Extra Credit Lighting a Scene in Maya

Without Lighting

One-Point Lighting

Two-Point Lighting

Three-Point Lighting

Building a Scene in Maya

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

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

Outline of the Third Term Paper

Snow effects in Frozen (2013) and The Dark Knight (2008)

I. Frozen
            -Program called Matterhorn was used

            -Uses a method “utilizing a usercontrollable elasto-plastic constitutive model integrated with a hybrid Eulerian/Lagrangian Material Point Method.”

            -Believable qualities of snow such as frostiness and snow flurries

            -Replicates both the solid and fluid like properties of snow

            -Realistic handling such as it when it is being thrown or dropped

            -Lighting is nice

            -Exaggerated at times because the snow is linked to the character Elsa and how she is feeling; it is an extension of her emotions

            

II. The Dark Knight Rises

            -Fake snow is used because it was filmed during 100 degree weather
            -All the actors wear snow related attire to create the feeling of coldness

            -Steam is used to create coldness

            -Lighting is used to enhance feeling of cold and iciness

            -There was dress snow for small scenes; it was like a lightweight dusting

            -Bigger scenes had to use extensive fake snow

            -Successful, but not noticeable
            -Snow is only a background element

        

III. Conclusion

            -Both films had believable snow effects. Frozen’s effects were more impressive. More effort and time was put into the Frozen, and also computer programs were used. The Dark Knight Rises uses traditional snow affects that are used for live action movies. The effects are not that impressive, but also because it is not an integral part of the story. Both movies feel cold and icy. The snow effects of each movie fit the story they are in and how they are used. 

Websites:
http://collider.com/chris-corbould-the-dark-knight-rises-interview/
http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/making-of-disneys-frozen-snow-simulation/

Character Animation

Peabuddies

For the stop-motion animation, I collaborated with Edward Clark and Chi-an Yang. I came up with the idea while I was looking around my room. I saw the peas, and thought they would be fun to animate. After, I saw my portable fan and decided the peas would fight the fan.  Eddy and Chi-an approached me and I shared my idea with them. They liked the concept, so we decided to go with it. 

We set up a table in the art building and used two light sources plus the overhead lighting. We used a simple set up for the backdrop, a white sheet. I used my DSLR to take the photos. We didn't have a tripod so I had to be creative with the set up. We planned out the whole thing first using storyboards, and followed them pretty closely. I was in charge of photography for the most part, and monitoring everything overall. Eddy was responsible for animating the peas. However, we each had an equal say for everything. We used photoshop to edit the photos. Editing was a bit tedious at times, because there were some shots where three hands had to be edited out. In the last frame, I left Eddy's hand for fun. Chi-an was in charge of that area. I put the photos together and edited everything in After Effects. Overall, it was a fun project, and it was cool to see the outcome.