Stop-Motion Character Animation

It's curtains for you! (Or, rather, blinds.)

For my stop-motion character animation project, I picked a window as my character at the end of the day when the lights go out and the blinds come down. I cut out facial features from black construction paper and taped them to the window. It was fun planning the facial expressions as they reacted to the changes in the environment. The world of stop motion is strange and fascinating. I'd love to spend more time in it soon!

Reverse Video Reference

This assignment was a very fun, interactive take on studying the subtleties of acting, character, and body motion... and a great way to get in some exercise! 

Clip A

Clip B

Clip C

Clip D

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

            The art of filmmaking is beloved for its ability to tell a story grounded in realism with a dash of something extraordinary. That being said, there are some aspects of this visual art form that often, sometimes without intention, push the limits of what is realistically possible, even going so far as to break the laws of physics themselves! One example of this is how people and objects fail to respond with the proper type of reaction to opposing forces. While this can be attributed to a production oversight, it is also used a necessary means to project a specific type of emotional response or feeling. Whatever the case may be, films have smashed the action/reaction rule of physics in various ways.

In Disney’s 1997 animated feature film Hercules tells the story of the titular hero with incomparable strength from Greek mythology. There is a critical scene towards the end of the film where Hercules fights one of the titans that poignantly illustrates the fallacious use of the action/reaction rule. The cyclops is already portrayed as a monumentally huge, incredibly strong creature that can level buildings and smash stone with little to no effort whatsoever. Hercules, weakened for the time being and pointedly mortal, withstands the cyclops blows with nothing more than some bruising despite being kicked, thrown, and bounced around by the titan. Although Hercules has some physical reactions during the fight, such as stumbling when prodded, flattening against a smashed wall, and collapsing after being slammed into the ground, they are severe understatements as to what would actual happen if this scenario were to occur in the real world. At another point in the scene, the hero is even lifted by the enormous titan at one point from the ground all the way up to his single-eyed head, but Hercules displays little to no visible reaction to the forces that he would experience while moving such a huge distance so quickly. The fight wraps up with Hercules using a regular-sized rope to entangle the titan’s gargantuan legs and pull him to the ground and over a cliff. Not only does the cyclops' inability to bust through a relatively tiny strand of rope contradict his previously-displayed strength, but also Hercules would not be able to pull the cyclops down to the ground without his iconic power. Although enjoyable, the scene is riddled with all kinds of completely inaccurate interpretations of how the laws of action/reaction work between two characters of hugely different sizes.

Warner Brother’s third installment of the Harry Potter series, The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), is filled with a wonderful amount of impossible, awe-inspiring physics, but there is one scene in particular that has some delightfully peculiar yet entirely incorrect interactions with the action/reaction rule. The Knight Bus, a magical triple-decked public transportation vehicle with the ability to dodge the laws of physics just as smoothly as it navigates the Britain's traffic patterns, is filled with three-stories worth of inconsistent physics fallacies. Harry is repeatedly shown to react strongly to the sudden accelerations and extremely exaggerated stops, yet the other characters riding along show little to no response to the immense amount of forces that should be altering their weight and center of gravity. Despite being filled with rolling beds for long-distance travelers, these wheeled sleeping arrangements move with a temperamental consistency, only responding with the bare minimum amount of motion to prove that they are not simply nailed to the floor. Perhaps the hardest sell on the bizarrely inconsistent laws of action/reaction so laxly imposed on this bus is the mouthy co-pilot, a shrunken head dangling from a string, is not influenced by the bus’s motion at all! As egregious as this particular error is, the most consistent rule break remains the reaction to the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the vehicle—although the opportunity to impose these forces among the characters riding onboard is abundant, it is strangely non-existent.

Perhaps the film that tackles the action/reaction law with the greatest inaccuracy is another Disney animated film, The Emperor’s New Groove (2000). The heart-warming friendship that blossoms between Kuzco and Pacha is founded upon a sea of physics lies as the characters snap through the laws of action/reaction as quickly as the rope and wood bridge upon which they were standing. They not only have an unusual amount of unrealistic hang time in the air before eventually succumbing to the pull of gravity’s forces, the bridge beneath them also breaks with a sluggish irreverence to the laws of physics. What happens next sets the stage for one of the most memorable parts of the film—the soon-to-be-buddies are crammed at the bottom of two tight opposing cliff faces and work together to return to the top by pushing up against each other’s back to walk up the walls. Pacha very clearly weighs more than Kuzco, but the latter is not shown to compensate for this by pushing harder against both Pacha and the cliff—he appears much more neutral here than he should in this scenario. There are also a couple instances where Kuzco physically panics and without a questionable doubt fails to provide the same abysmal amount of force previously needed to support himself and Pacha. As inaccurate as that is, the two characters eventually return to solid ground by impossibly riding a stream of real, flying bats—it practically goes without saying that there would be nowhere near enough action to support that type of a reaction! To wrap up the scene, Kuzco catches Pacha in mid-air before swinging him to safety after the patch of ground he was standing on crumbles into the alligator-river infested river below. Again, this series of actions are presented in such a way that they fail to justify the amount of weight Kuzco would have to carry, if he could at all!

As plentiful as these examples of incorrect representations of the action/reaction rule, they only scratch the surface of physics fallacies found in these films alone. Even though they break the rules of reality quite generously, that does not necessarily mean it is a bad thing. As shown in Hercules, it is a perfect example of how the hero can get out of a situation that is literally impossible so that the audience can still cheer for him. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Knight Bus scene still conveys the proper amount of quirkiness needed without creating an overly-stimulating, cluttered scene. The comedy of The Emperor’s New Groove would be greatly dampened (perhaps even non-existent) if it was bound to the realism of the actual world.  Clearly, the act of bending, breaking, or completely demolishing the rules of physics certainly has the ability to add even more excitement and fantastic flare than it detracts.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? Action/Reaction

I. Introduction:
            a. Sources for each of the scenes: Hercules, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Emperor’s New Groove
            b. The laws regarding action/reaction are severely broken in film for various reasons

II. Body
                         Hercules—cyclops fight

a.       The cyclops is already portrayed as a monumentally huge, incredibly strong creature that can level buildings and smash stone with little to no effort whatsoever

b.       Hercules, weakened and pointedly mortal, impossibly withstands the cyclops blows with nothing more than some bruising despite being kicked, thrown, and bounced by the titan

c.       Although Hercules has some physical reactions to (stumbles when prodded, flattens against a smashed wall, collapses after slamming into the ground), they are nowhere near as impactful as they should be

d.       The demi-god is even lifted by the enormous titan at one point from the ground all the way up to his head, but with no visible reaction to the forces that he would experience after moving such a huge distance so quickly

e.       Hercules finishes off the cyclops by entangling his legs in a regular-sized rope; not only should the titan be able to bust through the rope, but also Hercules would not be able to pull the cyclops down to the ground without his powers
 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban—Knight Bus scene

a.       Merry-go-round, teeter totter, and swings all move independently without any explicable means (“ominous gust of wind” isn’t a good enough reason for the laws of physics); playground equipment can still be seen moving in the background even after the Knight Bus shows up and the wind has died down

b.       Harry reacts strongly to the bus’s sudden accelerations and extremely exaggerated stops—yet the other characters do not

c.       The talking shrunken head dangling from a string at the front of the bus hardly responds to the bus’s motion at all!

d.       Even the rolling bed Harry’s sitting on does not move as consistently as he does

e.       Centripetal and centrifugal forces—all the passengers, including Harry, do not respond much, if at all, to these external forces

3.                                    The Emperor’s New Groove—Kuzco saves Pacha

a.       Filled with inaccurate interpretations of the laws of physics, but what a fun movie!

b.       After fighting in the dangling strands of a rope bridge, Kuzco and Pacha fall after an unusually long air hang-time when the whole structure breaks in a delightfully cartoony, far from realistic way

c.       Both characters are wedged in a tightened gap at the bottom of two opposing cliff faces—Pacha weighs considerably more than Kuzco, yet Kuzco is not shown to compensate for this by either pushing harder against the cliff face or Pacha—he appears much more neutral than he should

d.       The entire heartwarming, character-building sequence of Kuzco and Pacha working together to climb up the cliff is riddled with incorrectly-used action/reaction principles; Kuzco flails more than once yet is somehow able to still support Pacha

e.       The buddies finally make it up to solid ground by riding a stream of bats escaping their cave—not enough of an action to prompt that kind of a reaction

f.        But the solid ground was a trick! Kuzco grabs Pacha at the last second after his tiny patch of cliff crumbles into the alligator-infested river below—and Kuzco is miraculously able to catch, swing, and throw Pacha without any limitations based on the latter’s aforementioned weight

III. Conclusion

a.       Inaccurate portrayals of the laws of physics, particularly action/reaction action is not always detrimental

b.       It can actually add to the fantastic element of visual storytelling

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Falling object... with a twist!

For this project, I wanted to play around with gravity a bit and make an object as obviously light as a balloon appear to fall as quickly and heavily as a bowling ball would! I started out by shooting reference of myself dropping a bowling ball to get a feel for how it would work, and then sketched out my plan. Next, I devised a path of action for the object by sticking pieces of tape on the wall behind me as markers. After shooting it, I plunked it into Premiere, edited the separate images into the timeline, and--voila!

The final product:

Term Paper One

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe: Aladdin

Magic is as deeply ingrained into storytelling as that particular verbal art form is to humanity. Hundreds of thousands of stories told all across the world throughout the centuries utilize this deeply imaginative, freeing, and fantastic element. In our current day-and-age, Disney would perhaps be considered one of America’s greatest tellers of magical stories, and the 1992 film Aladdin presents itself in a unique way. What is it about this movie that makes it stand out amongst the hundreds of other supernaturally-powered films? Quite simply, it is the way in which the physics in that animated world work. In the film Aladdin, gravity, squash and stretch, and the presence of magic appear and affect different characters with great variation in order to tell a richly vibrant, comedic tale that feels both extraordinarily magical yet relatable.

The main human characters Aladdin and Jasmine are the most limited in their interactions with the laws of gravity and squash and stretch. Occasionally though, Aladdin is shown to possess far-above-normal levels of agility when presented as the slick, street-smart hero that he is. In just the the initial scene in which he is introduced, he completes a flawless backflip with ease, moves quickly and with great fluidity, and soars on a regular carpet to soar out of a window and parachute gently to the ground in a cute form of foreshadowing that simultaneously paints him for a moment as practically weightless. However, the manner in which he usually carries himself demonstrates that he has a constant, grounding mass. When Aladdin is caught by the palace guard’s vigorous grasp, or within Jafar’s snake-form’s coils, he does not exhibit much squash and stretch whatsoever. While he is certainly capable of much more physically rigorous actions than most characters, it is quite clear that he also has strict limitations when it comes to gravity and the malleability of his own physique.

If Aladdin was clearly more limited than the rest of the cast mentioned so far, Jasmine is even more so. Although her beautiful hair has a fine, weightless quality to it as it twirls, bounces, and ultimately defies its fullness, her physical up-and-down motion does not bend the real world’s laws of gravity as present in many of the other characters, and she certainly does not show the exaggerated squash and stretch. She remains one of the more realistic, relatable characters of the film, serving as a contrast that aids in blending the magical and the ordinary.

In contrast, comic relief characters take the most notable liberties with the laws of gravity and squash and stretch. Aladdin’s sidekick Abu hangs in the air more than a few times after finding himself in especially compromising situations. One of the more apparent example of how this character defines his own relationship with gravity is during the scene within the Cave of Wonders, when he is overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of riches that generously litter the cavern’s floor and pounces uncontrollably before stopping himself in midair. In other scenes, particularly when he is eating, terrified, or experiencing any other extreme emotion, his actions and physical features are wildly exaggerated in such a way that the squash and stretch of his own physique appears almost magical.

Another humorous character with a fantastic amount of examples with the two previously mentioned physics focal points is Iago. Although being a parrot, Iago takes the most entertaining advantage of his ability to fly by flapping with one wing and on occasion, gesturing simultaneously with the other. Iago actually suffers a great deal more physically than any of the other characters. Throughout the film he is squashed within a door, slammed into a wall, and thrown to the ground with greatly exaggerated cartoon vigor before popping back to his usual shape. Additionally, there is one scene in particular where he is accidentally caught in the mechanisms of a magical machine of Jafar’s, which stretches, exaggerates, even temporarily disfigures him without any lasting damage. The extreme malleability of this otherwise solid character knows little limitations for the sake of greatly fun comedy.

Some other incredibly entertaining characters to watch due to their interactions with gravity and squash and stretch is the Sultan and the group of palace guards. The Sultan floats with the ease of a playground ball, which is simultaneously fitting and totally contradictory to expectation based on his rotund shape. In other scenes, particularly the snippet towards the very end of “Prince Ali,” he squashes comfortably and with a neat bounciness into a lavish throne in such a way that is specifically unique to his character. As for the palace guards, they play with the laws of gravity and squash and stretch by their own rules. The most notable examples is during the song “One Jump Ahead” where the audience has the opportunity to witness their full interaction with the world around them. Throughout this single scene, they compress cartoonishly after landing on top of other characters, throw items in an impossibly straight line, and, as a group, take a leap out of a window more-or-less at the same time in a mad attempt to grab Aladdin, yet fall in noticeably different intervals and with exaggerated stretchiness.

As for the most extraordinary aspect of this film’s physics, which also breaks even the most generously lax physical rules for the other characters, is the lavish and practically limitless type of magic presented here. The Genie clearly is the greatest example by taking on the forms and appearances of a whole slew of people and objects found under the sun. While he is clearly tangible and weighted (there are multiple instances of physical interactions between himself and other characters), he is simultaneously ephemeral, unmeasurable, and light as a feather. Each persona and that he recreates follows its own set of rules depending on what it is, such as the heavy pile of baklava he creates out of thin air and pours out of a hat, or the almost weightless Three Amigo-type characters he transforms into that effortlessly slide on top of one another. Similarly, Magic Carpet stays true to its name by floating and soaring through the air, and the Cave of Wonders assembles itself with no perceivable physical force to reveal an immense cavern within the otherwise nondescript desert sands. Although these are perhaps some of the most noticeable aspects of this magic, there are countless other examples which would further illustrate just how extravagant the magic works.

While this film deals in the wildly imaginative and almost infinite forms of magic, it also references and caricatures the laws of physics of the real world. Gravity and squash and stretch is handled in Aladdin in a way that is both fascinating and unique. Interestingly, it is used with a great deal of variety amongst the cast of characters, with the comic relief characters at one end of the spectrum and the human heroes practically at the polar opposite. Although this may sound as though the film would appear inconsistent, it instead adds to the breadth of the film and makes the movie as a whole feel more cohesive and less jarring with the magical aspect of the film. Each character follows a special set of physical limitations, which range from common and realistic to delightfully impossible in order to make almost limitless magic feel significantly less out-of-place. Once the extent of the supernatural powers exhibit themselves in the film in a way that smashes all the physical limitations of the other characters, it not only feels believable, but natural for the movie. Aladdin certainly succeeds in telling a fresh, relatable, yet exciting story through its widely-diverse interpretations of gravity, squash and stretch, and magic.