Extra Credit Final

OTTAWA ANIMATION FESTIVAL

DAY OF THE DEVS

CTN EXPO

Extra Credit Hussle: CTN Expo

Despite being given a name tag reminiscent of a cyborg designation number, CTN is always an amazing experience. I'm glad I got to attend again this year.

Extra Credit Hussle: Day of the Devs

Not an officially listed side quest, but I thought it was worth mentioning. It was great seeing so many SHM alum who are now working at Double-Fine.

Extra Credit Hussle: Ottawa Animation Festival

The Ottawa Animation Festival was an absolute Blast.

Building a scene in Maya

Outline for Third Term Paper

Special effects in live action and animation.

Intro: Lasers have long fascinated us. The idea of them is inherently futuristic, but also somehow feels attainable. In addition, the idea of a laser beam is versatile. It can be used as a sensor, a sword, a gun, a shield. Because it is a hard light construct, when it comes to lasers, the use is limited only by the creators imagination.

Movie 1: Star wars

A classic example of the use of lasers in film.
A: Light saber
- Hard construct
-has no physical form, but retains shape
-two light sabers physically repulse each other
B: Laser rifle
-Quick shot
-Does not retain form
-Repulsed by light saber
-disperses against walls

Movie 2: X-men

A: Cyclops
-Laser only projected when eyes are unprotected by special lenses
-Lasers have almost a liquid like quality at times in terms of splatter when met with opposite force
-Laser is pinkish red (infrared?)
-Laser can be reflected by mirror?
-No physically sustained form, closer to pure light energy in terms of output

Conclusion: While these particular instances of lasers are pure fantasy, they still must follow some basic laws of physics to aid with suspension of disbelief. Even as we see them used in unbelievable ways, filmmakers use of lasers are able to fool us into believing they can exist within the film's universe.

Character Animation

I feel this animation went better than the last one. First, I planned out my motion, and made some thumbnails of what possible animations would be possible for me given my experience and time constraints. After deciding on the grape toss, I had to fix up my clay figure to make it a little more flexible, breaking the joints. Because my figure is nailed down to a stand, I wanted to incorporate that into my character, having to exert great force to move over to the grapes. For the actual grape toss itself, I sharpened a chopstick and used that to move the grape, deleting it from the frames I could. Unfortunately, again, due to my inexperience, I made some mistakes, and could not erase every frame Like I would have liked to, as well as some hitches.

Term Paper 2: Science Fact or Science Fiction

Term Paper 2: Science Fact or Science Fiction

            The real world is made up of certain laws. It is because these laws exist, that life as we know it can continue on. They are the laws of physics, and though we may try to fight against them, they preside over all of existence. As animators, or even, as filmmakers, we sometimes bend the laws of physics in an unnatural fashion, to suit our needs to tell a compelling story. In today’s world there is a fascination with super heroics, and how they bend and stretch what the human body should be capable of. This essay in particular will be focusing on the concept of the “punch.” The punch is an excellent exhibitor of physics, because so much goes into throwing a punch, such as anticipation, follow through, and action and reaction, and yet requires action from the entire body, not just the arm.

           One Punch Man is a Japanese animation, and is a parody of the superhero genre. In it, a man named Saitama has trained his body to the point of invincibility. Saitama has become so powerful nothing is able to injure him any longer, and he kills every enemy he encounters with a single punch, hence his title of “One Punch Man.” Aside from the monsters that appear, nearly everyone else in this anime have to follow the basic laws of physics, with some exceptions from particularly powerful antagonists. In one particular scene, Saitama encounters Hammerhead, the leader of a terrorist organization who has stolen an experimental suit which gives super strength. After an altercation, Hammerhead lands an enormous blow on Saitama, strong enough to create an explosion of dust in the area. After the dust clears, it is revealed that Saitama was not effected in the least by the punch, and has, in fact, not moved an inch. Punching is all about a transfer of energy from one person to another. In reality, if such a thing were to occur, Hammerhead would not only have been sent flying back, as Saitama’s boku returns the energy into Hammerheads hand, he would also likely experienced multiple fractures in his arm. It is the same concept that martial artists train with, when learning to break wood planks or bricks bare handed. If they hold nothing back and manage to break the object, the energy flows outwards and is transferred into the now broken object. However, if they are not able to break the object, the energy of the punch is bounced back to the source, and creates a painful recoil.

            Moving from animation to live action comic book heroes, in the movie Hellboy, the title character of the same name punches straight down on a car to protect someone about to be hit. This punch causes the car to go flipping over his head before landing back on the ground, greatly damaged, but passengers largely unscathed. There are many things unrealistic about such a punch, not the least of which being the sheer amount of force needed to crush the front side of a car, built to withstand impacts with other cars. From a standing position, Hellboy’s arm would not have very long at all to build up force from the beginning of the punch, to the point where it makes contact with the car, meaning it would not have nearly enough time to build adequate inertia. Another inaccuracy is the way the car reacted to being punched. Such a car is built with suspensions designed to absorb impact as to avoid flipping out of control. As the front suspension is brought down, the rear suspension would the raise, lessening the impact, and also providing a counter-balance to bring the car back down in place. Even if the back raised a bit, it would not go so far as to do multiple flips over Hellboy’s head. This device was pushing the realities of physics to make Hellboy seem more superhumanly powerful, and more heroic than someone who was bound by the realities of physical limits. This is a distinctly common occurrence in comic book and martial arts movies, as their main objective is entertaining audiences with the supernatural and the superhuman.

         Speaking of supernatural, in 2012 Sony released the animated film Hotel Transylvania with the main characters largely being comprised of mythical and macabre beasts. In Particular, there is Dracula, the wolf man, Frankenstein, and the invisible man. Sony has really come into it’s own, producing films in a cartoony style reminiscent of old school animation. What this means is that the characters all exhibit very “cartoony” styles of movement, with long stills followed by large quick motions, which almost instantly then come to rest with extremely little follow through. At the beginning of the film, as all the guests are arriving, the invisible man comes to greet Dracula, after which, Dracula makes a joke about how good it is to “see” him. The invisible man slaps Dracula, retaliates with a broad swipe, followed up by three consecutive fast swipes. In theory, what Dracula is doing is not physically impossible. However it is the way the animators executed the slashes, that breaks the laws of physics. Firstly, there is almost no anticipation for the punches, maybe hanging back for a single frame, before blurring across his entire body in 3-4 frames. After the first punch, his arm takes roughly 2-3 frames to settle before coming to a complete standstill. The following sequence of swipes have even less settle, leading into each other one after another with 1-2 frames of settle before becoming a hold. Dracula’s hand largely settles through the use of squash and stretch, the arm coming to a stop, but the hand morphing back into shape. Though it gives the movie a more cartoony feel, Hotel Transylvania’s reason for breaking physics is very different from the previous two examples.

        The laws of physics in the natural world are absolute, and govern the way we experience our day to day lives. Maybe that is the reason it feels so fantastical when filmmakers break those rules to entertain and mystify. The punch is only one small example of a much larger trend in breaking reality, but it is also a very compelling subject to analyze.

Outline for Second Term Paper

Term Paper 2 Outline

Inertia

Films: One Punch Man, Superman, Hotel Transylvania

Thesis: 

Physics tells us that objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. However films tend to break this law, especially films in the superhero genre, and the animation medium. Some do it for comical effect, or stylization, while others do it to demonstrate that a character has superhuman abilities.

One Punch man: 

A: Saitama getting punched so hard he flies to the moon, then jumping so hard off the surface of the moon that he lands back where he was on Earth.

B: Saitama punching someone so hard they fly through multiple buildings but never slow down and fly off into the distance.

Superman: 

A: Superman’s ability to fly

B: Superman’s ability to run at speeds faster than sound

Hotel Transylvania:

Animation style creates characters that move with neither anticipation, nor settle, stopping their limbs in impossible fashion.

Conclusion. Films Break the law of inertia to demonstrate supernatural, or superhuman abilities in the characters.

Reverse Video Reference

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

This was a difficult assignment for me, because I just updated my phone's iOS, but the iOS is completely broken and causes my phone to stutter and over heat. In addition, I've never attempted stop motion before, and have no tripod for my phone. THAT SAID, I did try my best, and reshot the scene multiple times. I've wanted to try mixing stop motion with 2d animation for a while. I wanted the fall to come from off screen, so the speed of the fall had to be fast from the start, as though he had been sent flying a bit ago. I roughly drew out the animation traditionally, planning the arcs, spacing and timing, and then attempted to transfer that to the stop motion. I wanted the bottle cap to feel like it hits him and have him react. I used a spiderman figure and a bottle cap. I am confident my next attempt at stop-motion will be more successful.

The Believability of Physics based on genre.

      

     For the most part, the movie going experience comes with a certain suspension of disbelief, because the audience knows that film is mainly an escape from reality. However, some genres are able to push that suspension exponentially further than others. Arguably, animation may be the most effective medium by which viewers can completely buy into fictional worlds or characters. This makes it the perfect means by which to stretch and bend physics and reality, while not drawing any attention to it Kung fu films, which are well known for pushing action beyond physical plausibility, can sometimes seem ridiculous, because as humans, we have reference for the bodies limitations. But when conveyed through animation, the audience is already buying into a fantastical tale, and willing to accept the impossible much more easily. 

      Kung Fu Panda, an animated film by Dreamworks, posits to us that not only can animals talk and quadrupeds stand upright, but they can also perform superhuman feats of acrobatics and martial arts. Po is a panda who finds himself lazily slacking through each day with no real purpose, other than to admire the martial artists that he loves so much. One day, it is revealed that Po is prophesied to be the fabled “dragon warrior,” and is swept from his dull life as a noodle boy, to train with his heroes. Kung Fu Panda gets away with so much just from the start, by setting the story in a world of anthropomorphized characters, or, characters that are anatomically inhuman, but with human like characteristics or behavior. 

      Po begins living at the dojo along with the other warriors, and starts training in the ways of martial arts. There he meets Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, Crane, and Shifu, the warriors he had always admired. They, however, are less than thrilled to have him among their numbers, and begin his training by mercilessly showing him the difference in their strengths. When Po refuses to give up, master Shifu himself spars with Po, easily exerting physical dominance over him. To put it into perspective, even if the characters were similar in age, an adult male red panda weighs usually between twelve to twenty pounds. An adult male panda’s average weight is often between two hundred thirty to two hundred fifty pounds, meaning that Shifu was tossing around a being that was likely over ten times his own weight, and many times his own size. Because this is an animated film, it is immediately accepted that this is a plausible course of events, whereas in reality, the sheer difference in mass would likely render the smaller individual physically incapable of moving the larger individual, regardless of technique, let alone spinning him about above his head, and throwing him a great distance away. In an even more extreme example, Mantis similarly bested Po, despite weighing less than a pound.

     This turbulent relationship continues until Shifu witnesses Po exerting great will and effort when attempting to get food. Shifu decides that this will be the best way to teach him martial arts, and the training montage begins. The montage itself is full of events that stretch the laws of physics. In one scene, Po is hanging by his knees from a tree branch, and using it to perform hanging sit ups. Not only would the force of gravity make it extremely difficult for someone of his size to suddenly perform hanging sit-ups, but the branch he was using would almost certainly have snapped under the weight long before he could set himself up. In another scene, Po and Shifu are both doing one handed fingertip pushups. His weight has already been discussed, so to avoid being redundant, there is another inaccuracy in the scene. Despite pushing off the ground at pretty much the same time, Po is seen to reach the down position before Shifu every time. Though this is meant to show that Shifu is having an easier time, and is therefor at a more relaxed pace, physics tell us that larger objects at a greater height will take longer to land than smaller lighter objects.  

      After Po has been trained, he has his encounter with Tai Long, the main antagonist of the film. Tai is a tiger who has been expertly trained, and even surpasses Shifu himself in terms of martial arts prowess. This battle relies heavily on Po’s mass as a weapon. Many martial arts styles incorporate the idea of using the opponents strength against them, and Kung fu panda takes the idea that Po is fat and bouncy, and uses that as a fighting option. It is this battle where Po has the most rubber-like attributes. At the beginning of the film, Po would receive hard solid hits that would floor him, but in this fight it sends him flying and bouncing off walls, helping him gain speed and inertia, and sending him right back to Tai Long. Such a plot point may only be viable for animation, because it is so cartoonish that in live action format, it would break the suspension of disbelief. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the part of the fight which demonstrates both the greatest homage to the kung fu genre, as well as the largest affront to conventional physics. Po and Tai Lung are scaling a crumbling building while chasing after the scroll which is meant only for the dragon warrior. The scroll is sent flying, and as the building collapses, Po uses flying debris as jumping platforms to gain altitude. The tiny debris stays stationary in air long enough for Po to climb on top, and jump off of, only afterwards flying off screen.

      In the final scene of the showdown, Po uses an ancient technique to vanquish Tai Lung called the “Wu-Shi finger hold” while the details of how the technique works are never explained, the result was a massive explosion of energy that swept over the entire city. Such a trope is not uncommon in martial arts movies. An eastern belief is that the body contains “ki” or “chi,” which can be explained as a beings life force. many similar films show characters being able to harness and control that inner energy and use it to create energy attacks, or explosions. While this could never truly happen, nor would one want it to, because an explosion likely can’t differentiate between friend and foe, not to mention the probable radiation or aftershocks, it is such an accepted part of Eastern style martial arts movies, that the audience takes it at face value.

      Kung Fu Panda pays homage to the Martial Arts genre wonderfully, defying reality along the way to provide a fantastical journey for the viewers. Companies like Sony, Pixar, Disney, and in this case, Dreamworks continually prove that animation may just be the format in which filmmakers have the most freedom to break and bend the laws of physics at will, and yet still sell itself as believable.

Term Paper Outline: Kung Fu Panda Analysis

Introduction:

A. Animated feature: Kung Fu Panda

B. As many anthropomorphic films tend to, Kung Fu Panda breaks the laws of physics by letting quadrupeds walk on two legs and act like humans. Even further, kung fu movies again break the laws of physics to give characters super-human fighting abilities. 

Body Paragraphs

1. Unnatural stance and movement.

-Tai Lung and Tigress standing on two feet, but also able to switch to all fours.

-Po being able to jump and run, despite his immense weight.

-vipers speed and body contortion

2. Superhuman strength and abilities.

-Shifu is able to overpower mostly anyone, despite his tiny stature and incredible difference in mass.

-Po can climb a crumbling building while fighting off a tiger.

-Po is able to outrun animals much lighter and more built for running.

-Po climbs higher into the air by jumping off flying debris.

3. finger hold

-Po is able to create and release an immense amount of energy through using an ancient technique.

Conclusion

Kung Fu Panda breaks the laws of physics to pay homage to Kung Fu movies, as well as to give animals human martial artist like qualities.

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Here's me attempting and failing to jump. 

Lets analyze. 

That may not have demonstrated accurately how little air I was able to achieve.

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

So here's my first attempt at using tracker. I guess the video came out sideways?

I ran out of time to reshoot it though, so hopefully it's acceptable.

and here's the video

Shooting Video Reference

Watch as I desperately try to regain my lost childhood.

Or maybe I was trying to learn something about physics. I can't quite remember.

And here's the video in its entirety

Mini-Portfolio

Hello, I am Ben Ravid and I'm an animation major. I've taken all the animation courses up through 118, and am currently taking 128b. I've also worked on Dave Chai's summer film, as well as Youri Dekker's "The Blue and the Beyond." I certainly consider myself animation oriented, though I also enjoy trying to create new interesting character designs as well. I've included both in my reel below.

Below are also some illustrations I have done

first post

Excited to finally have this class! I'm looking forward to a good semester.