skyrim functions as a believable world both in the realistic and the fantastic sense; we can talk about those silly glitches that take you out of the experience and break the laws of physics in silliest ways possible. Many of Skyrim’s most infamous glitches include flying mammoths, characters' feet mysteriously sinking into the ground, or corpses flying off into the sunset. Such occurrences have occurred in many people’s play-throughs, and many of these glitches were never found by Bethesda in their beta testings of the game. Other glitches occur when the player interacts with the world in a way Bethesda may not have anticipated and the game engine lacks a pre-calculated response such as a mod that introduces a new style of fighting or a new creature to ride like a horse. An example of this can be seen in the video below where the Chocobo Mounts and Followers Mod by gg77 from the Steam Workshop is used.
(glitch compilation video by HellOnWheels357)
While exploring the frigid land of Skyrim, you lose yourself in your adventures in the open world due to the way it functions as a realistic world. The movements of the characters and the way the player can interact with the world and how it reacts allows for a lifelike world to be immersed in. The realism of the world comes through allowing for the fantastic to shine without breaking the immersion. The movements of the characters and environment exhibit physics that mirror the real world in such a way that allow for the player to accept it as a realistic world which has elements of the fantastic. Aside from some glitches that either break the experience or simply look silly, as a whole, Skyrim has successfully displayed its physics for many fans to be able to lose themselves in a world of fire breathing dragons.
Thesis- As an open world game Skyrim needs to exhibit realistic physics in order for the world to be believable to avoid breaking the immersive experience, while still pushing the limits of physics to the fantastic to match the fantasy environment. As well as predicting the actions of the people playing the game.
Skyrim as a real world
Character walk cycles vary, often based on character disposition, stature, and size but on the whole the walk cycle of humanoid characters is accurate.
When the player interacts with the world such as a timber mill or engages in combat they are able to feel the weight of the activity based on the character animation.
When you run around carelessly you are bound to knock things over such as baskets and pots, and the people around you will admonish you on your clumsiness.
The player can see and feel the weight of things in the world such as the speed of a flying arrow or the weight of tumbling timbers onto bandits.
Skyrim as a fantastical world
Skyrim is home to many fantastical creatures, such as giants and fire breathing dragons and these creatures need to move in a way that at least makes sense.
How would you successfully animate a creature that doesn’t exist and make it seem like it could exist?
Magic is a feature of the world of Skyrim and the movement and appearance of it has to have some sort of real world reasoning in order for it to appear natural.
The Dragonborn performing near impossible feats of combat such as jumping onto a dragon’s head and repeatedly stabbing it.
Predicting the player’s antics.
Unlike an animated movie, a game is interactive therefore the designers and animators have to predict what the player will do in Skyrim on a massive scale.
Sometimes the reactions to the player’s actions are rather generic or fall under game mechanics which run the risk of taking you out of the immersive experience.
The player character often falls at a rather slow rate no matter what armor they are wearing, yet impact seems to be plausible for the height of the fall.
In combat, the player character displays various animations depending on weaponry. The animations are the same regardless of race and sex, however, the weight of the attacks often feel the same from a wooden stick to a heavy mace.
Conclusion
While observing Skyrim’s immersive world it behaves like a functioning world in a believable way.
Sometimes the physics is broken due to having to take a generic prediction at how the player will interact with the world at large, but done so in a way where our suspension of disbelief will avoid us being taken out of the experience.
