Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Stereo 3D Images

My Dorm

Okay here is a picture of me in my dorm on campus in 3D!

And this isn't on campus but I just thought it was awesome.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Building a Scene in Maya


Built this in Maya

Monday, November 23, 2009

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?




Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?
The movie business’s livelihood is based on suspending the belief of its audience so that they can accept a world as real and invest themselves into that world and its story. Movie effects and computers are becoming so advance that it is getting harder to remove ourselves from a film’s world and distinguish reality from friction. What viewers know would never happen in the real world is accepted as real in an imagined world. For some breaking a physics principle works in this imagined world and is accepted as normal. Set principles such as weight, balance, arcs and path of action can be bent for entertainment value. This idea is quite predominant in the CGI animated movie, Bolt. If one observes carefully they can see many examples of physics inconsistency within the reality of a film.
The beginning sequence of Bolt is all about the impossible being possible. The main character, Bolt, is a tiny white German Shepard, that the audience is lead to believe has been genetically altered by some unknown science to be literally a “super-dog” built like a tank. The entire first sequence is an action high speeds chase designed to show off Bolt’s abilities when he is on his television show. However, the viewer is not told that this is a television show at first so the audience believes that this is truly how the world works in this film.
The dog fights against impossible odds all for the sake of his family. Bolt is especially close to his human, Penny. Penny, who is the daughter of a genius scientist, is constantly under threat of capture by villains who wish to use her as a bargaining chip for information from her captured father. Penny’s father altered Bolt to protect her from such attacks.
In this small creature there appears to be an unlimited supply of power that Bolt taps into to accomplish “super-dog” feats. He breaks through hard solid objects and it seems his very flesh is stronger and heavier than most substances. He knows no fear. He never seems to tire and his genetically altered muscles give him the ability to run faster than most vehicles.
In the Bolt universe what is accepted as real but is really science fiction, is Bolt’s ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes. Although it is called heat vision in the movie, it has more of the characteristics of a green laser so it will be referred to as a laser. Bolt can shoot a concentrated green laser from his canine eyes. This beam is not only viewed as visible light but can also be directed to far distances with enough intensity to melt holes through metal structures such as helicopters. A green laser’s entire beam, although more powerful that other conventional lasers, is not visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. An entire green laser could only be seen in the dark.
Furthermore, the anatomy of the eye is not a mirror it is a lens so Bolt could not bring enough light into his eyes to create so concentrated a beam. A laser is created by bringing in light and concentrating it into an energy beam by aid of a gain medium. Lasers are made by repeatedly reflecting light through a gain medium, which amplifies it, but an energy source is need and a large one for such a concentrated beam. The eyeball is simply not set up to produce lasers, even if it had a way to produce its own light the best that could be hope for is a magnifying glass type effect. One can over a time slowly melt or burn objects with low ignition temperatures when you hold a magnifying glass over on object to intensify the heat from the sun. If Bolt had heat vision he would not be able to use it with such an instantaneous effect and his eyes would need some form of alignment with the sun for optimum use. Everyone knows that looking directly at the sun causes eye damage. His eyes would also have to be very powerful magnifying glasses to melt its way though metal.
Bolt has a “Super-Bark” which is basically a huge sound wave that he can shoot in any direction he is pointing when he barks. It kicks up dirt, damages earth, and throws people and their vehicles, be they on the ground or in the air, shooting backward in an unavoidable shock wave. The devastation caused by this bark rivals that of the explosive pressure of a bomb, but seemingly with less fatal results and more property damage. One can assume that Bolt would have to have very strong vocal cords to create such a loud and large sound but the vocal cords would only be half of it. The mouth functions as a resonance chamber, which could actually amplify the sound coming from his throat. His head and specifically his mouth would have to be very specially designed to create such a loud sound that is usually made with the aid of giant speakers. However, the equipment needed to produce that kind of sound energy would never fit in a dog. Even if it could it would be quite short range since sound waves dissipate or rather scatter quickly with distance.
In the chase scenes it is hard to believe the actions of the motorcyclists chasing Bolt. It is very difficult to ride a motorcycle at high speeds to begin with, but the way they jump from high heights and land seamlessly on the ground at high speeds without causing damage to the bike or driver is hard to swallow. Jumps like that usually break the bike in two or cause the driver to skid out of control. They would all have to be very skilled drivers with the strongest bike frames around. Jumping off an over pass and landing on concrete would at least knock the wind out of cyclist and at worst break bones.
To protect his owner from a speeding car, Bolt charges at the menacing vehicle and rams it with his head. This causes a sizable dent in the car and it flips over. Obviously the car and dog do not act as normally expected. Many have had the unfortunates of witnessing a small animal, quite possibly a dog, being hit by a vehicle. Although the animal does not necessarily have to put a large dent in the automobile the results are usually the same, the animal hit by the vehicle is either thrown forward, run right over, or thrown off to the side of the road. This usually results in some minor damage to the car and extreme injury or death of the animal. Perhaps it the movie’s revenge for all the animals hit by cars but usually smaller things are thrown by larger thing barreling over them. Bolt not only plays a reverse role but he does not seem to be affected by the car at all. It is as if the car was made of tin foil. This scenario violates the action-reaction principle of physics. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in force and there seems to be no force acting on Bolt at all he does not even seem to slow down, he just keeps run through as the car flies out of his path.
A similar incident with the action-reaction principle happens when bolt used his head to smash through a wall. He barely slows down at all and his head does not even seem to jerk back after hitting the wall. A little dog’s head would smash against a cement wall not break it. It would be impossible for a dog to even make a dent in that wall without smashing his brains in. Whatever bolt’s head is made of its harder than concrete.
Even stranger is after Bolt’s head hits the car it follows an odd path of action. The car flips like normal but then it appears to be flung forward and flies yards away over Penny’s head before landing on the ground. The car slows down mid-flight before speeding up again but this is probably slowing down the camera for dramatic purposes. The car does not even skid on the ground after flying so far forward it lands as if it had fallen directly from over head. Bolt’s head is the pivot point and the car’s arc should stay true to that.
Even more outrageous is Bolt’s unbelievable air time when he jumps. Bolt is able to jump over a helicopter tens of feet above his head with a single jump and land several yards away after clearing the helicopter. He did not take enough time to crouch down for a decent push force to throw him up to such heights even if a little dog could have enough muscle power to do so. To make matters worse Bolt is by no mean following an arc as he seems to be almost flying over the helicopter after his jump.
Bolt and Penny both seem to have super being qualities because they are able to travel at incredible speeds without protective covering. The wind resistance and dirt particles in the air would hurt their eyes. Bolt seems unfazed by super speed. Penny needs a few minutes to adjust, but is afterwards fine and opens her eyes wide again.
The smaller the mass, the greater the acceleration. Bolt is small and should be light weight so a viewer would believe that he could be able to accelerate very quickly. However other feats he accomplishes would suggest otherwise: Bolt is small but is able flip a car with his head, break down walls and when he lands he puts dent on pavement and metal surfaces. He is even able to lift a car in his mouth. The visual hints would lead the viewer to believe that Bolt is a very heavy and very strong animal, perhaps his mass is denser than a normal dog. However if this were true Bolt would need a significantly longer time to accelerate than the audience are lead to believe. He does split second acceleration and these sudden rushes of speed do not even give Penny whiplash when she is being pulled along for the ride by Bolt.
As mentioned earlier Bolt picks up a car with his mouth. He then suspends it over a bridge showing no signs of struggle and he does not seem to need to counter the weight of the car at all. The car seems to weigh nothing in comparison to Bolt’s mighty muscles. Realistically even if Bolt could hold up the car he would need to lean back more to counter the weight.
If one observes carefully they can see many examples of physics inconsistency within the reality of a film. Although live action movies must have some aspects that hold true to physics, a CGI animated film can decide whenever it wants to obey physics or not. Bolt specially breaks the laws of physics for the sake of proving just how unbelievable the world that Bolt lives in is. The audience is made to see how fantastic Bolt can be on his TV show. That way when he is reduced to the level of a normal dog later in the film, the viewer sees just how much of a fall it is from what Bolt thinks he normally is capable of. Breaking physics hence can be used as a vital tool for stretching the limits of a reality and adding to entertainment value and emotion.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? Term Paper 2 Outline

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction? -Term Paper 2- Outline

I. Introduction-Bolt the Super dog
a. The movie business’s livelihood is based on suspending the belief of its audience. Elaborate on this.

b. In the CGI animated movie Bolt one can see many examples of physics inconsistency with reality in films. Beginning action sequence

c. Physics take a holiday

d. Path of action and arcs

e. Balance and Weight

f. Thesis Statement.

II. Action Scene description- beginning of Bolt movie

a. Unrealistic events

b. A lot of power in a small thing

c. Does Bolt ever get tired? He’s run’s faster than cars.

d. Freaking Laser beams!

e. Super Bark!

f. Fairly certain that if a motorcycle falls from great height at top speed there would be a risk of the bike and its rider breaking.

III. Physics take a Holiday

a. Bolt’s head VS Car - Action reaction principal

b. Acceleration and air resistance- dangers at such speeds unprotected

c. Bolt’s head VS wall – a little dog’s head would smash against cement wall not break it.

d. Bolt’s super jump

IV. Path of action and Arcs
a. Weird flight path of car-flips like normal and then goes flying forward yards before landing. (It probably also should skid)

b. Bolt’s head is the pivot point and the car should stay true to that.
c. The car slows down mid-flight before speeding up again but this is probably slowing down the camera for dramatic purposes.

d. Unbelievable air time-Bolt jumps over a helicopter- and lands yards away from simple jump. He should not be able to jump that high. Contrast from Comedy jump later on- arc doesn’t add up.

V Balance and Weight

a. A white German Shepard holds a car over bridge in his mouth with little to no sign of struggle.

b. Realistically even if Bolt could hold up the car he would need to lean back more to counter the weight.

c. If bolt is this powerful – What is his actual weight? It is hinted at when he land s on surfaces.

d. If he’s that heavy how does he move so fast in such a short time? Heavier objects take longer to accelerate.

VI. Conclusion.

a. Summarize the essay.

b. Restate the thesis

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Stop-Motion Animation

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Mid-semester Survey

"This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Analysis of Walking

Walk A Attempt

Walk B

Walk C

Walk D

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Term paper on Sonic the Hedgehog Physics



Kathleen O’Brien
10/09/09
The laws of Physics an Animation Universe Term paper – Super Sonic Physics

“He’s the fastest thing alive!” That is what we are led to believe about a cartoon character named, Sonic the Hedgehog. To accomplish this notion, Animation takes pains to create for its audience somewhat believable environments and concepts of physics. The paper will discuss an episode, “Heads or Tails”, and is the first, in the television series called “Sonic the Hedgehog” and how we are shown that Sonic is so fast. This episode can be found for viewing on youtube at the following URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCCQpyBpdaI&videos=9-us_pMw7xc&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1 . This series takes place on an Earth-like planet called Mobius. The surface of Mobius is polluted by an evil dictator that Sonic and his friends fight against. The planet is very similar to Earth in not only appearance but its laws of gravity are also similar. The only break in Mobius’ similarity to Earth is, although human-like creatures do inhabit the planet, the majority of the planet is populated by bipedal animals with human intelligence and robots that used to be bipedal animal. The one among those animals, who breaks the similarities to Earth the most is the above mentioned, Sonic the Hedgehog, a blue hedgehog, who has the ability to run at and maybe above, super sonic speeds. Sonic does not always comply to the laws of physics especially gravity. Among his friends it is worth mentioning that there are also individuals who are guilty of similar law breaking. All in all, the laws of Earth-like physics are maintained on Mobius unless entertainment value dictates otherwise.

As mentioned above the laws of physics, particularly gravity, on Mobius can be very Earth-like. Inanimate objects when thrown or dropped fall and land as they are expected to on Earth. Flowers when dropped gentle alight to the ground from air resistance. Hammers, tools and other heavy objects when thrown follow an arc although they always seem to make a comical noise when they do. There are hover crafts too in this world but we will ignore those because it is clear that they work by some form of science that we do not understand yet and for the most part they move as helicopter-like aircraft would be expected to move. Another object that defies gravity on Mobius to establish a mystical air is the power rings, rings made using a machine with, an unknown energy source. When created these rings float in the air and can be used to power machinery and Sonic’s speed boosts. Again this thought somewhat magical in appearance, can be classified as technology that we do not yet understand and so we will ignore it and accept it as common place on Mobius.

People and robots on Mobius are affected by being close to a fast moving subject, namely, Sonic further aiding the belief that someone as fast as Sonic could exist in an Earth-like environment. When Sonic runs past a being at his fast speeds they are either thrown off balance and fall over or they spin around very fast in a comical way. Sonic could be creating a swirling vortex that could cause someone to spin around when he runs past them. It is most likely when Sonic is running that fast it is like standing next to a speeding car or a train. The air suction that a moving object causes going at those speeds pulls you in and in some cases can throw you off balance or worse pull you in enough for you to get in the objects path and cause injury.

For all his speed, Sonic seems to need, most of the time anyway, sufficient time to slow down after speeding up just as all moving objects do when they decelerate. He rarely comes to a grinding halt, except at lower speeds for a gag’s sake, a lot of his deceleration time is off camera and we are only shown him finally coming to a sliding halt. This is most likely done due to time constraints since it would probably take up a lot of air time if they had to show him decelerating after every sonic boom. (His speed is also a good plot devise to quickly put characters into new locations without having to explain how they got there. Sonic just ran there fast.) Still he has to prepare for his stopping point and slow down in order to not over shoot it.

Sonic seems to be most bound to physics when he is not running at super speeds. As an example when sonic is sliding down a small vertical air shaft he has to force his arms and feet against the sides of the shaft. He does this to slow his descent and eventually comes to a stop just in time, if he did not he would have just fallen right down. (It is funny that while he was doing this he seemed worried despite the fact that he has been observed in other episodes running down the side of buildings faster than he could fall.) When riding down a slide he is pulled by gravity and descents down the incline as anyone would on a slide. It would appear that when he allows another force to move him he seems to have no problem with gravity or friction as long as he’s not running.

For a person, not as familiar with the show or its hero, to fully understand and appreciate Sonic’s speed some deliberation about his speed must be discussed or rather measured. With a little knowledge about acceleration you can get a rough measurement of the feats of speed that the hedgehog is capable of. Sonic can make a Sonic boom so he would have to be able to run at least 735 miles per hours as that is the speed at which an object can break the sound barrier. With that knowledge we can get an estimate of Sonic’s abilities to speed up and slow down. In the beginning of the episode Sonic is talking to his friends on screen and then Sonic runs off screen. Between the times that he was stopped and when we hear the boom is roughly a third of a second. From zero to 735 miles per hour in such a short time would mean that his acceleration is about 2205 mph/s. Acceleration like that is something you would expect from a high powered rifle bullet. It is amazing that Sonic, an organic life form, would be able to run at such speeds without causing extensive tissue, bone or organ damage from friction with the air and the force of acceleration. Supersonic jets have to be made of titanium to prevent heat damage from air at those speeds. Sonic, along with any other friend he is carrying with him, must be quite the hearty life forms to be able to endure such speeds unharmed.

One of Sonic’s amazing feats of speed is that he has the ability to run up any surface from sloped surfaces to vertical inclines. On Earth, humans are able to run up slopes and even with the right equipment like roller coasts do loops. Like Sonic, people on Earth can even run up walls, but only for a few moments, they cannot maintain the speed to defy gravity for very long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvOfUgXq1tk . Unlike Sonic who can accelerate enough to make it up a vertical wall. However as fast as Sonic is he would not be able to run on a ceiling as he is shown to do. Sonic could not run on a flat ceiling because according to Newton’s Action Reaction principle the moment that Sonic push his foot on the ceiling it would push back with the same force and then gravity would pull him down. In order to run on a surface that is not ground there would need to be an acceleration greater than the pull of gravity upwards on a ceiling. At 90 degrees, one would have to accelerate at the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s^2) in order to maintain constant speed. At more than a 90 degrees angle, less of your acceleration is in opposition to gravity. Sonic could still keep going if he was running fast enough, but at 180 degrees there is no component of his acceleration going upwards, so no matter how fast he is going he would not be able to stay on that surface. Though clearly on Mobius Sonic does run on ceilings. It would seem that Sonic has the ability of ‘selective gravity’ and he can decide when and where he wants gravity to be a factor, perhaps it is a super power.

Another example of Sonic’s powers of selective gravity is his ability to fall at will. Sonic is observed being thrown up into the air toward the end of the episode. He then stays there hanging in the air long enough to make a witty retort to a bad guy. He then attacks the bad guy and by no other force than his own will he accelerates back to the ground. It would seem that Sonic is also capable of flight when he feels inclined. It is obvious that this defiance of gravity is once again only for cartoon plot and comedy’s sake.

Mobius is not without great defiance of gravity and physics that is unrelated to comedy. One of the greatest exceptions to the rule is Sonic’s friend Miles “Tails” Prower, a two-tailed. Tails has the ability to spin his tails around and achieve flight. It would be impossible to rotate them the 360 degrees required to fly like a helicopter if his tails were attached to his body. Despite this, on Mobius it seems as long as Tails can spin his tails fast enough he will fly. When Tails spins his tails he spins them so fast that the viewer cannot see how he manages to achieve lift off. His tails blur from Tails’s speed and the audience suspends their belief that a two tailed fox cannot fly.

Mobius is an Earth-like place with Earth-like laws of physics. The fact that the planet looks and feels so familiar is what levels our expectation for it to be like ours in every way, including physics. When the otherwise happens thanks to Sonic and his friends, it is amazing to the audience, but still believable since the normal laws of physics occur and are maintained in this universe. Without having familiar boundaries of physics and gravity to comply with on Mobius, for the sake of entertainment wonder, it would be impossible to make the heroes stand out above the rest. Their abilities to do that which is normally physically impossible is what sets them above the rest and makes them admirable super heroes. For the sake of entertainment value physics can be thrown to the wind on Mobius.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Outline of the First Term Paper

Kathleen O’Brien
The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe -Term Paper outline

Super Sonic Physics

I. Introduction- Physics were made to be broken by Sonic
a. The laws of gravity on Mobius are somewhat similar to those on Earth.

b. An idea about Sonic’s speed.
c. Sonic and Co. does not always comply with the laws of Physics.
d. Rubber Toon physics

e. Thesis statement


II. Laws of Gravity’s affect on Mobius.
a. Inanimate objects fall normally
ex. Flowers, tools, heavy objects
b. People are affected by being close to a fast movie subject

c. Sonic still needs slow down time

d. Sonic seems most bound to physics when he is not running at super speeds.

III. An idea about Sonic’s Speed
a. To fully understand Sonic you must measure his speed.
b. Sonic Boom

c. Stopping on a dime

IV. Sonic and Co Breakers of Physics.
b. Sonic can hang in the air, and accelerate his falls by will.

c. Sonic may run up any surface he wants at any angle.
d. Bunnie Rabbot’s lifting abilities.

e. Tails can fly with his two tails.


V. Rubber Toon Physics.

a. Tails can shrink.

b. Just how big is that back pack?

c. Stretching arms

d. Missile fight path.

VI. Conclusion

a. Summarize the essay’s eye notes

b. Restate thesis

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Extra Credit


Went to the Once upon a dream showing at the cartoon art museum

Video analysis of path of action



Thursday, September 17, 2009

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Video Reference

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

About me

To complete my blog assignment I have to tell a little about myself. Here it goes. I'm currently 25 years young. I am female which I hope its obvious, heh. I spent about 20 years of my life on the East Coast of the United States in Long Island NY. I love New York very much and I constantly miss its sights sounds and even smells while I'm here studying at SJSU. I love animation, drawing, video games, comics, anime and cartoons. I like to make flash cartoons and I'm a demi-celebrity in an obscure fandom.

I'm left handed and have been using it to draw ever since I could pick up a pencil. I have wanted to be an animator since before I knew the term for it. I came to this conclusion after watching the first episode of Tiny Toon Adventures when I was 6.

I got on the West coast through a program call NSE (National Student Exchange) it allowed any participant to go to any school, that participated with my home university in Stony Brook, as an in state college student for a year. After being suffocated under the fine arts for 4 and half years SJSU seemed like a fresh breath of air, so I stayed...but it wasn't easy.

After about three tries I finally got into the animation program which is good because my only alternative career, if animator failed, was nun. I'm a bit of an acquired taste I've found when it comes to making friends but any friendship I do make I treasure more than gold and I'm very happy I could make friends with so many amazing people in San Jose.

Also I may or may not be a costumed crime fighting super hero.

There, I think four paragraph thingies should be enough about me.

Example of my animation



My final project for ART 114 a Sack Pantomime. I am proud of it I just wish I could have made it darker, but the down shooters in the lab are fickle devices.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Homework done

This is my blog for my Art 123 class that I have made to submit homework.