Creating Stereoscopic 3D Images

(All of these are set up for Red/Cyan Glasses)

Here's the one of me (and Shamu :)

Since Shamu is a moving object (constantly!) I taped two cameras side by side, and had my sister snap the pictures at the same time

This is my sister's snake, Sienna

Extra Credit: Lighting a Scene in Maya

1pt lighting

 2pt lighting

3pt lighting

default lighting

Building a Scene in Maya

*Also did the extra credit portion of this assignment. Post to follow

Forced Perspective

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were both 100; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline for the Third Term Paper

Intro

Paper Topic: Character special effects of TRON versus TRON: Legacy.

Background information: The 1982 Tron was the first feature to use CGI extensively. Much of the technology used was developed along the way. Tron was passed over for an academy award (for special effects) because the committee considered the computer-generated graphics “cheating”
Thesis: I will be comparing the differences the two movies in character costumes (specifically, the circuitry lighting), and “derezzing” (the process of character destruction)

Body

I. Character costumes

Tron

     •Costumes had the circuitry lines painted on (almost all were white costumes with
       black lines). The actors were filmed in black and white in a black environment.

     •Lights were added later through a process called “backlight animation”—Mattes
       with cutouts of the circuitry were lit from behind to be filmed and composited
       onto the character.

Successful (or not): Partly Successful. Created a very good “neon glow” effect, but lighting from the circuitry did not interact convincingly with its environment

Tron: Legacy

     •Foam/Rubber suits with integrated electronics. Flexible LED panels and
       self-contained power sources sewn into the suits

     •Costumes emitted their own light during filming and only needed to be digitally
       enhanced, rather than added later.

Successful (or not): Very successful. Looks like lights are actually part of characters (you know, because they are…)

II. “Derezzed”

Explanation: Short for Deresolution. Basically deletion/death for programs(characters)

Tron

How it looks:
     Circuitry fades or winks out, and the character is compressed into a flash of light
     and disappears.

How it works:

     •Similar to character costumes— using backlit animation frame by frame.

Successful (or not): Less so than the character costumes. Light looks very flat (not as if it were on a 3d form/character) before it disappears.

Tron: Legacy

How it looks:

     Characters shatter into thousands of glass-like cubes.

How it works:

     •Point-based data control

     •Character models made of cube units, constrained by bounding geometry. Once
       the model derezzes, constraints are selectively removed and cube units separate.

     •Cube units as a whole behave similar to liquid or particle dynamics (eg. If a
       character is derezzed by a force of impact, cubes will “spray” out and away from
       the force)

     •Models derez from a point of origin, with the effect spreading outward until all
       body parts are completely derezzed

Successful (or not): Very successful. The method and physics of the cubes make this very realistic (Not to mention totally cool!)

Concl.

Tron was a groundbreaking film in computer generated effects animation. Tron: Legacy takes it even further, building on 28 years of technological advancement.  Obviously this leap in technology and animation techniques gives it a bit of an unfair advantage, and Tron: Legacy is much more successful in its effects.

Sources:

IMDB—Tron

     http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/

IMDB—Tron: Legacy

     http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104001/

YouTube—TRON Costumes Making OF

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FkNYETv6Rc

YouTube— The Making of Tron (1982)

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWOLNT9VymI

Tron Wiki— Tron

     http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/Tron

Tron Wiki— Derez

     http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/Derez

Tron Wiki— Backlight Animation

     http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/Backlit_animation

Wikipedia— Tron

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron

Computer Graphics World— Original TRON

     http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/Web-Exclusives/2011/Original-TRON.aspx

Siggraph—End of Line: Character Destruction in “Tron: Legacy”

     http://www.nafees.net/siggraph/ikarashi-Tron_sketch.pdf

Photo accompaniments:

[backlit.gif]

[costume.jpg]

[wires.jpg]

[derez.jpg]

[derezzed.png]

Character Animation

I swear this is what happens anytime I leave the room...

I created this pretty much straight ahead. I had the whole idea, but no storyboarding, or any planned specific poses, shots, etc. I just went for it.
For my dollar character I was inspired by the movement of the Magic Carpet in Disney's Aladdin. I wish I had been able to get some squash and stretch to give it more character, but turns out that is a little hard to do with a real object...
A couple actions I am pleased with the way they turned out: When the character climbs out of the pocket, and when it puts its "hands" on the bag to help balance while it climbs down. These both feel pretty good to me in terms of animation.

And now, the actual process:
To start with, I taped some really this flexible wire to both sides of the bill. This allowed me to twist and pose the character.

Barely even noticeable :)

I had a lot of problems with keeping "limbs" in contact with the ground until I started using sewing pins to hold the corners of the bill to the bag. Once I got the character to the ground, I stuck the pins (still stuck through the bill) into little lumps of clay to hold everything up. Also had various sticks and props behind the bill to keep it up.

Here you can see the pins in the corners, and one of my prop-up sticks

I was working alone, so I did all the posing and shooting myself. Sorry for the really shaky video—I don't have a tri-pod (really should get one though...) so I taped the camera to the back of a chair... Spent several hours trying to do some image stabilization, but then my computer crashed and I gave up.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

My family refuses to watch movies with me anymore… Things usually happen somwhere along the lines of “Leslie, be quiet—You’re ruining it!” And then me going “Are you kidding me? That was COMPLETELY unrealistic!” “SHUT UP!” So I’ve taken to just grumbling quietly to myself. I can’t help it; when a movie is unrealistic, it really bothers me. In terms of story, character reactions, and, most recently, physics. I’ve always been able to tell when something seems a little bit off, but now I’m really able to understand why. One of the principles I’m able to better understand now is Newton’s Third Law of Motion, or the Action/Reaction Principle.  This is often misused or misrepresented in animated physics. This may be because animators don’t really think about it, or maybe because they don’t understand it (excluding the idea of Phys-Dev, or purposefully breaking the rules to achieve a specific effect). The Third law states that, for every action force, there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction. (The simplified version—for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction—is not quite as accurate, but it is close enough for most purposes.) There are several ways this law can be broken. The examples I’m going to use are; Chicken Little, where the Reaction Force depicted is too strong,;Road to El Dorado, where the Reaction Force depicted is too weak; and pretty much any Nintendo game (we’re going to go with Super Smash Bros Brawl), where the reaction force is made up. You’ll see what I mean.

My first example is from Disney’s 2005 animated movie, Chicken Little. It follows the story of a little chicken (natch) in his attempt to “save the day” from an alien invasion. After various escapades, our hero finds himself needing to ring the school bell to warn the town. The problem? The school is locked. He still needs to get to the roof though, so he improvises.  And here’s what he comes up with:

Let’s examine what’s happening here; Chicken Little is utilizing Newton’s Third Law of Motion—The force of the pressurized soda being expelled out of the bottle also exerts an equal force in the opposite direction. This is propulsion. We see examples of this principle in other forms, such as the fire extinguisher scene from Wall-E (and our own “interesting” experience with the fire extinguisher in class a few weeks ago). So if this is a legitimate means of propulsion, what is the problem here? Why does this example violate the principle of Action/Reaction? The problem is that the Reaction Force is too strong. The Action/Reaction principle states that the forces must be equal. The force created by soda being expelled from the bottle should not have been enough to be able to create enough force to achieve the height depicted.  It might have been able to lift him off the ground, but not all the way to the roof. Consider: Chicken Little is larger than the bottle. The force in the upward direction is acting upon a larger mass (the weight of both the bottle itself, as well as the character). Even though the forces—the force of the pressure expelling the soda and the force of the reaction—are equal, their effects on the objects in question—the soda and the character—are not. To move a larger mass, more force is needed.  More than what could be believably created with just the soda. Now, if there had been Mentos involved, who knows?

Alright, here we have Tulio and Miguel, the one and only Black and Blond action duo.

… alright, let’s just move on.

Our second example comes from Miguel and Tulio’s 2000 movie from DreamWorks: Road to El Dorado. And here to demonstrate it for us is Altivo:

The context for this clip is a type of ancient Mayan-style ball game, and that was the winning point (Basket? Goal? Whatever…). The real winner here though is Altivo, who somehow manages not to have his leg broken by that wall kick.  Let me explain: you see this wall?

This wall is massive. You can tell because it is solid stone... and huge. The ball is not important at this point, just the wall. Anyway, to make such a massive object visibly shake—as Alivo does in the clip—you would need a huge force. According to “Cowboy Bob” (we know he’s a reliable source because he has “Cowboy” in his name. [Source http://www.lemen.com/qa221.html]), the force of a horse’s kick can be anywhere up to 2000 PSI (pounds per square inch). I don’t know if that would be enough to shake the wall as depicted, but it would definitely be enough to do some damage to that leg. Considering Newton’s Third Law of Motion, this huge force exerted on the wall would also have a huge reaction force exerted simultaneously on Altivo. Another point to consider is the stopping time of the impact. Altivo is wearing shoes, and kicking a stone wall. The stopping time for his foot would be extremely short (just like the “vampire stake” demo with the ceramic tile). Since Altivo’s leg is the only contact point with the wall, it would have to absorb the brunt of the force. It does not show the evidence of this, however, and merely bounces off the wall with a “boink”

So, the reason that this example doesn’t hold to the Action/Reaction Principle is that the Reaction Force is too weak.

Here is a slightly longer clip from this scene:

In our last example, there’s no reaction force at all… Or action force… or any force. The characters just… go. That’s right, I’m talking about the infamous “Double Jump.” Officialy, it is called the Air Jump or the Midair Jump. Unofficially, I just call it the “wait… that’s not physically possible…”

The double jump occurs in many Nintendo games. We’re going to use Super Smash Bros Brawl. In this platform-based combat game, players attack each other in an attempt to knock opponents off the platform (called the “map” or “stage”). Players can play as various Nintendo characters from different games. Each character has different move sets and special abilities, but every character has at least one double jump (and some have more than one!).  So what is the double jump, exactly?

This is a character—Sheik—performing the double jump. As you can see, it starts off as a normal jump. But somewhere around the apex of the jump, the player decides they need to go higher. So they just jump again. What?

Before we look at why this is impossible, let’s talk about what makes the first jump possible; the character crouches, then extends, exerting a downward force on the stage. According to the Action/Reaction Principle, the stage exerts an equal force in the upward direction on the character, launching them into the air. For the second jump, however, only the first two steps are possible. An airborne character would be in a state of weightlessness. Crouching and jumping positions would shift their CoG, but no force would be created unless the character came into contact with an object. Since the character is no longer in contact with the stage (ground), there is nothing for them to exert the action force upon.  So there is nothing to exert a reaction force back, and the second should not be able to occur.

An aside: though all characters have this ability, some characters, such as MetaKnight and Pit, have wings. The animations for their actions and double jumps reflect the use of such. This at least makes sense. But for the rest—the characters without wings— the double jump is a physics impossibility.

So as you can see, there are several ways in various animated media that the action reaction principle is both utilized and ignored. Some are intentional (Phys-Dev), some are simply a result of not understanding the physics involved, and some are simply choosing to ignore the effects. As for the ones we’ve looked at; The Chicken Little example could almost work. It relies on a casual understanding of the principle, but, ironically, falls short of an accurate execution. I believe this was done on purpose to fulfill the need of the character to get to the top of the building. The inaccurate reaction force can be forgiven as a means to an end. In the Road to El Dorado example, depicting an accurate Reaction Force would severely detract from the story. The action would either not have been possible at all, or a character would have been injured. Well, we obviously can't have that. I can't really explain away our Super Smash Bros double jump. It's not a physical reality, but neither is hardly anything else in the game. Maybe it's magic. We'll just have to let it go. 

No, not….

Great, now I’m going to have it stuck in my head for the rest of the day…

Well,  I suppose there are worse things than that song. Like bad physics, for instance. Yet despite their flaws, I will continue to love Road to El Dorado and Super Smash Bros Brawl (Yes, just those ones. Honestly, I didn't ever think much of Chicken Little). 

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Second Term Paper: Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

I. Intro
   A) Principle to be examined: Action/Reaction (Newton's 3rd Law)
   B) Example(s): Chicken Little, Road to El Dorado, and almost every Nintendo video game
                            ever (we'll go with SuperSmash Bros. Brawl)


II. Body
      A) Chicken Little
            1. Example: Character uses a shaken up soda bottle to propel self up (a full
                                building height).
            2. Why it Violates the principle of Action/Reaction: Reaction Force too strong
                                While this is a legitimate means of propulsion, it would not have
                                been able to create enough force to lift the weight of the character
                                to the height depicted.

   B) Road to El Dorado
            1. Example: Altivo (the horse) kicks a wall in the ball stadium, hard enough
                                to visibly shake it.
            2. Why it Violates the principle of Action/Reaction: Reaction Force too weak
                                The force needed to shake such a massive object should have
                                resulted in a reaction force strong enough to break Altivo's leg.

C) Super Smash Bros. Brawl
            1. Example: Characters can do what is referred to as a "double jump" (after the
                                apex of a jump, they can jump again in midair).
            2. Why it Violates the principle of Action/Reaction: No Reaction Force
                                (or even initial action force, really)
                                For the second jump, there is nothing to exert a force upon(empty
                                air) that can exert a reaction force. Therefore, there is nothing to
                                carry the character against the force of gravity.


III. Conclusion

Reverse Video Reference

Wow, this was really hard :/
I actually did study the clips, but still I don't think I got the timing right. Well anyway... here they are:

Walk A

The Cane

Walk B

The Strut

Walk C

The WTF!?

Walk D

The Cool Professor

Poor Shamu (our puppy) is sick this weekend, so he decided not to join in this time

note: I didn't make this, but I like it and it's relevant, so...

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

The real Fruit Ninja

(yes, I like to think I'm funny :/ )

Looking back, I probably should have done something a bit simpler. It took forever to deal with all the "moving parts" in 3D space (as opposed to setting something up on a desk with a downshooting camera...). I ran out of time over the weekend, and had to do it all a bit last minute. But I went back and fixed a lot of things, and actually learned a lot!

First I planned out my staging. I set up a white background and wore black, because I knew i would be photoshopping later. I had to decide where I would stand, and where the apple was coming from. I got out my sword and figured exactly where I wanted to make the cut. I took some reference videos of throwing the apple to that spot, for timing and arcs.
I had to calculate 3 parabolic arcs—the whole apple, and two pieces after the cut—which I did by measuring the 3d space in which they would be traveling, and deciding how many frames before each section hit the ground. I hung strings from the ceiling, cut to the height, per frame, the apple would be on the arc. That took the longest time: planning the arc and hanging the string to mark it. Anyway, then I stuck the apple on a stick. My sisters helped me out my holding the apple exactly where I put the string markers, while I acted out the cut. I also had them turn the poles to make the "thrown" apple more realistic with spinning.
Then I had to photoshop the poles and strings out, so I ended up just getting rid of the background entirely. I used photoshop to stabilize the images, replaced the background, and exported layers to images (about 50 frames). Then I used the Time Lapse Assembler program to make all the images into a movie.

Here's a couple of tests along the way:

Video made from the original photos, before any editing happened.

After I took the background out, but before image stabilization and new background.

All the frames layered together

Some shots of the set up and helpers:

strings and things

"pole people" plus puppy :)

Also:
Yes, I have actually done this in real life. Cutting practice, called Tameshigiri, is an important part of sword training (Kendo).

The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

            You love a good movie, right? Of course you do—we all do! And I have no doubt that you have very good taste, at that. So what makes a good movie? Obviously, the most important thing is that the story has to be good. Also, the characters have to be relatable, the settings have to work in context, and the action has to be believable. This last one is key. Although we tend to overlook it when it’s done right, we can often tell when something feels off. So with that in mind, let’s explore the physics in the world of Avatar:

            What? No, not that one. While James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ was truly a groundbreaking film—and presents a whole slew of physics I could talk about—I’m going to go with something a little more fun; Avatar: The Last Airbender

            No! Definitely not that one! To review M. Night Shyamalan’s monstrosity of an adaptation would require watching it again, and once per lifetime is far more than enough for me.

            Ah, here we go. That’s more like it. This is Aang. He’s the star of our show today, with a little help from these guys:

            Their series—Avatar: The last Airbender— was aired on the kid-targeted network Nickelodeon. It had 61 half-hour episodes in 3 seasons, and ran from 2005 to 2008. Ok, so it’s not really a movie after all. But a great TV show is just as good. I will be pulling examples from multiple episodes to answer the great mysteries of physics in the Avatar universe. Before I can do that, though, there’s something you should know: Magic. Although it’s not magic, not really—It’s called bending. This bending introduces a new natural force, and does have a quite significant effect on the physics of the world. Most objects and actions NOT associated with bending stretch the laws of physics, but remain believable. Many, but not all, actions associated WITH bending deliberately break them.

So what is this magical bending, and how does it work? Well, people with the ability, called benders, can “bend,” or manipulate one of the four elements: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.

Bending does not always necessarily follow the physics of our world, but does follow what I would consider logical. In Ba Sing Sei the mysterious Dai Li, use earth bending to cling to solid wall faces. Geckos can do this in real life, but humans can’t. There has to be a whole lot of friction to balance the force of gravity. The Dai Li get around this problem by literally willing the earth wall to hold them up, just like willing a rock to levitate without touching it.
There are particular types of bending that actually do follow real-world physics.. While fighting Zuko, Aang uses Airbending to change his trajectory and dodge a blow mid-air. Newton’s third law of motion states: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When Aang created a blast of air going in one direction, the air also exerted and equal and opposite force on him. He was pushed away from his air blast, successfully dodging.

            Ok, in real life, pick up a rock. And no, unfortunately you cannot use earth bending to do it. Now pick up a heavier rock. Which is harder to lift? Obviously, the heavier one is harder. Well, it works exactly the same in Avatar. Heavier objects, such as large rocks or large amounts of water, take a great deal more effort to bend.

There is a counter argument to the logic: One of the largest deviations from believable physics is fire bending. In the Avatar universe, fire exerts a physical force. Disposable crewmen hit by fireballs are thrown back, as if struck by a solid object. Fire benders often use blasts of fire to propel themselves forward. In the case of strong fire benders, such as Azula, they can even fly.

This should not be possible. Fire is pure energy. It exists as the breaking of chemical bonds in its fuel source. It should not be able to exert a force its own.

            Now let’s take a look at the gravity of the situation. Falling and flying both happen a lot in this series. Usually, it’s Sokka (the comic relief of the group) falling and Aang flying.

            And here’s how well one one of Sokka’s comical falls turned out. Before he got stuck in a hole, however, Sokka fell in a parabolic arc. Proper arcs occur throughout the series. Thrown objects follow realistic arcs (except Sokka’s boomerang. More on that shortly), though not always realistic timing. Aang uses airbending to jump many times higher than he should be able to, but also follows parabolic arcs.

Often though, rules of gravity are broken. As Sokka exclaimed, “I’m just a guy with a boomerang. I didn’t ask for all this flying and magic.” Sokka is decidedly the least-magical member of the group. But that boomerang, though… I don’t know much, but here’s my best reasoning (based on the class so far, plus some internet research); The return factor of a boomerang is dependant on the forward motion (inertia) as well as the rotation. The top wing travels forward and the bottom wing travels backward as it spins. Although they are rotating at the same speed, the wings are traveling through the air at different speeds. This brings into play the Magnus effect, which is aerodynamic lift produced by an object’s spinning motion. It creates pressure from the side at the top of the spinning boomerang, causing it to turn. To return completely, the flight must not be interrupted. But at one point, Sokka throws it at Combustion Man. It hits, then Sokka catches it. What?

            When the boomerang struck an object, the lift caused by the rotating wings would have been dispersed. The unbalanced force (Combustion Man’s head) would have caused the boomerang to stop, and then gravity would have done the rest. But the story didn’t call for Sokka to lose it (yet!).

            Later on, Aang slows himself during a fall by twirling his staff and hovering like helicopter. According to Bernoulli’s Principle, the speed of the staff would cause its airspace to become lower pressure. Then the air pressure under Aang would be enough to exert an upward force. But Aang is not light enough. Think 12 year old boy, not ping-pong ball... It’s possible he was using a form of airbending in tandem with his trick. Another airbending oopsie occurs with Appa, the Sky Bison. It appears that Appa flies by being lighter than air (floating), but it is established that he is heavy while on the ground. He lumbers, and leaves deep footprints. I call shenanigans.

            There are both realistic and non-realist depictions of Inertia in the avatar universe. When the main characters go ice dodging, Sokka has to steer sharply to avoid hitting dangerous rocks. The rules of inertia call for Katara and Aang (in the back of the boat), to be thrown against the side of the boat, to the outside of the turn. Guess what? It happens. The boat suddenly turns out from beneath them, but inertia causes them to continue to travel in their original line of motion. Another good depiction inertia is when Aang bends the elements in an orbit around himself. His bending force acts as centripetal force, keeping the objects in. When he lets them go, they fly outwards away from him, following the rules of inertia. Zuko has a similar attack with fire.

            Here’s an example of “cartoon physics.” That is, a scene that deliberately breaks the laws of physics to achieve a comical effect. After a chase scene, Azula manages to stop at the edge of a drop-off—from a run— without her inertia carrying her over. Her arms flail wildly, but she regains her balance. This is in direct contradiction to Newton’s first law, which states that an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction until acted upon by an unbalanced force. There is no unbalanced force present, and Azula should have continued along her path of motion and fallen (as Zuko does when he charges through the door after her).

            The avatar universe is rich with possibilities, and I’m really glad the creators chose to structure them the way they did. I think the physics were presented in a very mature way, without relying heavily on gags and tricks. While there are times that laws of physics are broken for effect, these are used sparingly. The general physics, while not exactly like our own, are close enough that they are believable.

            I have wondered what the show would be like if they had use a more “cartooney” handling of physics. I think it would have severely detracted from the overall impact. The actions would not have seemed as important. The bending would have lacked organization and logic. Without the more serious approach to the physics, this could have been “just another kid’s show.” I was skeptical when I first began to watch it (I was already in college—far too old for cartoons), but I was amazed at how good it was, and I believe the handling of the physics played a part in that. If you subtract the “magic” (bending) effects, this series has slightly exaggerated, but still believable physics.

Waterbending IRL

Outline for 1st term paper

Physics in “Avatar: The Last Airbender”

I. Introduction

a) Film: Animated TV series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”

b) Introduce idea of Bending—manipulative control of elements (water, earth, fire, air)

c) Thesis: Most objects and actions NOT associated with bending follow “our” natural laws of physics.  Most objects associated with bending deliberately break them.

II. Body

A. Falling, jumping and flying

            1. Realistic depictions

                        •Sokka falls in a parabolic arc after stepping off a ledge

•Non-airbenders use gliders to fly via thermal air patterns around the Northern Air Temple

•The Omashu mail system sled slows out as it begins to slide down the chute/slope

            2. Non Realistic depictions

                        •Sokka’s boomerang returns to him after it hits something

•It appears that Appa flies by being lighter than air (floating), but it is established that he is heavy while on the ground.

•Aang uses airbending to jump many times higher than he should naturally be able to do (but follows parabolic arcs, so this goes in both categories?)

B. Inertia

            1. Realistic depictions

•Characters are thrown against the side of the boat when it turns sharply

•Aang bends the elements (rocks) in an orbit around himself, and they fly straight away from him when he releases them (following inertia)

            2. Non Realistic depictions

•The Library sinks into sand as if it were water (the sand should be a balanced force opposing gravity at this point)

•objects—particularly with earth bending—accelerate instantaneously (without drag)

Characters traveling forward are knocked sideways and stop, without continuing to move forward

C. A new “Natural Force” exists (Bending power)

1. Bending does not necessarily follow the physics of our world, but does follow what we would consider logical

                        •Aang uses Airbending to change his trajectory mid-air

                        •Toph bends earth behind herself as a launching point to jump higher

                        •Heavier objects (like large rocks and lots of water) are harder to lift

                        •Fire exerts a physical force. Soldiers hit by a fireball are thrown back

•When Hama and Katara bend water out of trees and plants, the plants are left shriveled by its absence

2. Counter-Example

Objects expand (gain mass) without appropriate energy exchange (Eg. Aang’s glider, Jennamite rings). Even considering bending, this is not logical

III. Conclusion

If you subtract the “magic” (bending) effects, this series would have very believeable real-world physics, with just a few inconsistencies.

If you don't get this, please go watch The Princess Bride

Video Analysis of Path of Action

Original reference with 6 jumps (plus puppy jumps!)

Track of my jump

And here's Shamu's jump

Video tracks of both jumps

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

He still thinks I'm trying to play ball with him :)