Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

Original:

Maya Renders:

Building a Scene in Maya

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

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

Outline for the Third Term Paper

Intro

• I will be discussing the visual effects of sand and sandstorms from the film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and from the game Journey (2012).

Mad Max

• Techniques

• All ground sand/dirt is from real life
• The large sandstorm is a mixture of matte paintings and simulation
• Lightning effects inside the storm
• Inside of sandstorm has tornadoes instead of being one big rolling dust cloud
• Effectiveness
• While exaggerated in both size and in number of tornadoes, it achieves the feeling of an apocalyptic natural event

Journey

• Techniques

• Ground sand comprised of three layers of heightmaps
• Sand is more soft dunes than dirt road
• Ripples a bit when player jumps
• Sandstorms have a foggy effect to them
• Particle effects for dust clouds
• Effectiveness
• The sand feels good to walk around it
• While not physically accurate, the sand rippling effects add to the magical atmosphere of the game

Conclusion

• Mad Max is a very actiony film and requires a dramatic and almost explosive sandstorm. Journey, on the other hand, is much more calm and explorative, so its sandstorms do not need to be as violent. While neither achieve perfect accuracy to real-world sandstorms, both are exaggerated in qualities that add to the emotional atmosphere of their respective genres.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Video games have recently become one of the biggest forms of entertainment. Games involving running, jumping, fighting, racing, shooting, anything, all try to achieve a common goal: fun for the player. However, in that quest to entertain the player, many video games often break the rules of physics. Some games do this because of hardware limitations at the time, some do it for humor, and some do it as intentional design in gameplay. In this paper we’ll be looking at three games that are all considered good, yet all break the laws of physics. We’ll be focusing on the action/reaction principle, which states that every action force must be met with an equal and opposite reaction force.

The first game is Super Mario Bros. (1985) for the NES. This game is 2D platformer about a plumber traversing numerous levels in order to find the Mushroom Kingdom's princess.There are 2 main mechanics in this game: running and jumping. The player runs by holding down the B button, and jumps by holding down the A button. The longer the player holds down A, the higher Mario jumps.This means that, when standing still and upright, Mario's jump can reach a variety of heights. He can achieve a short hop and a high jump from the same standing position.

This opposes the law of action and reaction, as the action (Mario applying force to the ground) and the reaction (the ground applying force on Mario, pushing him into the air) don't have a consistent relationship. If this game were more realistic, Mario would have to crouch first before he could jump high. Crouching would allow Mario to have more time in contact with the ground, which allows for more force to be applied on the ground over a greater period of time, which then leads to a greater jump height.

In fact, crouching is already a feature in Super Mario Bros., but it's more for ducking under attacks and has no effect on the height of the jump. (It should be noted that this particular game is Super Mario Bros. 1 for the NES, other Mario games have slightly different mechanics for crouching.)

The second game is Super Smash Brothers (1999-2014), which is fighting game series that takes characters from all over the Nintendo universe and throws them into one arena. Players hit each other to rack up "damage percentage" on their opponents. The higher the percentage, the easier it is to knock an opponent off stage.

In this game, when the player hits an opponent, there is no reaction on the player. The player could send their opponent flying off the stage with one good punch, but they would not go flying off the stage in the opposite direction. This because the force of the attack is tied to the damage percentage. Increasing the percentage of a player effectively lowers their mass.

This is testable. We can exclude any variables by choosing the same character for both players and having their percentages both at 0. We can also reduce friction by choosing a stage with icy floors or having the characters hit each other in the air. When Player A kicks Player B midair, B gets sent flying while A remains in the same horizontal position.

This violates the law of action/reaction because the action (applying force on an opponent) is not met with a reaction (having force applied back on the player). To make this more realistic, players attacking should also be pushed back with an appropriate force, and that force should be consistent with the strength of the attack, the mass of the opponent, the mass modifier that is damage percentage, and any force the player is exerting on the ground.

The third and final game is Lethal League (2014), in which you play a high-speed, high-octane game of what's essentially fighting-game handball. Players knock a baseball around a 2D stage, and that ball can ricochet off walls as players attempt to knock each other out with it. If an opponent is hit by the ball, they're out for the round. The ball increases in velocity with each consecutive hit, and can reach lightning speeds. If a player hits the ball when it has a high velocity, the ball will pause for a moment before zipping around the stage.

This breaks the law of action/reaction in a different way than previous examples. In standard physics, when an action force is applied, the reaction force is immediate. In this game, however, the reaction force has a noticeable delay. When a player hits the ball, there is a pause before either the player or the ball move. This is not a slow motion effect either, as other players can still move around in real-time. To make this more realistic, all forces must be applied simultaneously.

The law of action/reaction is also broken by the fact that the player character, which can only exert so much strength, can hit a ball and have it travel at near-lightning speeds. The ball is not light, either, as it can knock out opponents at even the slowest of speeds. Additionally, the player receives no recoil. The action force (the player hitting the ball hard enough to reach high speeds) doesn’t have a matching reaction force (the ball hitting the player back). So to make this more realistic, the player would need to experience some kind of visible recoil when hitting the ball, especially when it’s traveling at high speeds.

Video games tend to disobey the laws of physics a lot, but sometimes for good reason. While all three of these games hardly follow realistic physics, they’re still fun and enjoyable. For these particular games, the changes in physics seem very intentional. As two of them are fighting games, it makes sense that recoil is ignored as it would just make the game feel clunky. And all the games expect the player to react quickly, so they sacrifice realism for responsiveness. These games work because, while not physically accurate, they behave the way the player expects them to. It’s only when games start to go against that expectation that suspension of disbelief is broken, and the player is pulled out of the experience.

Outline - Action-Reaction in Video Games

1. Intro
1. action-reaction and video games
2. Body
1. Super Mario Bros
1. jumping high without crouching
2. crouch function independent of jump function
3. contrast with shadow of the colossus
2. Super Smash Bros
1. reaction force missing when doing a smash attack
2. test using two exact same characters
3. in fact, acceleration of action force is based on damage percent instead of weight
3. Lethal League
1. in this game, the action-reaction principle is not immediate
2. the harder you hit the ball, the longer the delay before it starts moving
3. also there is no recoil when you hit the ball hard
3. Conclusion
1. changing rules of physics for game feel/design

Reverse Video Reference

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

I shot this using my phone and the Stop Motion Studio app. I put my phone on the edge of my desk so that it overhung the floor. I planned out the arcs using Fourth Down at Half Time. For the X-axis, I measured the distance from the peak of the arc to the contact and multiplied that by 3/4 to get the halfway point. I then took the distance between that point and each of the keys and multiplied those by 3/4 to get the inbetweens. For the Y-axis, I simply spaced it out to move 2 inches every frame.

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

The Aristocats is a Disney film released in 1970. It follows the story of a family of pampered cats in 1910 France that get abandoned in the countryside, and their journey through Paris to reach their wealthy owner. The film takes place in a mostly-realistic universe, but there are a few deviations in the laws of physics. In this paper, we’ll be analyzing the differences in the laws of physics between our universe and the universe of the Aristocats.

To start with, motorcycles in this universe have very high momentum. In one scene, Edgar’s (the butler’s) motorcycle goes under an arched bridge and then does several loops, traveling underwater and then around the underside of the bridge and back again. His motorcycle is able to overcome the friction of water and maintain enough speed to do the loop several times.

The minimum speed required to do a loop can be calculated with v = √(rg), where v is velocity, r is radius of the loop in meters and g is the acceleration of gravity. Assuming Edgar is about 6 feet tall (~1.83 meters), this means the radius of the arch is about 3.5 Edgars, or 21 feet (~6.4 meters). So the calculation is √((6.4 m)*(9.8 m/s2)), which comes out to about 7.9 m/s, or 17 miles per hour. This seems like a reasonable speed, but this calculation doesn’t account for the water, which creates additional drag that the motorcycle must overcome. (Unfortunately, it is outside my current skill set to calculate the forces on a loop that’s half-underwater.)

Immediately after this scene, the motorcycle comes out of the river and goes uphill, launching into the air and landing back on the road. Not only does the motorcycle escape the water with enough momentum to make it uphill, it also launches about 18 feet (~5.5 meters) into the air before landing. Given that the height of the apex is about 5.5m, and the angle of the hill is roughly 30 degrees (as shown in the previous shot), we can plug these numbers into the internet and calculate that Edgar has to be leaving the edge of the hill at about 20.77 m/s, or 46 miles per hour. To be traveling this fast uphill from water means that the motorcycle must have immense horsepower.

In a later scene, the motorcycle collides with a giant windmill, pushing it about 66 feet, which is about 20.1 meters, or 11 Edgars. Now, there are many variables here, such as the mass of Edgar and the motorcycle, the mass of the windmill, and the friction of the possibly wet dirt the windmill is sitting on. However, it’s pretty clear that, at least in our universe, there would be no way a small motorcycle could push a large windmill that far without either an immense amount of force, or some extraneous circumstances.

One competing theory would be that motorcycles in this universe are affected by gravity non-uniformly. When Edgar launches off the hill, the timing of the arc is mismatched — he is slower on the way up and faster on the way down. This could mean that the motorcycle is affected by gravity differently depending on the direction of its velocity. That is to say, when going up, gravity affects it less, and when going down, gravity affects it more. This could also explain how the motorcycle could easily clear the loop coming out of water.

The next difference in this universe is that suspenders are made with ridiculously high tensile strength. When Georges, the old yet chipper man, trips on a flight of stairs and catches onto edgar’s waistband, he is able to fall a bit before rebounding back up. Since the average weight for a 70-year-old-man seems to be around 160 pounds, the suspenders have to be able to carry that much weight without snapping. They also need to have enough strength to retain its elasticity, as Edgar’s suspenders don’t appear stretched out or loose later on. The more extreme example of this is when, during a chase sequence, Edgar’s suspenders get caught between the motorcycle and its carriage as they move in opposite directions. This is essentially double the force of the motorcycle, and the suspenders still manage to slow the carriage down completely without snapping or becoming loose.

Finally, air resistance appears to have different properties in this universe. While normally, the force of air resistance increases the faster something is going, in this universe it appears that the opposite is true. During the chase sequence, one of the dogs is launched, rebounds off a tree, and hits edgar with enough force to dead-stop right over the motorcycle. Edgar is then flung through the air at, assumedly, roughly the same speed as the motorcycle in the opposite direction. When he pulls out his umbrella, the force of air resistance on the umbrella is enough to slow him down, but no enough that is causes the umbrella to collapse. Later, when Edgar and one of the dogs fall off the top of the windmill, the umbrella is able to slow them both down without collapsing. However, in both cases, once Edgar is already slowed down, the umbrella then turns inside out. This implies that the force of air resistance in this universe could be less when an object is going faster and more when an object is going slower.

While this film is relatively realistic compared to other animated films, it still occasionally breaks the laws of physics for comedic and story purposes. This is however, the nature of animation. It’s allowed to do what it does because it can deviate from the limitations of live-action. Even then, animated films have to stay rooted in some kind of reality similar to our own, in order to “feel right” for the audience. While animation can break the laws of physics, as long as they are consistent, the animation is allowed to do anything.

Outline - Analysis of Physics in The Aristocats

I. Introduction:

1. Film: The Aristocats
2. Thesis: Aristocats takes place in a mostly-realistic universe, with a few deviations of physics.

II. Hypothesis 1: Motorcycles have very high momentum.

1. Edgar’s motorcycle overcomes the drag of water under a bridge enough to do a loop on the arch of the bridge several times.
2. The motorcycle then escapes the water, goes uphill, and launches about 15 feet into the air.
3. The motorcycle is able to push an entire windmill a significant distance when collided with.

III. Hypothesis 2: Waistband elastic is made with ridiculously high tensile strength.

1. It stretches enough to catch and propel Georges, the old man, up half a flight of stairs
2. It also stretches when caught between the motorcycle and its carriage moving opposite each other and manages to slow both down without snapping

IV. Hypothesis 3: Air resistance has different properties in this universe

1. When Edgar is launched, he pulls out his umbrella and is slowed to a near-stop.
2. Also, when Edgar and a dog fall off the building, the umbrella slows them both down.
3. However, once already slowed down, the umbrella turns inside out.

V. Conclusion

1. While this film is relatively realistic compared to other animated films, it still occasionally breaks the laws of physics for comedic and story purposes.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

Shooting Video Reference

Mini-Portfolio

ANI 115 Final Film

ANI 117A Prop Design

ANI 117A Environment Lighting

I'm a fourth-year Animation/Illustration student, currently enrolled in 117B and 130A. I aim to work in the video game industry when I graduate, preferably in level or environment design, though I also have interest in modeling and overall game design. My background in physics-related science so far is from high-school classes, and the Optics lectures held a few years back.

The First Post

This is it.