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.