Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

MLK Library

Lovely Mother's Day Flowers

Not-so-lovely Outside Flowers

My Big Tubby Baby

~*~3D Selfie~*~

Recreating Cameras and Lights in Maya.

#1

• Original: 
  
• Recreation:  
  
• 2nd Direction: 
  
  
  

#2

• Original: 
  
• Recreation: 
  
• 2nd Direction: 
  

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya.

Comes in four flavors!

Original: 

One-Point Lighting: 

Two-Point Lighting:

Three-Point Lighting: 

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 90 and 85; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline for the Third Term Paper

I. Introduction -

          A. Introduce both movies.
          B. Thesis - To compare and contrast the chocolate waterfall in Willy Wonka and The
          Chocolate Factory (1971) to its descendant, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.

II. Body - 

          A. Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.
               a. Man-made with a mix of chocolate ice cream and water.
               b. The 'river' looks less like chocolate and more like sewer water.
               c. The waterfall itself is very shallow and spurts more like a water-hose than a waterfall.
          B. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.
               a. Man-made with 'fake' chocolate.
               b. The 'river' has a lovely chocolate viscosity.
               c. Full-bodied and pours like you'd expect a chocolate waterfall should.

III. Conclusion - 

          A. Waterfalls are an extremely hard visual effect to replicate.
          B. Use less water if your waterfall is not made out of water.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

This was a solo project, created using model magic and my niece's toys. Since I lack a tripod, I used some of the model magic to hold the camera steady on a book that I moved around as I shot (although I should've taken more frames per movement, because it looks extremely choppy). I got the room as dark as possible, then lit it using a desk lamp and that's pretty much how this came to be. 

Also, thank you for the extension! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to put it to much use, but it's appreciated nonetheless. 

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction.

          For as long as there's been modern technology, there's always been cartoons and games published to appease the general masses -- or, in these specific cases, children. Although they might not all get it right, the creators of these gaming and cartoon universes try to create a world that at least resemble real-world physics. Sometimes, however, there comes a creator who turns their nose up at these rules and scoffs, who sees the laws of the common man and decides, nah, why even bother? And as much as these specific cases bother the crap out of anyone who has half a clue what to look for, seen through a child's eyes, these intentional slip-ups are so awesome in their fallacies that breaking the rules is (almost) worth it. In this essay, we will look at three different instances of totally radical rule-breaking as seen in the fight-scenes of three different pieces of media: Final Fantasy: Advent Children, RWBY, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. While the law of action/reaction is one of the most important, these specific fight scenes down-right ignore them in the name of entertainment. 

          First up to bat on our list of law-breaking perpetrators is Final Fantasy: Advent Children. Released as a sequel to the insanely popular game Final Fantasy 7 in 2005, their creators -- Square Enix, have had a love-hate relationship with real-world physics since the game series first began in 1987.  A dedicated fellow could write their entire graduate thesis on how many times they specifically break the law of Action/Reaction, but for the sake of this essay, we will stick to nit-picking specific instances in this singular battle. Fifteen seconds into it already provides us with a giant, metal issue -- namely, the broadsword. What sort of material is it made out of that it's light enough that the twiggy-armed protagonist can wield it one-handed? But is then shown to be powerful and durable enough to fend off an attack from the man who just exploded a giant hole in the concrete? If this broadsword really is as strong as it appears to be, then the protagonist shouldn't be able to swing it around without stumbling all over the place. Hell, he shouldn't be able to heft it onto his shoulder and wear it like a particularly garish metallic scarf. And he really, really shouldn't be able to be flung 50-feet in the air by a super-charged attack and have the sword travel at the same velocity as him. Which leads us to the next glaring error: why wasn't the entire building sent crumbling when the protagonist landed on top of it after an attack that left a ground-shattering hole down the side? And then again later on in the clip, when they're bouncing around inside of a building like ping-pong balls, crashing against supports that -- well, that remain resolutely undamaged, regardless of how fast or intense the fight becomes. In fact, the only time the building actually seems to break is when the characters slash their swords at it, or use super special magical to command it all to fall down. Our last and final example, coincidentally, has to do with over-powered magic in the form of commanding a giant swirling vortex with little to no adverse effects. The guy just stands there, hand raised cool as you please and hair gently flowing in the wind while these giant clouds are whipped into a lightning storm that continues well after the swordplay has begun. Even pardoning the fact that these two characters are wizards, there is no other change, no flying debris, no non-magical people spiraling up into the vortex, just a giant black storm cloud that somehow exists without affecting literally anything at all. Of course, the scene ignores all of these very obvious faults because otherwise, both of these characters would take themselves out before they ever had the chance to fight.

          Our next player (pardon the pun) is RWBY: Players and Pieces. Produced by RoosterTeeth in 2013, this series is barely out of its infancy, and it shows. Not only does every fight scene play out identically, they all break the same basic principles of Action/Reaction. Our first violation occurs right at the start of battle, when the large bird-monster flies right through an equally large bridge and brushes it off without even slowing down. It's just a quick swoop in and out to let our heroes know that it's absolutely on, but you'd think that even a shadow monster would recoil after eating the side of a solid stone structure. Then again, if the bridge had caused a reaction strong enough to momentarily stun the bird, then the battle would've been over too soon. Or perhaps not, taking into consideration that no matter how many bullets they unload into this creature, hardly a scratch is left on it. The only time it even stops is right before it dies and explodes into a shower of rose petals. But you'd think, with all the attacks aimed its way, it'd be forced back or even made to flee and lick its wounds. Although, the weapons themselves might as well be made out of paper for how much recoil they inflict on the user -- which is to say, none. One hero even has a bazooka hammer that she uses to send herself flying across the bridge, but it neither disintegrates beneath her when she lands nor breaks her legs. Just like before, it makes sense to ignore these sorts of things because otherwise there wouldn't even be a battle in the first place, but it's hard to be awed when the only thing that seems to do any damage is straight-up ramming into things. 

          Our third and final combatant of the essay comes from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Although one could argue that Nintendo, it's producer, is not a company known for treating the laws of physics with love and respect, Legend of Zelda might be one of their only 'realistic' series. As long as you ignore the swordplay, anyway. Our first problem in this scene is when their swords lock and magic's flying every which way, and you'd think they'd be putting all their strength into it. Except when someone manages to get the upper hand and push the other one away, they barely budge. On the flipside, after being hit a specific number of times, one person will fly backwards onto their back, regardless of how hard they seem to be hit, and the other person definitely doesn't go down with them. In fact, no matter how intense the swordplay or how hard they hack away at each other, there's zero reaction upon impact; nobody gets pulled back or is even really affected by the weight of their own sword, which then begs the question -- how are they getting hurt by a weapon that seems to have no reaction, no matter how hard you swing it? But again, watching two fellows clumsily duke it out doesn't sound nearly as impressive.

          Battle scenes are the most intense part of a story, and they require a certain sort of rule-breaking to push that ideal even further. If all we ever got to see is people being pushed and pulled every which way by the weight of their ridiculous weapons, while it would be hilarious, it would ruin the effectiveness of the scene itself. So sometimes, making battle scenes more epic requires a creator to gently put aside the law of action/reaction for awhile. Not just because they want to show these characters are 'professionals', but because they want to show off a certain dramatic flair that comes with not flopping over as soon the hero swings their sword.