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.