Dana Geiger's Physics of Animation Blog

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Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

I had a lot of fun making these stereoscopic images! My favorite part is making them in maya! I used a scene form a walk cycle I just finished, and I added in some background geometry to give the 3D more to work off of.

I had a with the Photos, too. This is a cool effect, but I think that the crazy colors puts me off a bit when I’m looking at these.

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Recreating Lights and Camera in Maya

This assignment was harder than I thought! The shadows on the widget its self didn’t behave how they would with a real light, so they don’t match up quite correctly. 

Original Photo:

Matching:

Another Angle:

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Building a Scene in Maya

These are my initials that I will be learning some lighting with. I had a lot of fun playing with the material attributes.

This is the Image with the Key light on it. I wanted to shadow to come forward, toward the viewer, so this is a less conventual lighting set up.

Next I added some fill light...

And a little bit of light where the key light would normally be to pick up the front edges.

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

Thanks :)

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Outline for the Third Term Paper

Intro:

Frequently, fantasy movies will have non-human characters, but they all handle them a little differently. The Chronicles of Narnia, for instance,  relied heavily on prosthetics to bring a cast of mythical creatures to life. Pirates of The Caribbean: Davy Jones Locker mixed acting with CG to create the iconic squid man himself.

The Chronicles of Narnia:

The prosthetic artists and costume department must have worked overtime while preparing to film the Narnia movies.

- over 170 unique characters, with over 5000 rubber prosthetics.

- Mechanical parts were used, too. For example, the ears on a minotaur’s suit would be radio controlled. A whole line of the prosthetics artists would sit off screen and control the different moving parts while the actor played their roll.

- Costume also played a big roll in bringing some of the closer-to-human characters into the fantasy world.

-The mechanical prosthetics in Narnia seem like they would be difficult to time, since they operators can only work while the actors are there in front of them. while they were on set, they were noisy, and probably heavy and hard to forget about.

Pirates of The Caribbean: Davy Jones Locker

-The Davy Jones that ended up on screen is 100% computer generated, even the costuming!

-The molders made a high poly head for Davy Jones that was rigged to move and emote in every way they would need in the film.

-Then movement information was transferred from the motion capture of the actor, but the actual performance on scene was key-framed to take full advantage of the rig’s capabilities.

- The tentacles were animated through a layered method.

Conclusion

Each movie will handle prosthetics a little differently. While some rely one physical costume, others will take a CG rout. Having the costume there in front of the cast and crew during shooting is probably helpful. The director can plan the shots around the more bulky characters accurately, and the other actors might have an easier time interacting with the in costume actors as if they were actually the creature its self. This might be doubly true for child actors. The down side to mechanical prosthetics is that they are loud. They take a lot of up keep, and the actor has to be on set getting makeup done long before their scene starts. On the other hand, I think that the farther we get into the future, the more CG ‘prosthetics’ will be used, because of the greater flexibility that they offer. They can be adjusted after the scene has been shot. Their absence during the actual shooting is probably difficult to plan around, but with skilled actors and directors, these draw backs can be compensated for.

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Stop-Motion Character Animation

Here is my stop motion animation for Physics of Animation! Turn on the audio for the original score by special guest start Julianna Tarter and splendid Voice acting.

I had a lot of fun while making this video. The Big tripod creature was pretty hard to pose, but I get used to it and the process sped up quite a bit. We had a lot of fun doing the voices for the characters, and I really think that it brought them to life. I think that next time, I might choose an easier character to pose for the main character. The lamp and magnifying glass rig were a lot easier to work with.

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Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Newton’s Third Law in Video Games

Throughout the video game industry, many of the properties of physics are bent (or ignored completely) in order to create fun-to-play and fast paced game mechanics. Newton’s Third Law of Motion in particular is often stretched and altered order to expand the possibilities of what a character is capable of. Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, if two people were sitting in rolling chairs, and one pushed against the other, they would both go rolling off in opposite directions. In this scenario, the original action is the first person’s push. The opposite reaction is the force that the other person involuntarily exerts back on the first. If the first person is lighter than the second, they will roll out farther because the equal reaction force has a greater effect on a lighter subject. These three different examples of incorrect portrayal of Newton’s third law in video games, Rosalina’s magic attack in Super Smash Bros Wii U, Amaterasu’s double jump in Okami, and finally the Super Star in Super Mario Bros,  all show that sometimes breaking the laws of physics can lead to more fun and exciting gameplay.

In Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros Wii U, Rosalina is shown to be a fairly light. In fact, she is ranked as the fourth lightest out of 58 total playable characters. With a weight of 77 units, Rosalina is considerably lighter than Mario, who weighs in at 98 units. Some visual cues also emphasize Rosalina’s light weight. She floats around to taunt her opponents, and her terminal velocity when falling is cartoonishly slow. Yet when Rosalina hits, she hits hard. As shown in the video below, Rosalina can launch Mario Across a zoomed out screen without showing any sign of recoil. This means that there is no equal and opposite reaction pushing Rosalina back after she pushes so hard against Mario. This was definitely an intentional decision from the Super Smash Bros game designers. When playing a fighting game like Super Smash Bros, any span of time in which the character cannot be controlled is frustrating for the player. Lengthy recoil animations would create a feeling of lag in the game, and eventually players would just stop choosing a character if their attacks left them so vulnerable. The game designers chose to leave out this realistic recoil reaction in order to deliver a more fast paced and fun to play game.

The next example is Clover Studio’s Okami. In Okami, Amaterasu is the zodiac dog, and the goddess of the sun. Throughout the game, she collects many new techniques that allow the player to progress through the game. One of these techniques in the double jump. With the double jump, Amaterasu first leaps into the air, then inexplicably she jumps again- off of nothing, while still completely in the air. Amaterasu’s first jump makes sense. She pushes against the earth, and because the earth is so much heavier than her, she is pushed up into the air by the equal and opposite reaction. When Amaterasu is already in the air there is nothing but air for her to push against. Her second jump wouldn’t move her up at all because the air particles are so light that their reaction against her push wouldn’t have a significant effect on her movement. The reaction moves the heavier mass (Amaterasu) much more than the lighter one (the air), even though in reality, a heavier mass wouldn’t move nearly as far as the lighter one with the same amount of force. The game designers consciously made the decision to add this physics defying jump to the game. It is used as a clever way to keep parts of the game off limits, so that the player can come back and explore the same areas once they have gained the new skill. For example, at one point in the game Amaterasu needs to get onto a platform in order to see a pattern down below. This platform is inaccessible until the player has earned the double jump power. This is a clever way to create a check on the player’s progress so that everything will be accomplished in the correct order without just creating a wall that will move once the proper story points have been accomplished. The game developers used the ability of a double jump even though it is physically impossible in order to create more fun gameplay.

The last example of the improper use of Newton’s third law is the Super Star’s effect in Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Normally, Mario is damaged if he makes contact with an enemy. In this case, the damage is the equal and opposite reaction to the original action of touching the enemy. With the added effects of a Super Star, Mario is able to run straight through enemies that would usually damage him, without even slowing down. The enemies comically fall straight down and out of the screen, and Mario doesn’t so much as stumble. It is as if he hasn’t touched anything at all! This was definitely a conscious decision by the game developers, just like the last two examples. In the game's normal state, the reaction to touching an enemy is taking damage. When Mario is using a Super Star, it allows the player to get through parts of the game in ways that they normally wouldn’t be able to. Getting the star at the right time could allow a beginning level player to navigate a tricky section, or it could allow a more experienced player to beat their high score or fastest time. Even though the effects of the Super Star clearly defy Newton’s third law, they were programmed into the gameplay in order to create a more fun gaming experience.

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Outline for the Second Term Paper

Newton’s 3rd Law in Video Games

Intro:

Throughout the video game industry, many of the properties of physics are bent (or ignored) in order to create fun-to-play and fast paced controls. Newton’s Third Law of Motion in particular is often stretched and changed order to expand the possibilities of what a character can do.

Description and examples on realistic Third Law

This paper will discus examples of not enough recoil, too much recoil, and disproportional amounts of push.

Body:

1. No recoil on Rosalina’s magic

Even though she’s floating

The other character flies across the screen an insane amount

I think it was on purpose for better gameplay

There is no recoil because of a powerful action

2. Too much ‘recoil’ on Amaterasu’s double jump

The air she is ‘pushing off of’ should be much lighter then Amaterasu her self, so in reality if a dog tried to double jump, it would just keep falling and the air would be pushed away. The air doesn’t have the mass to push Amaterasu back farther up.

This would be like if a gun was fired, and the bullet stayed still while the gun flew the other direction

Recoil is much too strong for action/subject of action (air)

3. Disproportional amounts of push when Mario is using an invincibility star

Mario shows no hint of having made contact with a monster (other than close proximity), but he just keeps running and the monster flies away.

It looks as if only a tap from Mario destroys heavy monster characters

Action is too weak to result in such a big outcome

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Reverse Video Reference

I found this exercise very helpful, because I am usually pretty embarrassed about being on film when I go to make video reference. That’s something that I’ll defiantly have to get over, and exercises like this help!

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Stop Motion Animation of Falling

This animation changed a lot throughout the process of making it. I knew I wanted to do something with overlapping action, so I made this clay fox that has a tail that can drag behind as it bumps up and falls to the ground. 

Originally I planned to have the fox on a wire that I could then photoshop out of the image. I thought out where each frame would be, and started thinking about if I wanted to attempt some squash and stretch too. Sadly, the fox would’t stick where I wanted it, so I scrapped the idea. 

Next I made a sort of hanger with the fox on the end, this worked better, but since I was working alone, I couldn’t get the fox to move straight down at all. 

In the end, I rigged together a sort of down shooter and used that to shoot the movie you see above. I had a string in the shot to act as a guide for the foxes’ motion, and I tried to photoshop it out, but that process left some ‘artifacts’ in the frame that I find really distracting. The camera also moved a little bit every time I took a picture, so the whole background is jittery.

Even with these short comings, I am proud of the little fox I made, and that I did a stop motion with overlapping action. I also gave the fox some squash and stretch, which helps to avoid strobing as we learned in class. 

All in all, this was a learning process for me. I had a lot of fun making the little fox, but when it came time to shoot, I had a lot of trouble figuring out the best way to shoot the video. I think that my next stop motion will be a lot better!

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The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

The Physics of Howl’s Moving Castle

          Studio Ghibli’s feature film Howl’s Moving Castle, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, takes place in a world that, at first glance, looks much like our own. With further inspection, however, it is filled with technologies and magic that couldn’t possibly function in our world. The film follows the story of Sophie, a young woman who is old at heart. Sophie catches the eye of the infamous wizard Howl and thereby earns the jealousy of the Witch of The Waste. The envious witch sets a curse on Sophie that turns her into an old woman, so she travels out into the Waste in hopes of breaking the spell. She ends up living with Howl in his castle, and through the events in the movie, Sophie remembers what it is to be young and the spell is broken. In the animated film Howl’s Moving Castle, a realistic set of physics is mixed with impossible physics in order to create a believable yet magical world that fully immerses the viewer in the story and action of the film.

           It is important to understand the physics in Howl’s Moving Castle that are consistent with our world in order to examine the differences and impossibilities of physics in the film. While the film could be considered a cartoon, the characters in Howl’s Moving Castle are portrayed with careful realism. The strong and subtle character animation has a realistic sense of weight to it. Characters don’t bend, squash, or stretch with cartoony exaggeration, and subtle actions lend realism and life to the movement. Clothing, hair, and loose skin all drag behind a movement, following the laws of Inertia. One great example of Inertia in the film is a scene where the castle comes to a quick stop. 

The looser top parts of the castle fall to forward before settling. The castle can also move faster and change direction more easily at the end of the film when it has lost mass. Air pressure is also treated realistically through the film. For example, The Witch of The Waste puffs on a cigar, and Sophie stokes a fire with a bellows. 

In both cases, the sudden expansion in the volume of an airy cavity creates lower air pressure, which causes air to flow in, then when the space is rapidly compressed, the pressure rises and the air puffs out. Another example of the existence of air pressure in the movie is the differences of falling paper, and falling debris. The paper has a much higher surface area compared to its weight then the debris, so it falls with a floating motion. The debris has a smaller surface area for its weight, so it plummets straight to the ground. These accuracies in the physics of the film help to establish a believable world that the viewer can relate to. They also show that when the physics aren’t realistic, it was an intentional decision by the director. The solid use of physics in the more mundane parts of Howl’s Moving Castle offset the impossibilities in the film. this creates an interesting and engaging world for the story to take place in.

          There are many aircraft and characters that fly throughout Howl’s Moving Castle, that probably couldn’t fly in reality. Two possible theories as to how they fly is that they can manipulate gravity or air pressure somehow. More importantly these show that something wouldn’t necessarily have to work in the real world for it to look good in animation. The first aircraft, the Flying Kayak, works by flapping a whale tail shaped wing on the end of a long hinged poll extremely fast.

The kayak looks to be roughly twelve feet long, and maybe eight to ten feet wide, so it is a sizable contraption. Even if it’s made of light materials, it must weigh a good deal. The kayak is shown taking off straight into the air from a standstill, flying at high speeds, hovering, and ascending with control and stability. These small kayak ships can carry three passengers with power to spare. The big problem with the kayak’s design is that the little wings couldn’t possibly provide enough upward force to lift the aircraft so easily. If they just flapped straight up and down as they appear to, the upward motion might push the kayak down more than the downward flap would push it up. Even if the wings could give lift, the poll that the wing is connected to the body of the kayak by is quite thin, so in reality it would bend when the wings flapped so fast. The next classification of airship is called the flapper. These large ships are shown loaded with bombs and steam engines, so they must be incredibly heavy. The flappers are enormous hulls with 6 sets of wings. 

These wings flap slowly, not fast enough to give lift by any stretch of the imagination. They also couldn’t be taking advantage of aerodynamic lift as many real aircraft do. The next thing that can fly in the film that really shouldn’t be able to is the magicians who have turned themselves into monsters. They have large, rotund bodies and insect style wings. The wings must only be an aid in flight, because they would probably break off rather than give these monsters enough lift for flight. Finally, Heen the dog is shown flying with just his ears-something physically impossible to do. The only way to explain all of these things being able to fly with such unpractical designs is that they can manipulate the influences of gravity and air pressure around them. Even then it is unlikely that they could fly without some sort of magic involved. The real lesson that it to be gained from examining these impractical designs is that not everything in a fantasy animation has to make sense in order for it to be accepted by the audience.

          The second big contradiction to the realistic physics that Howl’s Moving Castle demonstrates is the use of magic. While some of the magic doesn’t have explanations that could lie in physics, some of it looks like it could have to do with the manipulation of gravity. One small example would be when Howl uses magic to burn a curse mark off of a table. His hair rises as if the pull of gravity has been suddenly reduced. Another example is at the start of the film when Howl jumps with Sophie to get away from the blob jinn. 

He is able to jump to a height above the tops of multi-story buildings and then float to the ground in the path of a parabolic arc. When he jumps up, his path of action is fairly straight, so he and Sophie must walk forward, somehow giving more push forward then the jump itself had given. The last major example of the gravity manipulation in Turnip Head, the scarecrow. 

He has no way to push off the ground because he doesn’t have any joints or ability to shift his weight up and down, yet he is able to jump along without effort. He might reverse gravity’s pull in order to give himself some push off of the ground. Unlike the flying machines the use of magic there is clearly supernatural. There is no attempt made by the filmmakers to explain how the magic works, yet viewers are able to accept that the magic is strong enough to defy the forces of physics. This shows that sometimes, if how something works isn’t important to a story, it is better to just leave the explanation open.

          The majority of the physics in Howl’s Moving Castle seem accurate and similar to the conditions here on earth, but exceptions like the aircraft and magic give the world of the film a sense of wonder and possibility. The accurate physics in the less showy (but equally high quality) parts of the film also help to highlight things like magic and the extraordinary technology. The film Howl’s Moving Castle is a great example of how following the laws of physics can help to create a believable world, while at the same time it shows that it’s ok to stretch and even alter physics if it’s for a good reason.

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Term Paper Outline: Howl’s Moving Castle

Introduction

A. Animated Film: Howl’s Moving Castle

- Description of world

- Quick Summery

B. Thesis: In the film Howl’s Moving Castle, realistic physics are mixed in with fanciful physics in order to create a believable yet magical world with technologies different from our own.

Body Paragraphs

1. Similarities to our world

- Strong character animation, realistic details in movement

- Good effects animation such as clouds, mud splashes

- Realistically painted backgrounds create a sense of a realistic world

- Air pressure showed in forms of smoking, bellows on fire, wind blows fabric and hair believably

- Paper Drop vs. Castle debris falling

- The moving castle is a good example of inertia, when it stops suddenly the looser top parts fall to the front before it settles, when the castle is smaller, it can move faster and change direction more easily

2. Flying characters and machines

- Bulky airships fly with mall and fragile wings

- Bulky airships fly slow moving, round wings that couldn’t actually give them lift

- Monster lizard magicians fly with rotund body and insect style wings

- Dog flies with ears

3. Gravity manipulation in magic

- Our first introduction to magic shows Howl jumping straight into the air well above the buildings, then drifting down in a slow parabolic arc, suggesting weaker gravity

- Howl removes a curse mark from his table with magic, his hair rises around him due to weakened gravity

- The character Turnip Head stands up on his pole with no visible support, maybe his high center of gravity added to the weakened gravity of magic allows him to adjust and balance more easily? Sophie states that “somehow he always manages to get stuck upside down,” which would make sense because if he were to lose his balance completely, his heavier top half would hang down.

Conclusion

The realistic treatments of physics make Howl’s Moving Castle more believable, and when the laws of physics are broken, it is clearly on purpose. The contrast between realistic physics and fanciful physics creates and engaging and dynamic world for the story to take place in.

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Video Analysis of Path of Action

Analyzing the parabolic arcs of jumping

5 refrence jumps:

https://youtu.be/XXY5-5oUDjc

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Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

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Shooting Video Reference 

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This was my final animation for the class 114

Mini-Portfolio

Hi! My name is Dana Geiger, and this is my third year in the Animation/Illustration program at SJSU. My goal is to eventually work on a visual development team in either the film or video game industry.

So far I’ve have taken, 12 (light and optics), 24 (fundamentals of drawing), 50 (design), 14 (intro to painting), 55 (intermediate figure drawing), 112A (story), 112B (advanced figure drawing), 28 (intro to 2D animation), 51A (intro to 3D modeling), 113A (intermediate painting),114 (digital 2D animation) and ANI 1 (history of animation).

I’ve taken almost all the GE requirement courses at De Anza College, but it’s been awhile and my math defiantly needs brushing up! I’ve never taken a class dedicated to physics before.

This semester, I will be taking PHYS 123 (physics of animation), 113B (Intro to digital painting/ The Tree Class), 51B (Intro to 3D animation), and TA 05 (Beginning Acting).

Here are a few of my favorite projects from the past couple of years:

An illustration for a steam punk version of the story The Flying Horse from the Arabian Nights

An Illustration for a mayan re-telling of The Jungle Book, from ani 112A

Still Life with Ivory Horse, from ani 113A

And a gif of an anteater walking

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The First Post

This is the first post for my PHYS-123 Blog.