Character Animation

Here's a little story of a man on the edge.

I created this short piece using simple figurines that I purchased from Target. The camera is a point and shoot digital camera. So I posed the characters (holding them in place with tape and a Lego ground piece) and set up the camera in various angles, using a tripod when necessary. I'd move the characters and just press the shutter button on the camera, being extra careful not to accidentally change the position or bump the tripod too much. Once I took all my stills, I doubled them (to mimic shooting on 2's) and opened and compiled the sequences using Quicktime pro. I'm not sure how to add sound so I used title cards for the scripted lines. It's a random animation but fun to create none the less!

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

Here are my four reverse video reference walks. This was a fun assignment to complete and more challenging than it looks. I may be hobbling a little extra because I'm walking on a leg/joint injury so even my current 'regular' walk is a character walk.

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D.

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

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            Animation of today has advanced far beyond the scope of 2-dimensional drawings on a page. With the invention and implementation of 3-D animation and effects we are able to create entire worlds, with seemingly living and breathing characters, on a movie screen. Now that these worlds exist in three-dimensions, they take on similar properties and laws of physics that mirror our own. In the 3-D animated film, Despicable Me, the laws of physics are bent and re-imagined for a more exaggerated and humorous effect. The gravity has different effects on different characters and objects; there are exaggerated reactions to actions and the matter in the film is modifiable. All these bends in the rules lead to a more entertaining and comedic film.

            The gravity in the film acts much the same as ours here on earth. However, it seems to be a little pick-and-choosey as to what it affects. In one scene, the protagonist, Gru, is able to jump ten feet in the air to dodge a barrage of missiles targeting him. In other parts of the film, the gravity seems to be closer to the real world; otherwise the characters would be bouncing and floating around rather than comfortably walking or running. Ignoring the fact that he’s able to actually jump through a barrage of missiles, Gru wouldn’t be able to jump that high using our existing gravity. He could have super human strength and an overflow of adrenaline to give him the extra boost, but that would still leave him short of the realm of possibility for this maneuver. However, this shot is interesting and only works because the gravity rule is flexible and allows Gru to gracefully glide through the missile attack. They even play out the action in slow motion so we can really absorb the skillful dodging and observe the different gestures.

In another scene, the nemesis, Vector, is electrocuted and stays suspended midair (a la Wile E. Coyote) for a good five seconds before falling from the side of Gru’s ship. This is obviously to exaggerate the gag of the electrocution and give time for the audience to laugh at his various poses. If this were real-life, the character would get shocked and then fly up and backward in an arc with a single apex. He would only be at the apex for a short amount of time, or maybe just a single frame of film, and then he’d begin to descend. Because he’s kept suspended, we see that gravity again can be forgiving to the characters and let them to pause and rotate around a consistent center of gravity in midair before rapidly falling to the ground.

 A more extreme example of flexible gravity laws is when a minion of Gru’s chugs down a potion causing him to experience no gravity at all and forcing him to float upward toward the sky. In this scene, the effect of the potion causes gravity to be essentially “shut-off” for any character that consumes it. Unfortunately for the minions, the potion seems to never wear off leaving them floating around forever. Of course in real-life there is no such thing as “anti-gravity” potions, not even in Willy Wonka’s factory. On Earth, gravity holds us down so that we don’t fly off into space while the ground acts as an equal opposing force to keep us from falling down to the center of the planet (Force2=-Force1). Without the force of gravity, one of the minions suffers the unfortunate fate of flying off into space.

            A second change to real-world physics is the idea of Newton’s third law; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this film, the reactions are disproportionate to add a more amusing and interesting effect. In one scene, Gru is attempting to break into Vector’s fortress. After he climbs up onto the wall, he is punched by a series of boxing glove traps set by Vector. Gru is hit twice and on the third uppercut, he flies up and back about 20 feet into the air. His reaction to punch is over the top but it really sells the shot. Of course this is only possible in this film’s rules. The boxing glove seems to be standard size and weight. Even if we assume the pneumatic arm applies a high amount of force to the punch, Gru wouldn’t be knocked back quite that high or far. A higher knockback may occur if Gru were to weigh less than he does (less mass) and the glove had a higher mass. The action of the high mass glove would cause the lower mass Gru to react to the momentum of the punch and possible send him “flying”, like we see when a bowling ball knocks a tennis ball. By playing up the reaction, the animators have more options and moments for humorous antics.

            A more extreme example of unbalanced forces is at the beginning of the film, when a chubby tourist child runs loose and begins climbing up a ramp leading towards the ancient Egyptian pyramids. He eventually falls from the ramp onto the pyramids that turn out to be inflatable balloon stand-ins. The kid falls onto the balloon and is, in turn, launched back up into the air. This is where the exaggeration comes into play because the kid is sent 200 or more feet soaring into the air.  Maybe the film’s gravity also decided to be kinder to the chubby child and allowed him to fly further. Of course this is the opening scene and by stretching the reaction, the animators set-up the film’s “rules” of physics for the audience and give them a taste of the hilarious antics to come.

            A different take on the unbalanced reactions to forces is when Vector is being crushed and tossed around by the moon as it grows back to size. Earlier in the film, Gru had shrunk the moon but he didn’t realize that the effect didn’t last very long, so the moon would soon grow to original size. Vector is unaware of this and ends up stuck in his ship with the expanding moon. The unbalanced reaction is apparent when the multi-ton moon rolls over Vector and pins him against the wall. In our world, the weight of the “ball” or moon would smash our bones to smithereens. Vector would not survive the impact. So instead of exaggerating the reaction, the animators underplay the effect that the moon would have on our frail bodies. This understatement of the reaction saves the scene from becoming too gruesome and pushes it into the more humorous side, allowing the villain Vector to be smashed and rolled over multiple times.

            The third re-imagination to real-world physics is the modifiable matter. Modifiable in the sense that objects, both organic and inorganic, can be shrunk by a “shrink-ray”. The first example of the shrink-ray in action is when Vector uses it on his bathroom objects. He shrinks both his porcelain sink and toilet. Using some magic movie lasers, the ray surrounds the target and shrinks it down to about 10% of its original size. Now of course this isn’t possible in real-world physics because the matter that makes up the object can’t be magically shrunk, only displaced. So you’d either have to remove some of the matter or condense it to an extreme degree. 

            In another scene, the Chinese army is uses the ray on an elephant and shrinks it down to the size of a mouse. This proves that in the film’s rules, the shrink-ray works on living organisms as well. Physically shrinking a living creature in our world might have adverse effects on the animal, possibly leading to the death of the poor elephant. If we wanted to shrink the animal down, we’d have to remove some atoms that make the creature. But, we’d have to remove the same percent of matter equally from all the parts so we’re not left with an elephant with shrunken skin but larger internal organs. This would be a difficult task to accomplish and challenging for our current technology. Luckily, in animated films anything is possible and we can easily believe the abilities of shrink-rays and anything else imaginable by animators and storywriters.

            The ray gun also has enormous power in the film. Towards the end of the film, we see Gru use the gun on the moon itself. The shrink-ray has the power to reduce the size of the moon to less than 1% of its actual size. This demonstrates the immense power of the gun and its ability to shrink even the largest of objects. However since the gun is so powerful, it should have the capabilities to shrink anything that is unfortunate enough to be caught in its way. This isn’t always the case in the film. An example arises in one scene, when Vector blasts Gru’s ship with the ray-gun, shrinking it down to the size of a remote controlled plane, but leaving Gru and his minions normal size and unaffected. We already saw earlier that the gun is capable of shrinking living organisms and enough strength to shrink the moon so in theory it should have also affected Gru and his minions. But of course this is animation, and the following shot shows the gag of Gru flying on a tiny little ship, creating a laughable moment for the audience.

Though the film bends some physical laws, it also seems to stay true to others. For instance, we see that gravity has true to life accelerations and decelerations. As stated earlier, gravity affects objects differently, however nothing seems to fall any faster or slower than it normally would. Two examples of this are when Vector falls from the sky (after being electrocuted) as well as Gru’s ship falling and landing in the streets of the city. Vector seems to fall and reach a terminal velocity with little to no exaggeration in his fall speed. When Gru’s ship crashes to the ground and must slow down, we see that his deceleration is realistic and he doesn’t seem to stop too abruptly or cartoony. When gravity is in effect for the characters, the filmmakers kept the fall speeds realistic and more true to our existing rules.

            Animated films of today use modified and exaggerated laws of physics to create more interesting actions and humorous antics. Completely 3-D animated films like, Despicable Me, use our world physics to a certain degree and push the limits of others. By re-imagining things such as the way gravity works, overstating reactions or doing the near impossible and instantly shrinking down matter, animated films are able to tell more dynamic and entertaining stories. Since the filmmakers are creating the world, they are also able to create and then bend the rules. Of course with this power comes responsibility; they can’t go too overboard with antics such that the film becomes too zany and improbable. Good animated films will find the right balance of wacky and realistic to tell their amazing, believable and captivating stories. As technology continues to advance, different programs and techniques will be developed that can change the way we view and create animation in the future. However the principles of animation will remain the same, no matter what medium is used. Even though animation can bend and manipulate the laws of physics, it can never deviate from it’s own principles.

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Outline of First Term Paper

I. Intro

            1. Introduction of movie, Despicable Me and brief synopsis of story.

            2. The film is set in world with similar physics to ours but re-imagined with exaggerated                         effects and animation.

            3. Intro of hypotheses and main points.

II. Gravity has a different effect on different objects.

            1. Gru (main character) jumps 20 feet in the air when first attempting to break                                                 into Vector's fortress.

            2. Vector is electrocuted and stays suspended airborne for 5 seconds.

            3. Minions defy gravity entirely due to a potion.

III. Exaggerated reactions to different forces.

            1. Chubby kid in the beginning of the film launches 200 plus feet in the air from falling on an                         inflatable pyramid.

            2. Gru is thrown and punched backward when breaking into the fortress.

            3. Vector isn't completely crushed and killed by the weight of the growing moon.

IV. Modifiable Matter

            1. Vector shrinks in-organic objects, toilet and sink.

            2. Asian army shrinks organic mammal, the elephant. Proving the gun works on living things.

            3. Gru is able to actually shrink the entire moon. Proving the power of the gun.

V. Counter Points

            1. The gun shrinks the ship and has power to shrink moon but doesn't shrink Gru or minions                         when they were hit.

VI. Competing Hypothesis: Though it has special gravity, nothing seems to fall faster or slower than                         normal gravity.

            1. Vector falls at what we can assume terminal speed without accelerating.

            2. Gru's ship falls to the ground and decelerates realistically.

VII. Conclusion

             Animated films use modified versions of real-world physics for more interesting actions and                         humorous antics.