Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

No lights:

One-point lighting:

Two-point lighting:

Three-point lighting:

Third Term Paper

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

Outline for Third Term Paper

Intro:
Special Effects in Film and Animation as well as Video Games vary in many different ways. Some techniques may work well for one medium but does not necessarily mean they will work well for another. It may also depend on the medium, as for instance cartoon animation cannot use real life references well. A good example is the movie Alien in relation to its just released game adaptation Alien: Isolation. One medium is obviously more real life where the other is purely a virtual reality.


"Alien":
-Released in 1979, Alien was a ground breaking film for the horror genre
-As a live action film, many of its special effects were done by making props with physical objects.
-Especially noteworthy is the "alien in the stomach" scene


"Alien: Isolation":
-Released this fall in 2014, Alien Isolation is a video game based on the famous hit movie.
-While it may not follow the film scene for scene, it presents many of the same settings and story tidbits from the movie.
-As a video game, everything is more or less done in a 3d environment, yet the feel and suspense from the movie is evident.


Conclusion:
While the techniques may vary, special effects can have different impacts in different ways. Though even if they do differ in technique, they can still deliver the same kinds of emotion that they primarily set out to do.

Character Animation

For this project, I collaborated with Christon Han and Claudia Law. We wanted to come up with something simple, yet quirky and end with a twist. After going back and forth on some ideas, Christon came up with a funny little storyboard.

This one resonated the most with us, so we decided to go for it. All we needed was a mannequin and a very simple set up. After planning the shots, we decided that I would be the lovely actor. Christon helped direct while Claudia shot most of the images. The thing that I found toughest was staggering normal every day movements and holding for several seconds. It made me realize how many in-between movements there are between poses. It was also a challenge to make sure that I exaggerated the key poses to emphasize them on screen.

 The next tough step was getting the mannequins movements to have a fluid feel, but Christon did a great job of breaking down each pose

After that, the final step was to record some simple sounds. We did this simply through our iphone recorders and then uploaded to the computer for final composing.

Here is the final movie:

All in all I think it came out great and I think it's worth a few chuckles!