Character Animation

For this animation, I used a desk lamp, slinky and plant. I placed the objects on a table and placed my camera on a tripod on a shelf across from the room and zoomed in on the table. I put strings on slinky and the plant. I moved the objects while I had a friend shoot the pictures. About halfway through shooting my camera battery died and we used my friend's camera. I then organized the pictures and put it all together in Quicktime Pro. This was challenging and fun all at the same time. I hope you enjoy it!

Reverse Video Reference of Walking

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The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

               
           Cars 2 is an action-packed, high-speed-thriller animated film done in 2011 by Pixar Animation Studios and is the sequel to their 2006 film, Cars. In this film, Lightning McQueen races internationally in a race called “The World Grand Prix”, a series of three races where the racing champions from around the world compete. This race was created by Miles Axlerod, a SUV that recently created an alternative fuel, Allinol, to show the globe what this alternative fuel can do. However, this race is actually a cover-up for what is actually occurring; the world’s worst engineered cars (i.e. Pacers, Gremlins, Trunkovs, Hugos, etc.), known as lemons, are exploiting Allinol by making it look bad. This is done by blowing up the racers using an electromagnetic pulsating gun that’s made to look like an official “World Grand Prix” video camera to ignite the Allinol fuel. Through a series of mistaken-identities and international espionage, it is found out that the reason that the lemons are doing this is because they have control of the largest oil reserve, which they would like to exploit. The physical world of Cars 2 is quite like our world; there are many similarities. However, being that our “actors” of this film are vehicles instead of people, the cars appear lighter than they actually are in order to give them more character. In this paper, I will be discussing the grounding and realism of the world through direction, rendering, and special effects, and the contrasting irregularities that make parts of the film unrealistic.

            For this film, Pixar wanted a grounding and realism of the world. They also wanted Cars 2 to be nothing that you expected. In order to fulfill this, the film opened with Finn McMissile, an old British spy car, out on the middle of the ocean on a small fishing boat. In this scene, the ocean’s swells are so large, so large in fact that the fishing boat is rocking back and forth, causing mist and overspray. The direction of this scene puts you in the middle of the action, making you feel like you are in the boat with Finn McMissile; this along with the realistic rendering of the water enhances the realism and believability of the world.

            The grounding and realism of the world continues when the race goes to London. This scene was quite challenging for the art department to complete because it was the film’s climax with many action sequences and London is over twenty square miles long; this sequence “includes a clockwork death trap, a gun battle by the Thames, chases through the city’s streets, and a final confrontation at Buckingham Palace” (Queen, 130). Because of all of this action that is occurring, the art department had to create twenty square miles of London, with multiple architectural styles, that could be seen from multiple eye-levels because parts of the sequence is filmed in the air. Production designer Harley Jessup states, “We’re not only racing through the city, but we’re flying above it. When the chase breaks out of the race course, the whole city of London becomes the stage for this epic battle” (Queen, 130). This scene opens with Mater, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell (another British spy car) tied up in the gears of Big Bentley, a stylized version of Big Ben constructed with car parts. Mater easily escapes and later finds out that his air filter was replaced with a bomb. Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell later escape and try to hunt down the bad guy. This chase goes from the ground, into the race, then into the sky. The chase at the ends at the front of Buckingham Palace, where they find the main villain that’s behind this whole evil scheme and the bomb that’s planted on Mater is deactivated. With that in mind, there’s a bunch of scenery that needs to be created. Plus, London has multiple architectural styles, not just one, which add to the difficulty. Harley Jessup states, “London was the toughest for us to create. We had to design miles of complex city streets showing a huge variety of architectural styles. There are antique Georgian, Victorian, Queen Anne, and Edwardian style buildings that all have been given a Cars-world twist” (Queen, 130). 

            Porto Corsa is the only exception to this grounding and realism of the physical world; it is not an actual place in the world. Porto Corsa is a combination of Monte Carlo and the Italian Riviera. Harley Jessup states, “We made up our own Italian town, attempting to merge the classic look of the Monaco Grand Prix with the charm of Portofino. We used an idealized Riviera palette of turquoise water, blue skies, lush green vegetation, terra cotta rooftops, and brightly painted stucco buildings to color Porto Corsa” (Queen, 94). Because the artists used familiar things from multiple Italian cities and tied it all together, it convinces the viewer that it’s an actual place, even though it’s actually fictitious one.

            Much of this grounding and realism of the physical world can be seen between the interactions of the characters, more specifically in the high-speed chase scenes. At the beginning of the film, after Finn McMissile makes it onto the oil platform, was spotted by the lemons. Being that he has seen too much, the lemons want him dead; this leads to a high-speed chase scene where McMissile is chased by the lemons and McMissile dives off the highest point of the oil platform. The progression of this chase is physically correct; the centrifugal force is physically and visually correct. For example, during a part of this chase Finn McMissile is being chased by a Gremlin. Finn McMissile makes a sharp turn screen right and the Gremlin follows. Centrifugal force pulls the center of gravity towards the outside of the curve and, combined with the weight, it tilts the car. Being that they were turning this way, the centrifugal force is on the driver’s side of the car, while the centripetal action is on the passenger’s side of the vehicle, causing the driver’s side of the car to pull downward. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is the fact that the Gremlin that is chasing Finn McMissile falls off of the oil rig and smashes into pieces, while Finn McMissile falls from a the highest point of the oil rig and is unscathed. This is done because the Gremlin is a lemon, and because of this, he is poorly built compared to Finn McMissile. However, the Gremlin should not have shattered into pieces on impact of hitting the ocean’s surface. Whatever the case, Finn McMissile should have received some sort of injury after diving into the water, rather than just falling, being that he fell from a much higher height than the Gremlin.

            Another scene in the film that correctly demonstrates centrifugal force is the scene where Finn McMissile is on a high speed chase to get to the electromagnetic pulsating gun. In this scene, Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell are trying to figure out what is actually going on. Holley Shiftwell then picks up the electromagnetic signal from the gun on her computer. Finn McMissile then races on the streets, jumps off of rooftops, and slides into alleyways to get to the lemons with the electromagnetic pulsating gun. The centrifugal force and the centripetal action are on the correct sides of the vehicle; in most of these chase sequences in this scene, McMissile is turning screen right, meaning that the centrifugal force is on the driver’s side, while the centripetal action is on the passenger’s side, causing the driver’s side of the car to pull downward. The only thing that doesn’t feel physically correct with this scene is the fact that McMissile appears to be driving too fast to make the sharp turns that he is making, so fast, that I feel that he would crash into the wall. For example, near the end of the chase, Finn McMissile makes a right turn, sliding into an alleyway. At the speed that he is going, I feel that Finn McMissile would not be able to brake fast enough and would hit the wall instead. Another thing that isn’t physically correct is how Finn McMissile can jump off of rooftops with very little momentum. I realize that Pixar is animating inanimate objects for this film, but cars do not jump. And, if a car does jump, it needs to gain speed and momentum in order to get across to the other side.

            Pixar loves telling great stories and Cars 2 is one of these stories. Through the travelling of different physical environments, the story is interesting all while keeping the attention of the audience. While Pixar created realistic scenery, they also added their own spin to the world. If you look real close, you can see how the artists enhanced the scenery with automobile related memorabilia; if you look closely in the backgrounds of each environment you can see car parts etched into the facades of buildings and vehicles and parts of them carved into the mountains. Though there are a few things that aren’t physically correct that break the grounding and realism of the film, the physics are broken to create a sense of thrill and suspense in an action-packed film.

 

Works Cited

Queen, Ben, and Karen Paik. The art of Cars 2. San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, 2011. Print.