IN A STORM

For our midterm project, my group is adding a couple shots into a scene from Pixar’s UP. This particular scene takes place when the main character’s house flies into a storm cloud. Our group is going to need rain, and clouds to create believable shots. Above, are some pictures from the scene.

Similar scenes from other movies that served as useful resources were: the final fight scene at the end of Dream Work’s How to Train Your Dragon which takes place within a huge cloud in the sky, and Paramount’s Stardust. In the movie stardust, there is a pirate ship that flies through the sky (for almost half the film), and the pirates on deck are lightning thieves, so there are some really good references of storm scenes that take place right inside the cloud!

Prince of Egypt Sound FX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EHP5eVkH6Y&p=B7A7226D23FE2FF1&playnext=1&index=39

This is part 3 (of 3) on the making of Dream Works The Prince of Egypt. They talk about all sorts of effects that they had to composite into the film, and the difficulties they faced. The movie was made in 1998 (approximately), so most of the effects were ground breaking at the time.

In one scene from the film, there are Hundreds of Hopping frogs, pestilent insects, Thousands of interactive locusts, clouds, lighting, and meteors on fire with small explosions as they hit the ground. This is that scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oX-Kcx2BAc

Breaking ground... And other stuff for that matter

When breaking stuff in Maya, I tried to think outside the box as far as references go. I observed paper ripping. I ripped a page of a magazine, a blank white piece of printer paper, and a piece of construction paper. The magazine had the cleanest rip, and the page appeared thin in comparison to the other two pages. The construction paper had a very jagged rip, and different layers within the paper were revealed after the paper was ripped.

Over the summer there was a wall of shale near my friend’s beach house on Lake Erie. I was unable to visit it recently; however, over the summer I use to like throwing the shale at a concrete wall. Without leaving a mark on the concrete, the shale rock would explode into thousands of pieces (depending on the force that I threw it at.) This memory is a useful reference for observing how force and momentum influences how an object will shatter.

Other memories that serve as good references (for shattering objects) are when customers at Vidler’s accidently drop something fragile that breaks upon contact with the floor. (ALL SORTS OF OBJECTS HAVE BEEN BROKEN THIS WAY!)

RAIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lpoeXpc7dQ&feature=related

Don’t mind the first 13 seconds which is a clip from shrek, but the rest is a clip from the movie Forrest Gump. 2 minutes and 36 seconds into this link Forrest says, “One day it started raining and it didn’t quit for four months.” This is a great scene from the movie, that shows all sorts of rain. The clip includes heavy rain, light rain, and even rain from ALL directions. For the last 5 seconds of the scene, the rain stops suddenly and the sun comes out. The lighting and effect of the scene completely changes.

This clip is really useful as a reference because of its many variances of rain. There are different times of day and different amounts of rain that are useful to study.

Fluid

I love the appearance of fluid effects. When I was younger I used to enjoy dropping food die into water and watching it dilute. The following links are two scenes that really inspire me because of their usage with this effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGDM5svwFN4 -Dumbledore’s Army from Harry Potter 5 produce Patronus spells. The Patronus spells look like a fluid effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrVdCkKxty4 –Nightcrawler from the opening scene in X-men 2. Teleportation appears to use a fluid effect.

I really like how fluid appears to trail the animals produced from the Patronus spell in the fifth Harry Potter Film. How the fluid dissolves into the air behind the spell, and how they glow creates a beautiful appearance. Also I like how Nightcrawler from X-men would disappear and reappear. The fluid used with him wasn’t filled with as much motion as the Harry Potter scene but the effect had gave life to his actions.

Fire

I was observing fire and how it looks/works. Based on it's size and temperature it works and appears quite different. A small match of fire flickers and is quite weak, especially when it is moving. The air nearly puts out the flame if a match moves too quickly.
A bonfire is quite different. Once it gets going, a three foot fire crackles and produces quite a bit of heat. It flickers more toward the tips of the flame at a fast pace. When a log is taken from the bonfire, still ablaze, it can continue to burn but becomes weaker the longer it's away from the fire.
Weak fires are more effected by the wind, and also stay closer to their fuel source; For instance, when a log is taken from a bonfire and the fire is strong it will burn about three inches tall, but as it becomes weaker and closer to going out, the fire clings to the wood for dear life, and reduces to less than an inch in height.

CEREAL!

This week I got some golden grams cereal for breakfast. I made sure to pay attention to how the cereal hit the bowl, and how it flowed from the box. As far as bounciness went, the first layer of cereal to hit the bowl fell flat and left the surface a little but for the most part the cereal just stayed where it landed. As it toppled from the carton it seemed to require a couple shakes to actually leave the box. The golden grams appeared to group together due to their shape but not their stickiness. As I poured the milk, the cereal pieces began to float. Then I enjoyed my breakfast.