Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Red/ Green Glasses

Red/Blue

I could do this all night. ^^

Recreating Lights and Cameras in Maya

Original

Maya

Alternate View

Building A Scene in Maya

Original

1 Point

2 Point

3 Point

Second Term Paper

No term paper is being submitted.

Outline for Second Term Paper

I. Intro
The laws of Physics are around us all time, influencing us all the time. Although it does seem appropriate to follow the rules of Physics, the film media allows us to bend these rules, exaggerate them and create a new world for audiences to get encompassed in. Trajectories of objects, or characters, is a visual cue that audiences use to gauge the weight, speed and much more. But in some cases this rule is broken, and so are the arcs of the moving object. 

Thesis: Exaggeration of these trajectories can be used to generate humor, or increase the impact of certain actions all to evoke an emotion from the audience, to bring them into the film's world.

II. Body I

“Shaolin Soccer”

In this scene, some of the players, run, jump and follow unbelievable, yet entertaining, arcs.

1. The first character at 2:18 in the video advances at a very mild running pace then leaps into an action kicking pose that he holds for about a second. In the physical world, he would only be in the air for a much shorter duration than depicted.
2. The character also reaches a much lower apex than is expected when he runs towards camera. He reaches an artificial apex, then continues horizontally forward in a uniform motion.
3. In order to jump higher, or longer distances, moving your center of gravity (CG) up is key. In the case of the jump at 2:20, he jumps and lifts up his legs which should raise his CG a little bit more than shown. Then, he lacks an accurately timed follow through, and the trajectory of his CG is uinform and in a straight line instead of in a parabolic arc.

III. Body II

“Wanted”--curving bullets

Starting at 1:25, a bullet shot by the main protagonist of the film curves to screen right when it is physically impossible.

1. The bullet's forward inertia is much stronger than any force that can influence the bullet coming from the character's movements.

IV. Body III

“Kung-Fu Panda 2”

In the first fight scene of the film, in the video from 1:30 to 1:32, Viper attacks one of the wolves, knocks them back into a drum which then bounces him into an exaggerated arc.

1. They've given many of the characters super human strength and in this instance Viper knocks a wolf back into a believable arc then once it bounces off a drum. Once it bounces off, the wolf follows a flat, horizontal trajectory. Right after hitting the drum, the enemy should have fallen towards the ground.
2. This is a conscious decision, hence an exaggeration, because in earlier and later segments of the fight, whenever the enemy hits a surface they fall towards the ground immediately giving the sense of weight.

V. Conclusion
The emotions that directors and film makers try to evoke are sometimes a result of altering the physical laws, and altering arcs of objects and characters can be both humorous and exciting.

Stop-Motion Character Animation (Group)

"Apeel"

I helped make this film with Holly Johnson and Samantha Lo. Holly constructed the stage and exterior for the shots in our film. We had four main characters: Holly animated the tangerine, I animated the banana, Samantha animated the onion, and Holly and Samantha took turns animating the tomato. Our "studio" consisted of a variety of fruit, arts and crafts supplies, a small table to place all the props and characters on, and a camera on a tripod. The most difficult scenes to shoot were the ones with all the fruit in the crowd. Each character had to be moved, and we switched off between the mango and apple, strawberries, and blackberries in different scenes. Some fruit couldn't stand on its own, but everything we wanted to move through the air was attached to some thread. The blackberries on the strings were spontaneous, making for some sporadic, fun movements. But what worked in our favor was the integrated motion blur in the shots from the fruit moving through the air. The best part was peeling the banana and improvising its movements. While shooting it, I didn't have too much an of idea what my banana was going to do, but every time we looked through a scene we just shot, we laughed for a while.

When everything was shot, Sam, Holly and I edited it in After Effects where we added the music, sounds and timed it out. Overall, it was a really fun experience, and although I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, it was rewarding to see our idea come to fruition.

That's a wrap! :)

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

Some fun reference exercises. :) We took 2D animated pencil tests and tried to recreate/create video reference from each. Below each of my clips are links to the original pencil tests. :)

Clip A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkexeh8ucag

Clip B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=steIAoUVFNY

Clip C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5utYf-PdKQ

Clip D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEdwyICZJXU