Extra Credit

here is the reciept for going to the San Jose Museum Calder exhibit

Lighting a Scene in Maya

One Point Lighting

Two Point Lighting

Three Point Lighting

Building a Scene in Maya

For some reason those dots kept appearing when I rendered but I was able to get most of them to go away.

Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? in "Serenity"

The movie “Serenity” is in itself classified as a piece of science fiction. Much of its plot and premise revolves around defying the laws of physics. However, usually what is considered science fiction consists of following the new rules of physics that the world of the movie dictates. For example in the movie it is a common fact that people can travel far distances through space in a matter of minutes or that hover crafts are an accepted way to travel. However, there are also scenes in the movie “Serenity” that breaks the movie’s own accepted laws of physics for the sake of dramatic effect. In the first chase scene of the movie the protagonists are being chased by Reavers (unexplained mad cannibals) across the desert. The main characters are in a small hover craft that they themselves claim to be bearing too much weight while the Reavers chase them in a space ship flying close to the ground. In the process of being chased and escaping the Reavers the scene defies three laws of physics that the movie did not previously set parameters for. In fact there are hints that the world of “Serenity” usually follows these laws. First the Law of Acceleration is unrealistic between the hover craft and the Reaver ship, next the Law of Inertia is inaccurate when the hover crafts spins around, and finally the action reaction principle is not represented correctly in the ship’s hanger.

The scene begins with the main characters racing away into the desert while the Reavers massacre a town. The scene implies that main characters have a few minutes head start before there is suddenly a Reaver ship racing toward them from town. One of the first obvious problems with the scene is that the two crafts move at the same speed but one appears to be capable of moving faster than the other. The Reaver ship demonstrates that it is faster than the hover craft by catching up fairly quickly. However, once the Reaver ship is only a few yards away from the hover craft, the ship doesn’t seem to be able to go any faster. The Law of Acceleration states that the greater the net force on an object, the greater the acceleration of that object. The Reaver ship openly shows two large engines capable of flying through space while the hover craft seems to be only capable of flying a few feet off the ground. The Reaver ship therefore shows that it has a greater net force than that of the hover craft. Additionally, one of the main characters is harpooned by the Reaver ship and then he is dragged behind the hover craft. The other occupants of the hover craft try to pull him back into the car while the Reaver ship tries to pull him back. The law of Acceleration also says that the greater the mass of an object, the less it accelerates when acted on by a force. By harpooning and dragging down one of the characters the hover craft has mass added to it and should therefore slow down. One of the characters even kills a man before the chase because his weight would have slowed them down, therefore verifying that the technology of the hover craft is susceptible to the law of Acceleration. However, somehow the Reavers are still unable to slow the hover craft down with their ship’s mass and the net force of their engines.

After the harpooned character gets cut loose from the Reaver ship the hover craft makes an attempt to get some distance so that it can meet with the main ship Serenity. The hover craft suddenly stops and spins around sharply while the Reaver ship keeps moving forward temporarily unaware of the directional change. After a few seconds the Reaver ship also makes the same sharp turn. The Reaver ship seems to temporarily lose control of itself, adding to the previous theory that this ship has a stronger force acting on it and therefore its speed on a turn would be more unbalanced. The Law of Inertia states that An object moves with constant, uniform motion until acted on by an unbalanced force. The protagonists’ hover craft spins out in a 360 degree turn but the passengers hardly move in their seats. Their lack of movement is suppose to be due to how hard everyone holds on to the edge of their seats. In normal circumstances the extremely sharp spin should have created a strong centrifugal force where the people in the craft keep moving forward in a straight line before catching up to the change in the force of the craft. The way the Reaver ship spins out of control confirms that centrifugal force and therefore the law of Inertia is a part of the movie’s universal laws even with hovering ships. Additionally, the people in the hover craft were not wearing seat belts when they experienced the unbalanced force. With these factors in mind the Law of Inertia should have caused them to be practically thrown from their seats.

Finally at the end of the scene the ship Serenity arrives just in time to save the hover craft that is once again in danger of being overtaken by the Reaver ship. The ship Serenity slowly comes towards the racing hover craft with its hanger open. The hover craft heads into the ship’s hanger at full speed with only a few yards to slow down. The hover craft does not crash significantly in comparison to its speed and the forward motion of the ship Serenity. Additionally, after the hover craft’s gentle crash, none of the passengers are thrown forward by the impact. Even more remarkable, some of the passengers have enough time to get out of the car before the second ship goes into the hanger, even though the second ship was only a few feet behind them. The loose explanation for the long pause between crashes is that the Reaver ship got cut in half by the Serenity’s hanger door. Thus a force slowed down its velocity. There are multiple laws violated in this last part of the scene. Most prominently is Newton’s third law of motion the Action reaction principle. The principle states that For every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction. When the hover craft zoomed toward the ship and the ship Serenity headed toward the hover craft there should have been a crash due to both enacting a force towards each other. Due to the hover craft’s smaller mass it should have experienced the greater change in velocity when it collided with the ship’s hanger. The scene even shows this to be a rule in the movie by how a piece of the Reaver ship, which is about the same size as the hover craft, crashes into the same wall where the hover craft landed. However, whereas the hovercraft landed gently, the large piece of metal races in at a higher acceleration and collides with larger damage. The law of Inertia should have also been seen in the passengers of the hover craft when it crashed. At stopping they should have continued in a forward motion matching the direction of the velocity at which the hover craft was going. However, the people seemed to move only to the slight motion of someone parking a car. The last inconsistency with the crash seems to be more of a dramatic pause for the scene. Once the characters seem to get their bearings, only then does the half piece of Reaver ship that was going at the same velocity if not faster come zipping in to menace the characters one more time. In the real world the law of Acceleration should have allowed the Reaver ship to come flying in seconds after the hover craft even if it was cut in half. The velocity at which it hit the wall shows that getting cut in half by the door didn’t have too much effect on its velocity.

Due to being the beginning of the movie the characters needed to temporarily remain intact. To do so the protagonists had many “lucky” breaks in evading and eventually getting away from the Reavers. Ironically, by giving the characters a lot of lucky breaks the movie better highlighted the broken laws of physics. Things such as the hover craft not experiencing a strong centrifugal force could have been written off by the audience as being a result of the technology. However, the need for the Reaver ship to be thrown of the chase revealed that their technology should have been susceptible to at least some of the same laws of physics. The Law of Acceleration was broken because without question the plot needed the main characters to never get caught by the Reavers, second, the Law of Inertia was broken to give the audience hope and shake off the doubt that the Reaver ship could stay behind for so long without catching up. Finally the action reaction principle is overlooked for the sake of the chase’s climax and idealizing the driver of the hover craft and the Serenity as being master pilots.

Outline of the Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? in "Serenity"

I. Introduction – The First Chase Scene
• a. Law of Acceleration unrealistic between the two hover crafts
• b. Law of Inertia inaccurate when the hover craft spins around
• c. Action reaction principle is not represented correctly in the ship’s hanger
• d. Thesis statement

II. Law of Acceleration unrealistic between the two hover crafts

• a. The two crafts move at the same speed but one appears to be capable of moving faster than the other
• b. The Reaver ship is more powerful and advance but it can’t catch up to the hover craft
• i. The Reaver ship catches up to them at a superior speed initially but can’t seem to go any faster once their near the hover craft
• ii. One of the main characters is harpooned by the Reaver ship but they are unable to slow the hover craft down with their mass

III. Law of Inertia inaccurate when the hover crafts spins around

• a. The hover craft spins out but the passengers hardly move in their seats.
• i. Law of Inertia should have caused them to be practically thrown from their seats without seat belts

IV. Action reaction principle is not represented correctly in the ship’s hanger

• a. The hover craft heads into the ship hanger at full speed while the ship slows in toward the hover craft
• i. The hover craft does not crash significantly in comparison to its speed and the motion of the ship.
• b. The passengers are not thrown forward by the impact
• i. Some of the passengers have enough time to get out of the car before the second ship goes into the hanger even though the second ship was only a few feet behind them

V. Conclusion

• a. Summary
• b. Restate thesis

Stop Motion Animation

"Mid-semester Survey."

"This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."

Analysis of Walking

Clip A

Clip B

Clip C

Clip D

Clip E

"The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UbDSlwAME



Physics in Terry Pratchett’s "Hogfather"

The movie “Hogfather” was originally a TV movie based on the book by the same title. The movie is not well known so here is a short description of the plot. The movie is about beings know as the Auditors whose job it is to count everything in the universe and make sure “gravity is working correctly.” They hire the assassin Mr. Teatime and ask him to assassinate the Hogfather (a type of Santa Claus), because he is an unknown variable in the universe. He goes into the Tooth Fairy’s dimension and collects all the children’s teeth he can find. He then has a wizard cast a spell so that all children stop believing in the Hogfather. The legend of the Hogfather is that the Sun will not rise if the he ever dies. Wanting to stop him is Death and his half-human granddaughter Susan. The book itself is part of a series that all revolves around a strange land mass known as the Discworld. The movie opens with the Discworld, a flat land mass, on top of the backs of four gigantic elephants. These elephants in turn stand on a large sea turtle (Atuin) that is swimming through space. As a land of fantastical magic there are various events in the movie that break with common physics because of its world. However the Discworld is not the only aspect that breaks with the rules of gravity. The Tooth fairy’s dimension, another place in the movie, has extra attributes than that of the Disc because it is a place created by children. Lastly the supernatural beings themselves each carry abilities that compromise the Laws of Physics around them.

The author, who also takes part in the movie, has said on several occasions that because the Discworld is a place that has a 1 in a billion chance of existing in the universe everything that happens on it has the same odds. The most obvious physics defying CG of the whole movie is the sea turtle known as Atuin. The turtle and the elephants are roughly the size of planets. Of course there are dozens of questions about how they survive in space with no air. Another question that arises is how the turtle propels its way forward. In the first scene he doesn’t appear to be just floating in space but “swimming” forward. There is no force acting on the turtle. At least there appears to be no evidence of any type of gas or air pushing the turtle forward. Additionally, a sun and moon can be seen orbiting the flat land mass. The sun and moon rise just like earth even though they have no reasonable orbit. Normally, for example, the earth’s moon is on an orbit around the earth due to the earth’s gravity. Yet, the elephant’s legs should disrupt the unconventional orbit, but instead both sun and moon seem to snake around their legs. However, for most of the “normal” people living on the Discworld gravity and physics seems to be working just the same as Earth’s. For example in the bar scene the people fighting in the Mended Drum seem to fall and get hit at a normal rate and when Banjo gets hit in the face he falls straight to the floor unlike some of the more supernatural creatures. In contrary when one of the wizards is making a potion and it explodes everyone around him gets blown back by the blast but he remains in front of the potion. Overall the viewer is assured that despite appearances the Disc is most normal just like our Earth.

The Tooth fairy’s dimension is a more fantastical world than that of the Discworld. In the movie Mr. Teatime, the assassin, describes the place as a world that resides in the mind of every child. Therefore the rules of gravity are as children understand it. The greatest example is when Mr. Teatime first enters the dimension and kills the guards. Instead of falling to the floor the guards disappear in mid fall (people do not die in a child’s world). They are shown to reappear in the “real” world about one story above the roofs of homes. Some of the dead guards land on the roofs with a loud crash that would seem too much impact for the few feet that they fell. Other dead guards are thrown from at least 20 stories in the Tooth Fairy’s dimension only to land lightly on the snow of the “real” world. This detail is most evident when Mr. Teatime himself falls about 50 stories in the Tooth Fairy’s dimension only to land lightly on a table in the real world still alive. The fall itself appeared to take only 3 seconds when he should have taken 5-6 seconds to fall from that height. From the film it appears that this was a budget decision because the actor seems to be on a green screen and added into the shot instead of having a stunt man do the fall.

Finally the most notable CG in the movie revolves around how the Laws of Physics are usually always compromised by the supernatural beings. Of course the main characters seem to show the most supernatural powers, that being Susan and her grandfather Death. The viewer first becomes aware that Susan is extraordinary when everyone thinks she is “pretending” to scare away a boogeyman in the basement. She comes back out of the basement with an iron rod dented into a large semicircle. A little later, after she discovers that her grandfather is pretending to be the Hogfather she suddenly stops time. She walks outside where snow flakes remain suspended in air. To emphasize her extraordinary power, as Susan walks towards the snow flakes they drift away from her while remaining in suspension. Another example of her powers is when she is at the Wizard’s University and she is talking to the god of hangovers, Baleous. As she speaks she suddenly walks through a wall while Baleous comically slams his head into the wall, apparently unable to do the same.

However, Susan only has a fraction of her grandfather’s powers. In his first scene Death is walking in a hall filled with hourglasses. He picks up a few that are clearly running out of sand. He stares at them for a few seconds and when the camera goes back to the hourglass it seems that the sand has lasted longer than it should for dramatic pause rather than for a supernatural reason. In a more magical scene he rides his horse across the sky. The horse still jostles up and down as if he is absorbing the impact of hitting hard ground. The Hogfather (Santa Claus) seems to exhibit the same type of CG when he flies his boars across the sky. His sled seems jerky as if the boars are dragging him across hard rocky ground.

The wizards of the movie are supposed to be the gap between “normal” people and the supernatural. They seem to always be the most confused about supernatural events but at the same time enjoy pushing the rules of physics. In the first scene with the wizards they are working on a new invention they call a “particle accelerator” made from a steam engine and magic. The head wizard of the project asks another wizard for money to buy radiation suits because their machine has already exploded once. The other wizard suddenly panics at the word radiation. The movie is supposed to not only be supernatural but also comic. As the shot pans away the viewer sees a part of the wizard building suddenly explode. For the sake of the supernatural aspect of the movie it is assumed that the wizards can some how buffer a nuclear explosion to just a room and that they can mostly survive the explosion.

The most vexing character to really understand is Mr. Teatime. He is not technically magical but his assassin skills seem supernatural for dramatic and comical effect. In his first scene he appears to the head of the Assassins' Guild in the far end of the room, by the fire place. Dr. Downy looks down at a paper and when he looks back up Teatime has moved across the room and is sitting across from him. All this happens in 2 seconds. Later on in the movie Mr. Teatime repeats this action when he threatens a man with a knife. The man runs a few steps in the opposite direction and suddenly Mr. Teatime appears in front of him and stabs him in the stomach. Additionally, he is very difficult to kill. As mentioned earlier in this paper he survives a 50 story fall. After landing on a wizard’s dinner table he sits up, grabs a sword, and walks out the door. Although he is one of the few “normal” characters in the movie, as the villain Mr. Teatime is given villain abilities. These abilities all defy physics for the sake of giving him a sinister element.

The purpose of the movie “Hogfather” is to parody our world with the use of magic. Despite the strange shape of the Discworld, for normal people living on the Disc the laws of physics are that same as Earth’s. In this way the story is not completely alien to the viewers. The plot implies that the supernatural occurrences are happening without the general public’s knowledge, behind closed doors. Only when people were in another dimension, such as the Tooth Fairy’s world, or were supernatural beings themselves, did the laws of physics change to accommodate the magical intent of the characters.

Outline for First Term Paper

Physics in Terry Pratchett’s "Hogfather"

I. Introduction – The Universe of the Discworld

a. Laws of Physics in on our world vs. the Discworld
b. The Tooth fairy’s dimension
c. The Laws of Physics are usually always compromised by the supernatural beings
d. Thesis statement

II. Laws of Physics on our world vs. the Discworld

a. The world is a flat land mass on top of four elephants on top of a sea turtle floating through space
b. The water that falls off the rim of the disc doesn’t seem to go any where
i. The sun and moon rise just like earth even though they have no reasonable orbit
c. Gravity is the same as Earth’s for normal people
i. Banjo getting hit in the face
ii. Baleous hits the wall that Susan walks through

III. The Tooth fairy’s dimension

a. People that die in the Tooth fairy’s world fall out of the sky into the “real” world
b. Teeth fall in slow motion for dramatic effect
c. Shadow of scissors following wizard looked as though they were faraway and at a different angle than when they appear and start attacking the wizard
Mr. Teatime falls about 50 stories faster than gravity should allow and lands “lightly” on a table

IV. The Laws of Physics are usually always compromised by the supernatural beings

a. Susan and Death
i. walk through walls
ii. Stop time
iii. Sand in hourglasses seems to last longer than it should for dramatic pause
iv. Rides horse in the sky
v. Superhuman strength
vi. Death cast a pack of wolves over a cliff with a flick of his wrist
b. Hogfather
i. Flies boars across the sky
c. Wizards
i. Build and run a particle accelerator on a steam engine and magic
ii. Wizard reappears next to an object seconds after being blasted away by an explosion
d. Mr. Teatime- He is not technically magical but his assassin skills seem supernatural
i. moves from place to place in the blink of an eye
ii. Survives a 50 story fall

V. Conclusion

a. Summary
b. Restate thesis

Video Clips

Video analysis of path of action

Tracker video analysis of falling

Video Reference

30 fps Water bottle

This was one of the projects I did for Maya class. I didn't really know much about animation or Maya back then but it was fun to try :)

My Mini-Portfolio

Here's some of the work I've done over the years