Oh, I felt so stupid doing these, but hey, homework is homework. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to cut the last three videos so they have extra video time.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
First Term Paper
Movies are often known for bending and breaking the rules of physics, either for the sake of the storytelling or out of simple ignorant mistake. Obviously certain films push physics more than others. You are unlikely to see any pushed use of physics in a romance, for example. However, some types of movies tend to stand out. Kung-fu movies are notorious for bending the laws of physics until they break. Wall crushing kicks, mid-air combats, weightless feats of acrobatics, even outright flight are common occurrences in kung-fu flicks. Animated films are another. Animation, by its very nature, “push the pose” to what reality cannot do in order to communicate what is felt. That is especially true of the more cartoony and caricatured forms of animation. In this light, I figure that I would choose to analyze the physics of a film from both genres in the form of the hilarious movie by Dreamworks Animation, Kung Fu Panda. In this, film physics are pushed to their animated limits in a display that shows that with training in kung-fu a martial artist can gain the ability to bend the laws of physics to his own advantage. As the greater one’s kung-fu becomes the greater his physics bending ability becomes over his more normal non-kung-fu counterpart.
The first example presented here is the martial artist’s ability to fall from extraordinary heights and still land safely on the ground, a feat that is a standard in practically all kung-fu movies. The believability of this action relies restricting the camera view to the landing. If the fall and the landing were seen in a way that gives a consistent sense of the momentum, it would feel unrealistic for the character to land as safely as he or she does without crushing into the ground in an inelegantly kung-fu manner that only a super-powered comic book superhero can manage.
The earliest case of this presents itself at the beginning of the ceremony where Master Oogway chooses who the Dragon Warrior will be. As Master Sifu announces the Furious Five, they all fall onto the stage from incredible heights and still land safely on the ground. In order to hide the unrealistic physics of this action, the camera was positioned to follow and abruptly angle itself to hide the sudden yet weightless impact of the first lander, Tigress. After this camera angle has been set, the others would land as well. However, due to the new perspective of the camera, the height of the fall is not seen and thus the others can land, albeit with a strong sense of weight but not nearly consistent with the original height of the fall.
Another example of weightless fall is Tai Lung’s landing at end of the epic bridge fight. The scene makes its conclusion when a seemingly defeated Tai Lung falls tied up in the severed rope bridge on the side of the chasm opposite the Furious Five and the Valley of Peace. Incredibly, Tai Lung mysteriously builds momentum to suddenly swing up and land behind the Furious Five with a breakneck impact and in a manner too instantaneous to see. The entire midair action happens at a speed far too fast to be realistic and is hidden with the inability to see Tai Lung until after he lands. While a great way to turn the tide and defeat the Furious Five, that landing no doubtedly have crushed him of given a realistic treatment.
Perhaps one of the most climatic jumps in the film is when Tigress jumps off the mountain on her way to fight Tai Lung. This scene begins as Master Sifu admits to Po that he doesn’t know how to train him to become the Dragon Warrior. Seeing this, Tigress makes the decision to take it upon herself to fight Tai Lung. Standing on the roof of the mountain-top temple, she makes an enormous jump off the temple and off the mountain to the village below. After an exhilarating fall, she slides on an angled village roof and jumps onto another. This gives the illusion that she is slowing her descent in order to land unharmed. However, the angled slide was not nearly long enough to counter her momentum and thus she should have either continued to slide and crash into the ground or she would have simple crashed through the roof to begin with.
As illustrated, a kung-fu master would routinely jump or fall from amazing heights and with some camera magic, land without a scratch. Manipulated camera angles are very much used even in this animated film to disconnect the incredible distance and momentum from the point of impact to preserve the believability of the scene.
Another precedent of the kung-fu martial artist’s ability to twist the laws of physics to his own advantage is his or her power to apply a huge amount of force to high mass objects and creatures while being nearly immovable himself. Nearly all movies that show individuals with superhuman physical abilities have instances where someone would manipulate an object while the object would have seemingly no effect on the person. This is especially magnified by the major size differences in many of the film’s characters.
One of the most apparent representations of this movie staple is when Mantis and Sifu (both very small characters, especially compared with Po’s copious girth) would flip and throw Po around like a rag doll during his training. Mantis’s small size was exaggeratedly used to attack Po like an invisible assailant, throwing Po around by an unseen force. Soon after, Sifu would confront Po and toss him about as if he weighed nearly nothing, even lighter than what Mantis made Po appear.
Another example is the comical situation where Mantis is stuck holding up a severed rope bridge while the rest of the Furious Five fight with Tai Lung on it. At first it took four of them, Crane, Monkey, Viper, and Mantis to hold up the bridge. Then as Tigress came to deal with more than she could handle, Crane and Viper joined in. Finally, Monkey had to join the fight, leaving tiny Mantis to hold up all of their weight by himself. And while we can visibly see him struggling, he still would not have been able to hold up that bridge because he was too light (the slightest flick could have sent him airborne), and he had nothing but the friction of the ground to push off of. If he had something more substantial on the ground to give himself better leverage, it would have gone a long way to give this scene a bit more realistic believability.
A rather large instance of a character’s ability to move things while being immovable himself is in the scene of Tai Lung’s escape from the prison. When the villain is shot at by the ballistas, he then uses the bolts to provide a springboard for his escape. He then proceeded to effortlessly toss the ballista bolts into the air. But this isn’t the big physics bending event of the scene. What he does is jump up and kick the ballista bolts into firing velocity back at the ballista and the stone wall, all while barely moving himself despite being in midair. Even if made of lightweight bamboo, the large ballista bolts with their steel tips and reinforcements would likely weigh as much if not more than Tai Lung himself. Just kicking one in midair should have sent him flying backwards with at least equal speed as he had applied to the bolts, and yet he sent multiple bolts flying on the same jump without moving himself.
A movie kung-fu master often accomplishes feats of great force without an equal being applied back to himself. Even when two martial artists would combat each other, this would still apply depending on the degree of whose kung-fu was stronger. Isn’t it nice to have a built in mechanism to conveniently explain any inconsistencies in the physics applied to a cinematic kung-fu world?
The final illustration of the movie’s kung-fu ability to bend the rules of physics is perhaps subtle at first, but becomes perhaps the most obvious example when recognized: the characters’ ability to jump and reach a simultaneous midair apex and return to the ground well before inanimate objects following a similar path. Normally all objects would rise and fall at the same rate as long as air resistance remained insignificant. However, in the movie many objects would be thrown in the air while the character would jump after it, reach the objects apex at the same time as the object, and then land on the ground long before the object does.
One of the first scenes to show this difference in rising and falling speeds is when Sifu displays Tigress’s fighting agility to Po after they find him trying to practice doing splits at the training grounds. Here, Sifu throws a pair of tiles straight up in the air. When he gave the signal a full second or two later, Tigress would jump up, reach the same apex as the tiles at the same time, and kick them into rubble. After she landed a good two to three seconds later, the rubble from the tiles would then reach the ground.
Another instance of this occurs at the site of the Peach Tree as Master Sifu and Master Oogway discuss how Po could possibly defeat Tai Lung. Sifu takes a peach, throws it in the are, jumps, reaches the peach at a simultaneous apex (and casting a rather nice silhouette in front of a full moon), slices the peach and freeing the pit inside, lands on the ground, digs a hole with a quick kung-fu thrust, then finally catches the peach pit and plants it in the hole.
Finally, my last example of this physics bending ability takes place during Po’s final training test. Master Sifu offers Po a bowl of dumplings claiming that he has been trained and may now eat, if Po can take the dumplings. Quickly after it begins, the batch of dumplings is thrown up in the air. Sifu jumps up to immediately eat nearly all of the dumplings. While Sifu actually reaches his apex and falls down before the dumplings would have, the two paths of action still clearly travel and different acceleration rates, with the dumplings moving much more slowly than Sifu’s more rapid and abrupt jump.
A kung-fu capable character again possesses the ability to take the rules of normal physics and bend them to his own advantage by being able to manipulate his or her jump acceleration to a speed beyond that of a normal object. While the actual timing may vary, in each case the character in question was clearly able to jump well after the object, meet it at its highest point, and then land on the ground before the object could do so.
As shown, Kung Fu Panda is an excellent example of the power of kung-fu in a marital arts movie world. Whereas a normal person would be subject to more normal and less forgiving physical forces, a kung-fu master can push these laws to their own advantage in combat. Even any inconsistencies can be explained by the strength of the fighter’s kung-fu relative to the conditions of the situation. They are able to fall from extraordinary heights, apply incredible forces will being immovable themselves, and manipulate their midair accelerations to their benefit.
The first example presented here is the martial artist’s ability to fall from extraordinary heights and still land safely on the ground, a feat that is a standard in practically all kung-fu movies. The believability of this action relies restricting the camera view to the landing. If the fall and the landing were seen in a way that gives a consistent sense of the momentum, it would feel unrealistic for the character to land as safely as he or she does without crushing into the ground in an inelegantly kung-fu manner that only a super-powered comic book superhero can manage.
The earliest case of this presents itself at the beginning of the ceremony where Master Oogway chooses who the Dragon Warrior will be. As Master Sifu announces the Furious Five, they all fall onto the stage from incredible heights and still land safely on the ground. In order to hide the unrealistic physics of this action, the camera was positioned to follow and abruptly angle itself to hide the sudden yet weightless impact of the first lander, Tigress. After this camera angle has been set, the others would land as well. However, due to the new perspective of the camera, the height of the fall is not seen and thus the others can land, albeit with a strong sense of weight but not nearly consistent with the original height of the fall.
Another example of weightless fall is Tai Lung’s landing at end of the epic bridge fight. The scene makes its conclusion when a seemingly defeated Tai Lung falls tied up in the severed rope bridge on the side of the chasm opposite the Furious Five and the Valley of Peace. Incredibly, Tai Lung mysteriously builds momentum to suddenly swing up and land behind the Furious Five with a breakneck impact and in a manner too instantaneous to see. The entire midair action happens at a speed far too fast to be realistic and is hidden with the inability to see Tai Lung until after he lands. While a great way to turn the tide and defeat the Furious Five, that landing no doubtedly have crushed him of given a realistic treatment.
Perhaps one of the most climatic jumps in the film is when Tigress jumps off the mountain on her way to fight Tai Lung. This scene begins as Master Sifu admits to Po that he doesn’t know how to train him to become the Dragon Warrior. Seeing this, Tigress makes the decision to take it upon herself to fight Tai Lung. Standing on the roof of the mountain-top temple, she makes an enormous jump off the temple and off the mountain to the village below. After an exhilarating fall, she slides on an angled village roof and jumps onto another. This gives the illusion that she is slowing her descent in order to land unharmed. However, the angled slide was not nearly long enough to counter her momentum and thus she should have either continued to slide and crash into the ground or she would have simple crashed through the roof to begin with.
As illustrated, a kung-fu master would routinely jump or fall from amazing heights and with some camera magic, land without a scratch. Manipulated camera angles are very much used even in this animated film to disconnect the incredible distance and momentum from the point of impact to preserve the believability of the scene.
Another precedent of the kung-fu martial artist’s ability to twist the laws of physics to his own advantage is his or her power to apply a huge amount of force to high mass objects and creatures while being nearly immovable himself. Nearly all movies that show individuals with superhuman physical abilities have instances where someone would manipulate an object while the object would have seemingly no effect on the person. This is especially magnified by the major size differences in many of the film’s characters.
One of the most apparent representations of this movie staple is when Mantis and Sifu (both very small characters, especially compared with Po’s copious girth) would flip and throw Po around like a rag doll during his training. Mantis’s small size was exaggeratedly used to attack Po like an invisible assailant, throwing Po around by an unseen force. Soon after, Sifu would confront Po and toss him about as if he weighed nearly nothing, even lighter than what Mantis made Po appear.
Another example is the comical situation where Mantis is stuck holding up a severed rope bridge while the rest of the Furious Five fight with Tai Lung on it. At first it took four of them, Crane, Monkey, Viper, and Mantis to hold up the bridge. Then as Tigress came to deal with more than she could handle, Crane and Viper joined in. Finally, Monkey had to join the fight, leaving tiny Mantis to hold up all of their weight by himself. And while we can visibly see him struggling, he still would not have been able to hold up that bridge because he was too light (the slightest flick could have sent him airborne), and he had nothing but the friction of the ground to push off of. If he had something more substantial on the ground to give himself better leverage, it would have gone a long way to give this scene a bit more realistic believability.
A rather large instance of a character’s ability to move things while being immovable himself is in the scene of Tai Lung’s escape from the prison. When the villain is shot at by the ballistas, he then uses the bolts to provide a springboard for his escape. He then proceeded to effortlessly toss the ballista bolts into the air. But this isn’t the big physics bending event of the scene. What he does is jump up and kick the ballista bolts into firing velocity back at the ballista and the stone wall, all while barely moving himself despite being in midair. Even if made of lightweight bamboo, the large ballista bolts with their steel tips and reinforcements would likely weigh as much if not more than Tai Lung himself. Just kicking one in midair should have sent him flying backwards with at least equal speed as he had applied to the bolts, and yet he sent multiple bolts flying on the same jump without moving himself.
A movie kung-fu master often accomplishes feats of great force without an equal being applied back to himself. Even when two martial artists would combat each other, this would still apply depending on the degree of whose kung-fu was stronger. Isn’t it nice to have a built in mechanism to conveniently explain any inconsistencies in the physics applied to a cinematic kung-fu world?
The final illustration of the movie’s kung-fu ability to bend the rules of physics is perhaps subtle at first, but becomes perhaps the most obvious example when recognized: the characters’ ability to jump and reach a simultaneous midair apex and return to the ground well before inanimate objects following a similar path. Normally all objects would rise and fall at the same rate as long as air resistance remained insignificant. However, in the movie many objects would be thrown in the air while the character would jump after it, reach the objects apex at the same time as the object, and then land on the ground long before the object does.
One of the first scenes to show this difference in rising and falling speeds is when Sifu displays Tigress’s fighting agility to Po after they find him trying to practice doing splits at the training grounds. Here, Sifu throws a pair of tiles straight up in the air. When he gave the signal a full second or two later, Tigress would jump up, reach the same apex as the tiles at the same time, and kick them into rubble. After she landed a good two to three seconds later, the rubble from the tiles would then reach the ground.
Another instance of this occurs at the site of the Peach Tree as Master Sifu and Master Oogway discuss how Po could possibly defeat Tai Lung. Sifu takes a peach, throws it in the are, jumps, reaches the peach at a simultaneous apex (and casting a rather nice silhouette in front of a full moon), slices the peach and freeing the pit inside, lands on the ground, digs a hole with a quick kung-fu thrust, then finally catches the peach pit and plants it in the hole.
Finally, my last example of this physics bending ability takes place during Po’s final training test. Master Sifu offers Po a bowl of dumplings claiming that he has been trained and may now eat, if Po can take the dumplings. Quickly after it begins, the batch of dumplings is thrown up in the air. Sifu jumps up to immediately eat nearly all of the dumplings. While Sifu actually reaches his apex and falls down before the dumplings would have, the two paths of action still clearly travel and different acceleration rates, with the dumplings moving much more slowly than Sifu’s more rapid and abrupt jump.
A kung-fu capable character again possesses the ability to take the rules of normal physics and bend them to his own advantage by being able to manipulate his or her jump acceleration to a speed beyond that of a normal object. While the actual timing may vary, in each case the character in question was clearly able to jump well after the object, meet it at its highest point, and then land on the ground before the object could do so.
As shown, Kung Fu Panda is an excellent example of the power of kung-fu in a marital arts movie world. Whereas a normal person would be subject to more normal and less forgiving physical forces, a kung-fu master can push these laws to their own advantage in combat. Even any inconsistencies can be explained by the strength of the fighter’s kung-fu relative to the conditions of the situation. They are able to fall from extraordinary heights, apply incredible forces will being immovable themselves, and manipulate their midair accelerations to their benefit.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
HW7 - Term Paper Outline
My term paper will be using Dreamwork's "Kung Fu Panda" as it's subject. As both an animated film AND a kung fu movie this film provides plenty of physics-defying stunts.
Main Thesis: Training in Kung Fu provides the wielder the ability to bend the laws of physics.
Topic One: Martial artists are able to reach a midair apex and return to the ground well before other objects.
Support:
- Tigress jumping to kick tiles
- Sifu planting the peach pit
- Sifu & Po fighting over the dumpling
Topic Two: Martial artists can fall from extraordianry heights and still land safely.
Support:
- The Furious Five introduction landing during the Dragon Warrior Choosing Ceremony
- Tigress jumping and falling extreme distance on her way to fight Tai Lung
- Tai Lung's sudden landing at end of the Bridge Fight
Topic Three: Low mass creatures are able to apply huge amounts of force on high mass objects and creatures.
Support:
- Ending credits with punching dummy
- Sifu and Mantis flipping Po like a rag doll during first day of training
- Mantis holding up the bridge by himself
Main Thesis: Training in Kung Fu provides the wielder the ability to bend the laws of physics.
Topic One: Martial artists are able to reach a midair apex and return to the ground well before other objects.
Support:
- Tigress jumping to kick tiles
- Sifu planting the peach pit
- Sifu & Po fighting over the dumpling
Topic Two: Martial artists can fall from extraordianry heights and still land safely.
Support:
- The Furious Five introduction landing during the Dragon Warrior Choosing Ceremony
- Tigress jumping and falling extreme distance on her way to fight Tai Lung
- Tai Lung's sudden landing at end of the Bridge Fight
Topic Three: Low mass creatures are able to apply huge amounts of force on high mass objects and creatures.
Support:
- Ending credits with punching dummy
- Sifu and Mantis flipping Po like a rag doll during first day of training
- Mantis holding up the bridge by himself
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
HW6 - Stop-Motion Animation of Falling
For this animation I used some steel wire to suspend the empty bottle of gesso. I discovered that using the wire was particularly difficult because of the weight of the bottle (even though it is empty). I thought about photoshopping the wire out of the frames, but then would it make it that much different than just photoshopping the bottle into the scene? Would that be considered cheating? Hmm...
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