Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya

Building a Scene in Maya

Stop Motion Character Animation

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I realized as I was setting up my scene that the character's feet were extremely unstable, so I resolved to not animate the character shifting weight or stepping. I didn't want to experience the headache of the character constantly falling over and ruining the shot. To make sure it didn't fall over while I articulated the arms, I used kneadable eraser to adhere the feet to my desk. This brand of figurine is very posable, but not variably flexible. The joints lock into different positions instead of smoothly transitioning between its minimum and maximum ranges of motion. That makes it a relief to photograph because I know the figure won't move, but it minimized the amount of overlap and range of motion I could play with.

The Films that Gravity Forgot

Fictional films always find ways to defy all logic and belief. Pilots dogfight through space in wonderfully designed fighter ships. Skilled gunmen dodge bullets with high speed grace. Superheroes leap tall buildings in a single bound like they are taking a small step. One of many constants found in films is the force exerted on people and things due to gravity. On Earth, it is pulling people, animals, and objects down at the constant acceleration 9.8 meters per square second. Despite this, filmmakers find ways to make their character defy gravity in creative ways. Dreamworks’s Shrek from 2001, Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle from 2004, and Warner Bros. Animation’s Justice League: War from 2014 all have scenes where characters ignore gravity’s pull. By defying gravity, characters from these films feel more impressive, fantastical, and godlike.

Shrek follows the misadventures of the titular character in his journey to rescue a princess and reclaim ownership of his humble swamp property. The scene in question happens after the princess is rescued from her tower that was guarded by a fire breathing dragon. The princess, Fiona, fends off a gang of bandits with high-speed kung fu combat a la The Matrix. During the fight, she jumps into the air to kick two bandits on opposing sides of her with a split kick. All time stops for the camera to circle Fiona and stops in front of her, while she is still frozen in mid-air, then time commences so she can flip her hair still frozen in mid air. I can forgive a camera move that occurs when time comes to a standstill, but Fiona’s defiance of gravity is obvious. If Fiona wanted to keep her hair in proper order, perhaps she should have put it up in a tight bun. I believe that Fiona is able to defy gravity by way of magic. Shrek takes place in a world where fairy tales live in a massive melting pot. In the end of the film, magic is the ultimate deciding factor because Fiona is cursed. Fiona may have been able to harness the capabilities that the curse bestowed upon her and, one, learned kung fu and, two, learned how to manipulate time and space, thus indirectly controlling gravity. Even with all that our physical world has to offer, her feat of impossible physics is, for lack of a better word, impossible to achieve. In the same kung fu-vein as Shrek, Stephen Chow’s character, Sing, finds a way to use gravity to his advantage in combat.

Kung Fu Hustle is a kung fu satire that pokes fun at the tropes of the film genre. The story follows Sing in his internal battle with his conscience. At the climax of the film, Sing has awoken his hidden kung fu talent to face the villain in one last fight. Throughout the fight with the villain and his henchmen, Sing makes big leaps to throw flurries of punches and kicks that move so fast they leave after images. In those big leaps, Sing doesn’t take a huge wind up to push off of the ground nor accelerate back down to the ground. He floats about as if he were on the moon while his opposition does not float. Sing’s newfound mastery of kung fu would presumably give him improved reflexes and knowledge, but not the ability to object to gravity’s will. To finish off the villain, Sing jumps so high he reaches his apex above the clouds, makes eye contact with a bird, and makes his descent to connect a gigantic Buddhist Palm strike. Sing moves so fast that his shirt, and only his shirt, burns up in flames. Both of these examples make it seem as though Sing has control over gravity itself. He manipulates it to cushion and amplify the speed of his many descents. What is more impressive, is that Sing didn’t learn kung fu through time, hard work, and instruction; Sing was mutilated to the point that he underwent enough stress to became a kung fu master. He healed his wounds, gained incredible skills, and also learned how to take advantage of gravity itself. Another character comes to mind that also has similar capabilities. One could say that he is “Super.”

Justice League: War is an animated film adaptation of the formation of the Justice League in DC Comic’s “New 52” universe. Batman, Green Lantern, Shazam, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Superman join together to bring down the supervillain, Darksied, and his army of aliens. The ensemble learn how to fight as a team throughout the film and eventually force Darksied into a Boom Tube portal and back to his planet Apocalypse. Shortly after his arrival, Darksied fires his homing eye lasers, yes homing, at the Flash and Superman. Both attempt to outrun the lasers with their respective powers; the Flash literally outruns the laser and Superman flies and ultimate gets struck. Superman has incredible agility in flight as shown in this scene. He is able to make sharp 90 degree turns, leave a motion blur in his path, break windows that he flies close to, and moves as fast as the Flash runs. The reason he gets struck is because the Flash outsmarts the laser while Superman simply tries to get away from it. His futile attempt still impressive. Before Darksied, fires his eye lasers, Superman is standing on the ground. To take flight, Superman simply leans in the direction he wants to go and he is instantly in flight. He doesn’t get a running start, jump in the air, nor wind up in place. Superman simply “goes.” Unlike my other two examples, I was able to find out why Superman can fly. It was revealed that his body was built to withstand the higher gravity of his home planet of Krypton and he can create a monodirectional gravitational field that pulls, or pushes depending on how one looks at it. So with little effort on Earth, Superman is meant to bend gravity to his own will.

All of the characters I have noted violate the laws of gravity to gain a strategic advantage in combat. These three, specifically, are grandiose as opposed to being subtle. Something can be said about filmmakers bending the laws of physics in their films. If a character unintentionally does not follow the laws and principles of physics, that film loses breaks its immersion leaving audiences asking questions instead of yearning to see what happens next. So, if a law or principle, like gravity, is ignored, then a large and intentional feat can be made by a character. In doing so, audiences will be left in awe.

Movies that Gravity Forgot

Introduction

Movies: Shrek (2001), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Justice League: War (2014)

With respect to chronological release, Shrek’s Fiona, Kung Fu Hustle’s Sing, and Justice League: War’s Superman all defy gravity to varying degrees.

Shrek

When Fiona is fighting several bandits, she jumps into the air to kick two separate people a la Trinity from The Matrix. In this scene, the camera circles Fiona mid-jump. She takes the time to flip her hair frozen in mid air while the rest of the characters are unmoving.

Kung Fu Hustle

Once Sing has unlocked his powers for the final confrontation, he takes massive leaps and seems to float in the air, accelerating and a lower rate than the acceleration due to gravity.

Justice League: War

The classic example: Superman. He flies. There is no real explanation for it. He just takes off. Sometimes he doesn’t even get a running start or jump. He just starts flying. Superman owns gravity.

Conclusion

Whether for cinematic/dramatic effect or to show impressive power, films defy gravity in great quantities and varieties.

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Scott Pilgrim vs. Physics

Toronto, Canada is a mysterious land. It is home of the titular character of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Released in 2010 as a film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series, Edgar Wright brings to life the trials of Scott Pilgrim as he fights (literally) for the affection of the enigmatic Ramona Flowers. In order to succeed, Scott must fight and kill the members of the “League of Evil Exes” which is comprised of seven people from Ramona’s past romantic relationships. The film shares the same uniqueness as the comic; the visual effects in the film mirror that of the comic, the script utilizes the same dialogue, and the cinematography adapts the static, 2-dimensional drawings into a live-action, 3-dimensional world. The overall aesthetic is inspired by 16-bit video games and 80’s popular culture. Wright’s and O’Malley’s vision of an otherworldly Toronto, Canada leans heavily on the 16-bit video game inspirations and logic to form an artistic and narrative foundation for the film.

The inhabitants, especially those who fight, of Toronto, Canada exhibit superhuman capabilities. Most notably, Scott is shown to pull off incredible feats of agility and strength. As an example, at the beginning of his fight with Matthew Patel, Scott leaps up and spends 14 seconds punching Matthew 64 times before he touches back down (31:41). Keep in mind this takes place in a two story concert venue; Scott had no more than 40 feet to carry out this maneuver. A more subtle feat is Ramona’s ability to melt snow by roller skating over it. At the end of a conversation, Ramona skates away from Scott through ankle deep snow. Instead of having to struggle through the frozen water, Ramona simply melts it on contact (25:51). The scene shows her moving with a leisurely pace, but this is enough to generate enough heat to melt the snow. What’s more unusual is how the heat does not radiate out from the entirety from Ramona. Instead it seemingly emanates from her feet only. (Upon this writing, I am willing to accept the idea that the friction from the skates may be the cause of the heat, but not enough to melt snow on contact.) A much more grand example of a superhuman feat is the collective powers of Todd Ingram. By way of being ovo-lacto vegan, Todd is capable of telekinesis and super strength. As backstory during the film, it is explained that to win over Ramona, Todd impressively flew up to the Moon and punched a hole in it (1:06:24). He uses his powers for evil by punching the highlights out of a girl’s hair and levitating to overpower Scott in their duel (“He punched the highlights out of her hair!) (1:04:04). Finally, unbeknownst to the audience, Scott had been accruing points throughout his adventure as a player would in a videogame. He acquires enough points to literally gain an extra life. At the climax of the film, Scott is killed, but is miraculously able to live out the entire climax a second time (1:36:10). Scott was able to cheat death so that he could learn the meaning of self respect at the ripe age of 22.

On a geographical level, the world of Toronto, Canada is made to feel like it was ripped straight from the panels Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel. Toronto, Canada feels very malleable in terms of location and size. Two instances of the the world physically “bending” take place in the home of Stephen Stills, the lead singer of Scott’s band “Sex Bob-Omb.” At the opening of the film, Sex Bob-Omb commences band practice and the length of the living room is stretched out to several times its length. On one end of the room is the band playing and at the other, sitting on the couch, is Scott’s girlfriend, at the time, Knives Chau and Scott’s replacement/roadie, Young Neil (2:55). Scenes later Scott makes his way to the bathroom to relieve himself. He experiences an out of body experience: he left the living room and shut the door only to it open to the hallway of a school (19:47). It is later explained that different places are interconnected via the “Subspace Highway.” Ramona uses it to traverse Toronto, Canada as an Amazon.com delivery girl and to store her worldy (or “subworldly”) belongings. For context, in a fight that Ramona must intervene in, she pulls out a hammer that is bigger than her out of a bag that is the size of her head (1:15:24). On one hand, O’Malley uses this in reference to the video game trope that the player’s avatar has an obscene amount of carrying capacity. In contrast, this plot device helps to maintain the pace of the story.

The last aspect of Toronto, Canada that is purely bombastic is how every villain or henchman that Scott kills explodes into coins. In chronological order, here are the people Scott murders that explode into Canadian change and how it happens. Matthew Patel is punched in the face by Scott and bursts into coins. Lucas Lee is tricked by Scott to grind down a series of icy rails, is unable to stop at the bottom of them, and he crashes in an explosion of coins. Todd Ingram gets headbutted by Scott and blows up with Canadian shrapnel. Roxy Richter dies via orgasm and combusts into coins. The Katayanagi Twins explode by the force of sound and rain down coins upon the concert audience (yay for free concert). The henchmen of Gideon Graves that are slew by Scott all burst into coins by either kicks, punches, or sword slashes. (Oddly enough, Scott fights Lucas Lee’s six stunt doubles but does not kill them.) Finally, Gideon is punted in the chin and coins shower from his explosion for several seconds. Two things of comedic value to note: first, do all of the people who die in the world of Toronto, Canada burst into coins that equate to their net worth, and second, how was Scott able to get away with so much murder?

The world of Toronto is filled with super-capable people that engage in pugilistic fights to resolve their quarrels. Those fights spill into physically impossible feats of strength as the stakes become increasingly dire. For the sake of entertainment, murder is completely condoned, and accepted, in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s and Edgar Wright’s world of Toronto, Canada. If the dead do leave behind money instead of corpses, then that is a world worth living in.