Lighting a Scene in Maya

1 Point Lighting

2 Point Lighting

3 Point Lighting

Building a Scene in Maya

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

The laws of physics are constantly broken or bent to achieve a more entertaining effect in the visual medium of film. If certain properties were portrayed accurately in a particular scene, then scientific realism would be achieved. Although the scene would be considered realistic, the visual aspect would more than likely fall a little flat. In film, certain laws of physics need to be exaggerated so that the audience will not only clearly see what is occurring, but will also feel what is happening. This caricature is necessary for the audience to “suspend their belief”. They are not merely a person in an audience watching a movie; they are an active participant in the world in which they are observing. The principal of falling, among other rules, is one of the most commonly broken principles. In particular, the length of time in the fall is either exaggerated or abbreviated for the purpose of adding dramatic flare. In the Pixar shirt, Knick Knack, important story elements are revealed during an extremely exaggerated fall time. The animated Japanese series, FLCL, frequently uses not only exaggerated fall times, but also shortens the fall time to aid in storytelling. Characters not only achieve exaggerated fall times, but also seem to hover, as the characters demonstrated in the Gobelins film, Oktapodi.

The Pixar short film, Knick Knack, tells the story of a grumpy toy snowman that lives in a snow globe, perched on a shelf. Outside of his little snow globe world, other miniature, tropical characters live their lives. He sees that they are free, and have no barriers between them and the real world. His mood is soon changed after noticing an attractive and buxom sunbather toy that beckons him to join the group. He then notices that he has no way of escaping his plastic prison. He devises various plans to escape the snow globe, each one less successful than the last. His final plan, however, leaves him and his snow globe placed precariously on a ledge. He, and his snow globe, then proceed to fall. This is where the storytelling comes into play.

The distance from the ledge of the bookshelf to the area where he lands could be estimated to be no more than 4 feet. Although the amounts of clues provided are few in number, and it is difficult to be able to give a more accurate guess, this is merely a conservative estimate. Utilizing the table provided in class to calculate the amount of frames necessary to animate a fall from a particular height, it would be very simple to calculate the scientifically sound answer. It would take the snowman and his snow globe approximately half a second, or 12 frames, for the object to leave the ledge of the shelf and hit the fish bowl. Since Pixar places a huge amount of importance on story, however, the snowman and his globe take a significant amount longer to fall. It takes the snowman 16 seconds from the apex until the landing. That is 32 times the duration than is realistic. The snow globe itself should fall for half a second as well. Instead, it takes a whopping 36 seconds from the apex to the landing point. That is approximately 72 times the duration of realistic time.

Although the fall times are ridiculously exaggerated, it simply works. During the fall, the snowman, who has been searching for a way to escape, finally notices that on the bottom of his globe, there is an emergency escape hatch on the floor. When the globe turns upside down during the fall, he is able to escape. This entire aspect occurs during the fall time. It was completely necessary to exaggerate the fall time so that the snowman could make a discovery and move the story forward. The worst culprit concerning law bending, however, is the snow globe. Again, this was completely necessary.

The snowman lands in a fish tank and believes that his life has improved. Although he is far away from the sunbather, he is now distracted with the inhabitant of the bowl: an attractive mermaid. There is some demonstrated anticipation to help the audience register that the snowman will finally be happy. He starts to walk over to her, then, the payoff arrives. The snow globe falls on top of the snowman, via the emergency exit, and places him back in his original predicament. The setup of the gag and anticipation that was necessary to pull it off needed one thing to be successful. Time. The exaggerated fall time of the snowman and the snow globe ultimately aided in the storytelling, and created a more dynamic narrative. Another example of exaggerated fall time is in the Japanese animated series, FLCL.

FLCL is an anime series that follows a 12 year-old-male named Naota. Naota lives in a quiet Japanese town. He lives with his eccentric father and grandfather. An enormous factory shaped like a steam iron mars the center of their idyllic town. Although the series is relatively difficult to decipher, a space alien that takes the form of a woman joins Naota. Her name is Haruko, and they frequently engage in epic battles with creatures that erupt from various places. Lord Canti, a robot that erupts from Naota’s head, battles these creatures. Canti can be viewed as an alter ego of Naoto, providing strength when Naota is weak. Whereas Naota is introverted and awkward, Canti is heroic. Naota’s traits of being unsure of himself and lacking self-confidence change as the show ends. When the final battle happens, he is shown to be a confident young man who possesses Canti’s bravery. At first, Naota dreaded the transformation into Lord Canti. At the end, he initiated the transformation. It is because of the bizarre guidance of Haruko and the battles that he engages in that he experiences emotional growth. It is during these battles that the laws of physics are bent.

Although epic battles are generously sprinkled throughout the series, there is 1 battle in particular where the principle of falling is bent in either extremes. Characters both have exaggerated and abbreviated fall times. In episode 3, a biomechanical creature erupts from the head of one of Naota’s classmates. Haruko, and then Canti engage the creature. At one point, Haruko is shown hovering above the creature, swinging her guitar (her weapon of choice) numerous times at the creature. All the while, she is neither falling nor rising. She is, in fact, hovering. After the period of hovering, she is seen to be flying through the air.

She is estimated to be about 8-9 feet from the ground. Using the same table to calculate the time and frame count during the fall, we could once again find out how long a realistic would take. The fall from the height that Haruko was at would take approximately ¾ of a second, or 18 frames of animation to fall. She spends 8 seconds alone in the air, swinging her guitar.

As with the snowman above, this period of levitation is used to add visual interest to the story. It was used to show that even though Haruko had a strategic advantage over the creature by having a higher position, her opponent was an unstoppable force. All of the time spent in the air, swinging at the creature, had little to no effect on it. Naota himself also experiences an exaggerated fall time.

Naota, who is right in the middle of the battle, is knocked out and is thrown from the roof of the building where the fight is occurring. Below, at ground level, awaits Canti, who is anticipating joining with Naota. Naota is shown to be at the apex of the fall. While at the apex, however, he is shown to be spinning and not falling. Again, this was used to add spice to the storytelling.

Anticipation is an extremely important part of visual storytelling. It lets the audience see what the character is going to do next. In the case of Naota’s hovering, the creators wanted to show how important the joining of Canti and Naota is. So, instead of letting him fall at a normal speed, we see an exaggerated slow fall speed that makes us anticipate the union of the two characters. Naota needs Canti to defeat the monster. Canti is a powerful character, as can be demonstrated by his speed.

Canti’s moves and falls are all extremely fast. Whether he is slapped away or sticks-and-moves, his actions are lightning-quick. When he is knocked off a building by the creature, he hits the ground at a faster than normal speed. Some could say that this was used to show weight, but it was used to effectively show that he is a powerful force who moves quick and decisively. Even when he falls, he moves in a speedy fashion. Conversely, when another effect is desired, the rule can be bent back the other way. As shown above, when a more whimsical effect is desired, the fall time can be, of course, exaggerated.

Oktapodi, by Gobelins, tells the story of a love struck octopus that goes through great lengths to rescue his love from the clutches of a seafood restaurant. In one scene, the octopuses are seen bouncing off a beach ball and attaining altitude. While in midair, they notice that the film’s villain is awaiting them on the ground. They desperately flap their tentacles. Although it’s very subtle, they seem to hover for a slight amount of time. Again, this is used to let the audience have a small amount of “breathing room” to visually decipher what is occurring, and what will occur next.

Anticipation is merely one of the reasons that visual artists bend and break the physics of falling. Even when broken, there is a sense of believability when executed correctly. The exaggeration is necessary in visual arts, where subtly is either mistaken for a mistake, or won’t be noticed at all. If the audience doesn’t notice certain events, then they definitely can’t “suspend their disbelief”, and lose themselves in the movie.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

I. Introduction - Laws of physics are constantly broken or bent to achieve a more entertaining effect in visual media. The principal of falling, among other rules, is one of the most commonly broken principles. In particular, the length of time in the fall is either exaggerated or abbreviated.

• Knick Knack-The snowman and his snowglobe fall for an extraordinary amount of time.
• FLCL-Characters either hover or fall faster than what is believable
• Oktapodi-For storytelling purposes, the octopus characters hover.

II. Knick Knack, the Pixar short film, utilizes exaggerated fall times to aid in the story

• The snowman spends an extraordinary amount of time falling
• As long as the snowman takes, the snowglobe, which began its fall simultaneously, takes almost twice as long

III. The anime, FLCL uses both exaggerated and abbreviated fall times. They are utilized mostly in fight scenes

• Takkun, the central character, experiences a comical "corkscrew" fall that is extremely slow in descent.
• Transversely, Canti, the "sidekick", commonly has extremely fast fall times. This is used to show speed.

IV. In the film Oktapodi, by students at Gobelins, the characters hover. Again, this is for the sake of storytelling

• During the "2-D" animated sequence, the octopus hovers.
• During the chase scene, both of the characters have slightly exaggerated hang times. They successfully prolong their time in the air by flapping their tentacles.

V. Conclusion.

• Although the laws of physics are broken, when done correctly, there is still a sense of believability.
• Sometimes, it is necessary to aid in storytelling.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

I originally set out to animate a "Space Opera" with this character, but he was stubborn. Basically, all he wanted to do was lay there. As Professor Garcia has said before, you win some, you lose some. He kept crumbling and falling apart, so I had to quickly devise an alternate plan.

For this animation, I made graduated notches on the "ground" paper. Those notches followed a line that was parallel to the horizon. This combination of line an notches created a path that the objects were going to follow. The rocket in the back had notches that were closer together, whereas the object in front has wider spacing. This difference in spacing gives the appearance of depth, since objects in the foreground seem to move faster than those in the background. The character was supported with a dowel, which was covered by the tail of his rocket. There are 48 individual frames.