Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

Red/Cyan

Green/Magenta

Red/Cyan

Green/Magenta

Red/Cyan (Maya)

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

IMG 5800:

IMG 5867:

IMG 5929:

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

No Lighting

One-point Lighting

Two-point Lighting

Three-point Lighting

Building a Scene in Maya.

"CL"

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 85 and 80; I will not be writing a third term paper.

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

I. Introduction

Water is a common element/concept in animations and films. However, the movements of it are hard to predict and simulate. In this paper, I will analyze two visual special effects of fluid motion created with different techniques. One is from the film “Titanic” (1997) and the other is from a stop-motion animation called “Magic Water”.

II. Body

A Titanic

In “Titanic”, water is generated by computers. The film production team shot the wave motions caused by the real ships and manipulated it digitally. With the techniques of “green screen” and “color correction” contributing to perfect compositing, the scene looks very realistic.

B. Magic Water

“Magic Water” is a stop-motion animation using clay to simulate water. It is kind of interesting to interpret the fluid motion with the solid material. The animator exaggerated the physical characteristics of the real water and applied it to the clay model, which created a cartoon-style effect.

III. Conclusion

Although there are many different approaches to make water effects, the nature of VFX is still serving for the overall style and concept of the films and animations. From this perspective, both “Titanic” and “Magic Water” are successful in creating the water effect.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

      I used clay for character modeling and did some pencil drawings for animation. I'd like to tell a story in this animation short and hope you can enjoy it :)

GDC 2014

Cutting-edge technology, cool games, amazing developers here in GDC. It's really an eye-opening experience for me and I really learned a lot. I wish I could bring my own game to show in GDC next year.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

      Once we talk about motion, we will always involve the concept of friction more or less. In a general sense, friction, affected by both the perpendicular force exerted to the surface and the roughness of the surface, is the force that resists the relative motion between the two contacting surfaces. However, the force of friction is always exaggerated in films and games for reasons.  This paper will analyze the intentional “wrong use” of friction in films and games.

      Journey is an indie video game released in 2012. In the game, the player plays the role of a robed traveler in the desert with the goal to reach the shining mountaintop in the distance. The visuals are so beautiful that create a poetical atmosphere. In journey, the traveler (the player character) can do sand surfing with his feet without the help of a board. In reality, it is actually impossible to do so. Here, we can refer the examples of skiing and snowboarding. No matter what kinds of snow sports, people need to rely on tools for fast moving. The physics behind the need of skis and snowboards mainly includes two parts. First of all, with a larger contacting area, the pressure on the snow exerted by the person will be decreased so that the person will not stuck in the snow. Secondly, the bottom of the board is smoother, thus resulting in a smaller friction that helps to achieve speediness of the motions. In a broader sense, there is no substantial difference between snow and sand. Thus, the only way to reconstruct the scene of the game in reality must be with the aid of low-friction-coefficient boards. However, the fascination of the game is that it offers players opportunities to experience a life that cannot exist in real world. We all imagine ourselves having innate super powers and magic in dreams instead of being dependent on tools. Thus, the violation of the friction physics successfully satisfies such mental desires and fantasies and that also explains why so many games allow players to easily execute difficult and unreal movements and actions. 

      Tarzan, released in 1999, is an adventure animation film. It is no exaggeration to say that most of the movements of Tarzan are based on the bending of the force of friction. The most common scene in the film might be Tarzan sliding through the trees in jungle. As we all know, the surfaces of the bark are rough and cannot allow a long-distance slide in reality. Besides of that, as the “son” of gorillas, he can swing from tree to tree by grabbing the vines without occasionally slipping them out of his hands.  However, even excellent gymnasts need to use magnesium carbonate powder to improve the grip (actually to increase the friction coefficient) on gymnastic apparatus.  The reasons for the violation of the physics are obvious. Firstly, the exaggeration of the friction can highlight the characteristics of the figure. In other words, with those flexible moves, the audience can know the superb physical fitness and excellent skills that Tarzan has among gorillas. And these details are also the hints of why he becomes the leader of the gorilla group in the following plots. Secondly, without the limitations of the real physics, the movements of the characters are flowing more freely, which can give the audiences a more exciting visual enjoyment.

      Another example is from the live-action film called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a wuxia film, there are lots of scenes focusing on the action choreography. From my point of view, I was deeply impressed by the actions and martial arts. In the meantime, I have to acknowledge that the laws of physics are bended in the film. One of the memorable scenes is that when Yu Shu Lien chases the thief (Jen Yu) across the rooftops, she easily walks up walls. However, it is impossible in the real world since the force of friction between the character’s feet and the walls is not large enough to support her weight because of the small perpendicular force towards the walls exerted by the character’s feet. Here, we can take the Parkour as an example to analyze the scene. Climbing a wall with hands and feet is not rare in Parkour. But when people do such actions, they need to get running first in order to reach a higher starting speed. What’s more, the angle between the thigh and the shank is supposed to be less than 45 degree for exerting more force to increase the friction. I also noticed that once those people get close to the wall, they would raise their arms in order to be well prepared to hold the edge of the walls in time in case of slipping. Now, if we look back to the scene in the film, it’s not hard to find that neither the starting speed nor the angle can meet the basic requirements, let alone her arms hanging straight down at the sides of her body. But why the physics needs to be bended in the film? In my opinion, she can show her skills as a martial artist in nothing more clearly than less body movements and neat actions.

      The first two examples analyzed the incorrect use of friction from the perspective of the friction coefficient and the third example showed the bending physics from the aspect of the perpendicular force exerted to the surfaces. Even though the influence factors are different, people can ultimately get the same effect by changing either one of them and with the understanding of these two parameters, they have more choices when bending the physics to achieve a specific seemingly believable result.

      In conclusion, it’s not difficult to find that the motions become way smoother with bending physics of friction. Thus, the violation of the friction has become the favored means in the films and games that are emphasizing flowing continuous movements and actions. What’s more, purposely changing the force of friction makes it possible to create amazing unreal movements and visual experience that can never happen in reality.