Stop-Motion Character Animation

 

 

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The first thing I did was make the character. He is made with a bendable skeleton made with sturdy metal wires and wrapped with aluminum foil. Afterwards the model was covered with clay. I made the model this way because I had uncertainty if the I might lose shape of the character or accidently breaking the limbs if the model was entirely clay. On a standing pose the character was able to stay up well. But on poses where the character was standing in one foot, a small piece of clay had to be underneath the other foot to support the character. The small piece is edited out by Photoshop after shooting.

After building the model character, I shot reference of myself acting out the scene. For shooting the poses, I was able to twist the body (not efficient but just good enough), keep the body sturdy and standing by itself (most of the time). On the last scene where the character melts, the model is replaced with a different model with all clay so I can easily smash it.

This assignment was slightly difficult because after shooting each frame it is hard to tell how far the body needs to curve or how far the foot needs to travel between each frame. I also had to fix the character if the character bended too much and the clay cracked: which meant I had to take the character off the stage, put tracking markers on the stage and putting the character back hoping it did not shift too much from the previous frame.

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

Clip A

 

 

Clip B

 

 

 

Clip C

 

 

 

Clip D

 

 

 



The Laws of Physics in an Animated Universe

 

Tron: Legacy

                It took 28 years for Walt Disney Pictures to release a sequel to Tron (1982). It was considered the first of its kind: the first film that uses computer graphics in a live action film. Of course, the film wasn’t perfect. The graphics may have been impressive in 1982 but if it was released today it would have been considered “low-res” and amateurish. The laws of physics were not highly considered while making this film. In the 1982 film, there were hovering ships that did not require aerodynamics lifting and lightcycles that turn at right angles without any hints of moving in arcs. The sequel titled Tron: Legacy (2010) was finally released. Kevin Flynn, the main character from the 1982 film, takes his experiences from teleporting to a computer world and creates a new system called “The Grid” where he has creative control to build and change programs in his will. CLU, a program designed to continue building the Grid with or without Kevin’s presence, betrays his creator and claims control of the Grid. Twenty years later in the real world, Sam Flynn, Kevin’s 27 year old son, makes a strange discovery at his father’s abandoned arcade and surprisingly enters The Grid while looking for his missing father. In this film there are many improvements to the CGI graphics and the physics in animation compared to the 1982 counterpart. But some of the physics are played with and manipulated because of the aesthetic decisions by the producers to keep elements consistent with the 1982 film. But the aesthetic decisions work in the story because the physics are manipulated in a computer world created by Kevin Flynn and CLU.

Gravity

                In The Grid, gravity is manipulated in many ways throughout the film. There are many objects, both small and large, that require little or no mechanisms to keep the objects up. The first example is when Sam Flynn enters the Grid and is forced into a game called “Disc Wars” where combatants fight to the death. The arena where the combatants play features these battle stages that are suspended approximately 25 to 30 stories above the ground. The stages can change sizes of an apartment to a three-story house. There is no indication of what is physically lifting the stages up. There are no wires or no energy lifts. It moves up in the 3D space like moving a graphic up on a computer screen.

                Another scene where gravity is manipulated is when Sam is making an escape from the “Light Cycle Grid”. A character named Quorra arrives on a two seat vehicle to pick up Sam and escape. Rinzler chases them down and rides his lightcycle at a high speed upside down on a transparent surface and appear just below where CLU is standing. When Rinzler has to go back to the top of the surface, he enters through a rotating door that puts his cycle upright while still driving at a high speed. For something like this to happen in the real world, wheels of an upside down vehicle need to be attached to a track, similar to a roller coaster. For something else similar like this, a vehicle would require centrifugal force, but it would need lots of speed and frequently spin upside down inside a cylinder shape pathway.

                There are these “beams of light” that appear frequently in the film. These beams are an equivalent to cables and train tracks in the real world that move or carry heavy carriages for transport. The most significant beam is the one transporting a 400-ton freight train that transports Kevin, Sam and Quorra towards the portal. The beam does not have any rigid materials to keep the beam together nor is it attached to any support from the ground to keep the beam up or the heavy train. The beam continuously shines through for miles and miles from the center of the city to the end of the tracks at CLU’s army base. Also, the start of the track at the city the beam is angled. Once the beam is at a certain point miles away from the city the beam will have the train several thousand feet above the ground, almost the height that aircrafts would travel.

                There are a few vehicles in the Grid that do not require any wings for flight. For example, the Recognizer, a claw shaped hovering vehicle. This vehicle appears in the 1982 film, and in that version there is no indication of what is making it hover. In the 2010 film, the Recognizer appears in film with a new design. In this version, energy exhaust ports are just below of the legs. It works somewhat like a rocket but it able to adjust the amount of exhausting energy if it needs to slow down or land. If this vehicle was made in the real world, it is likely the vehicle would never have kept its balance up since the vehicle is a lot heavier on the cockpit and the center of gravity being on the middle of the overall ship.

Follow-Through and Drag

                Another example of physics being manipulated is the removal of follow-through and drag. This scene takes place at the End of Line Club that is on top of a 450-level tower with an elevator on a slightly slanted track (almost by 20 degrees). After getting into a confrontation with CLU’s henchmen at the Club, Sam, Kevin and Quorra make an escape through the Club’s only exit, the elevator. One of the henchmen is able to plant a sticky grenade to entrance that causes the elevator to lose its grip and drop on an angled free fall. As they fall, the characters stay on the ground of the elevator, not showing any weightlessness. In the real world, any person inside an elevator on a free fall would actually be dragged towards the ceiling since the person is much lighter than the elevator and requires less air resistance than the elevator to stay up. In terms of story, it could be that Kevin Flynn altered the weightlessness as you can see him in the movie trying to empower the elevator with his finger controls.

                One contradiction about the manipulation of follow-through and drag is that it is not consistent. With the exception of the elevator scene, drag or follow-through occurs frequently, usually at scenes with vehicles making a high impact with other objects. In the Light Cycle Grid scene, most of the combatants would crash into rigid “walls of light”, causing pieces of what is left of the cycle and the rider to move forward after impact. In one example is back on the scene where Sam is escaping the Light Cycle Grid. Rinzler’s lightcycle explodes after Quorra drops grenades in front of him causing him to leap several feet into the air. But because he was still in motion on the cycle just before the explosion, there was enough momentum to keep him moving forward and he lands approximately 30 feet away from the explosion on a backup lightcycle.

Action/Reaction

                Two characters in the film, Rinzler and CLU, are able to defy the Action-Reaction Principle in Newton’s Laws of Forces. The Action-Reaction Principle states “for every action force there is equal reaction force in the opposite direction.” This rule seems to be broken by these characters because only so much force is being put into a jump and yet they are able to leap into exaggerated distances. The first example: this is the scene where the freight train arrives at CLU’s army base and Rinzler is hunting down the Flynns. Rinzler is on top the train, which is two levels high (or twenty feet long), and notices Quorra running away. Rinzler runs to give himself momentum and jumps to leap forward at a long distance to catch up with Quorra. It is a bit hard to tell how far he jumped because he is jumping towards the camera, but he must have made a leaping distance of least two times the height of that train.

                In the climax of the film, CLU would do the same thing when chasing down Sam and Quorra at the portal. The bridge connecting to the portal collapses, making a 50 to 60 feet gap and CLU needs to jumps across that distance. After a confrontation with Kevin, CLU runs to give himself momentum and jumps off to a large height to make an arc to get across the gap. He barely makes it across by grabbing on to the edge of the bridge. If a real world person were to make any of these jumps, he or she is likely to go only several feet across and a few feet high while running with momentum.

Vacuum

                In the climax of the film, Sam and Quorra are escaping through the portal and CLU chases them down while Kevin stays behind. CLU is near reaching Sam and Quorra and Kevin needs to give them more time to escape. Kevin sacrifices himself and performs “re-intregration” where he will merge CLU back into himself and “derezz”. But because CLU is too far for Kevin to reach, he needs to create a vacuum to pull CLU back. Kevin does not use any device, nor does he need to because he is able to manipulate the physics of his own world. He simply stands, extends out his hands out and focuses on maintaining a small vacuum on an open atmosphere. In the space between Kevin and CLU, the pressure is lowered and CLU pushed back due to the atmospheric pressure pushing in. In the end, both Kevin and CLU perish while Sam and Quorra are able to escape to the real world.
 

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                The laws of physics in the film Tron: Legacy are frequently manipulated as they are meant to be in the story. Kevin Flynn created the computer world and that world behaves like how graphics move on a computer screen. Kevin Flynn and CLU could have made decisions to replicate the Grid with complete real world physics, but seeing this is a computer world, everything made was out of convenience for themselves and the programs occupying the Grid. The animations in this film were designed to keep many elements consistent with the 1982 film (with putting liberties of updating the graphics and some of the physics). Still, this is an entertaining and visually awesome film to watch.

 

Outline of the First Term Paper

Film: Tron: Legacy (2010)

I.                    Introduction

a.       Short summary of the film

b.      The movie takes place in the computer world where the laws of physics are manipulated.

II.                  Gravity

a.       The Disc-Wars Arena

                                                               i.      The 16 battle stages float hundreds of feet above the ground with no indication of what is holding it up.

                                                             ii.      In the final round with Sam vs. Rinzler, the villain Clu is able to control the direction of gravity of the interior of the battle the stage.

b.      The Light Cycle Grid

                                                               i.      Rinzler is released to capture Sam. Rinzler travels upside down on the bottom side of the ground level.

c.       Large Hovering Objects

                                                               i.      The Recognizers are large claw shaped vehicles that hover only from the exhaust ports on its legs. Its upper body frame is larger than its legs and it has no wings.

                                                             ii.      The freight train (I’m guessing maybe 400 tons) is traveling on a single rail of light, miles in length, suspended in the air with nothing holding the rail up.

                                                            iii.      There are hovering boulders above the “Sea of Simulation” that are each being held up by single lines of light.

III.                Follow-Through and Drag

a.       Sam is captured after first entering the Grid. He is taken to an elevator where his feet are clamped down on the platform. The elevator drops down fast and there is no overlap present anywhere in his body.

b.      Sam, Kevin and Quorra are escaping a fight at the End of Line Club. The entrance explodes and the elevator loses its suspension rail making the elevator go on a free fall. The characters do not show any weightlessness as the elevator falls at an alarming speed.

c.       Contradiction: There is plenty of follow-through and drag in the action scenes including light cycles crashing into walls of light.

IV.                Exaggeration

a.       Clu

                                                               i.      At the final confrontation, Clu chases down Sam and Quorra as the bridge collapses. Clu needed to jump across the gap that is as long as the width of a two lane street.

b.      Kevin Flynn

                                                               i.      At the final confrontation, Flynn needed to stop Clu from chasing Sam. Flynn creates a small vacuum in a large open atmosphere to pull Clu away from Sam.

c.       Rinzler

                                                               i.      Rinzler is able to jump around 10 to 20 feet at will into the air and land safely on the ground. This occurs in two occasions of the film: in the light cycle grid and after the landing of the freight train.

V.                  Conclusion

a.       Some of the laws of physics are completely manipulated but in the sense of story that is probably how it was meant to be when Kevin Flynn created the computer world.