Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

CH

One Light

Two Lights

Three Lights

Term Paper: Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were 90/100 and 80/100; I will not be writing  a third term paper.

Outline of the Third Term Paper

Outline of the Third Term Paper

Introduction

A.   The special effects of snow in both animated cartoons and live action films can sometimes be created inaccurately in both film and television.

B.    Thesis: The film, Jack Frost, and the animated cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants, both proved, that snow special effects has often demonstrated inaccurate physics.

Body Paragraphs

A.   The use of snow special effects was used inaccurately in Jack Frost.

a.     How the snow was used: The snow was used to make Michel Keaton’s character turn from a human into a snowman by snow spinning around him in circular wind motion.

b.     How the snow special effect was done: Computer animation used motion blur and cycling snow spinning animation to make Keaton turn from human to snowman.

c.     Why this use of snow special effects was inaccurate in physics: In reality snowfall falling from the sky cannot turn a human into a talking snowman.

B.    The use of snow special effects was used inaccurately in the cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants.

a.     How Snow was used: The snow was used to create a feeling of winter to depict how the weather behaves during hibernation. The snowfall occurred inside Sandy’s air dome house, which exists under the ocean.

b.     How the snow special effects were done: 2D animation was used for drawing cycling snowfall that fell diagonally across the camera plane.

c.     Why this use of snow special effects was inaccurate in physics: In reality snow cannot naturally fall inside someone’s manually built home. Snow cannot fall under the ocean.

Conclusion

            A. The special effects of snow can demonstrate the laws of physics more inaccurately then people may think.

B. Thesis: The film, Jack Frost, and the animated cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants, both proved, that snow special effects has often demonstrated inaccurate physics.

C. Snow special effects must appear believable.

D. People can break the laws physics for believable snowfall to help progress the story and help entertain the audience.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

This stop- motion character animation assignment was a fun experience that involved many hours of work, but resulted with a rewarding payoff. Hunter Welker, Chris Helfrich, and Jenn Long worked together on this assignment to create "Love at First Bite."This nine hour animation journey began by using about an hour and a half for creating this story. An hour  also was spent for planning this animation by doing the following: creating the characters, staging the characters within their enviornment, and acting out how each movement would fit into the  story. After all the preproduction work was completed, six and half hours were spent animating each scene, editing, and providing the film's music and credits.

Hunter Welker, Chris Helfrich, and Jenn Long all worked simultaniously throughout this assignment. The animation and pre production work was all done collaboratively and the work was divided evenly from start to finish. Helfrich created the story. Welker and Helfrich then made each snail character by using the clay that Long provided. Hunter animated the green snail, Long animated the red snail, and Helfrich animated the death of each snail. Throughout each part of the animation Welker, Helfrich, and Long all worked together for posing each character, fixing each error that occurred with the clay, holding down objects to prevent unnecessary movement, and revising each character movement.  Although the clay would often break, and the cracker and characters would often move at inappropriate times, having three people work on this project helped reduce and prevent error.This process of working collaboratively worked well, and allowed this animation to be done efficiently.