Michelle Vu's PHYS 23 Blog

I used a red/cyan pair of glasses for this assignment.  Image #1: Statue  Image #2: CVC Image #3: Self-Portrait

 Original Image - 5822  Maya Render Maya Render - Different Angle

Michelle Vu - M.V. in Maya

Star Trek and Faster-Than-Light Travel For as long as man could look up, the sky has fascinated the individual. The shower of stars across the night sky has enticed man to create myths, songs, and sonnets. The wonder has captivated a whole generation with science fiction movies and shows like Star Wars and Star Trek . What was once fiction soon became possible with the invention of space travel and the first man on the moon. What else could science draw from fiction? In the Star Trek franchise, a feature of the ship is warp drive, which is essentially a speed boost for the heroes to traverse the cosmos faster than the speed of light. Although it is a work of fiction, Star Trek has influenced actual scientific research on answering the question of whether or not this method of faster-than-light (FTL) travel is possible. Scientists like Miguel Alcubierre and Harold White have developed plausible theories for real warp drive. Although there are some logistical difficulties, warp dri...

Thesis/Intro: In the Star Trek franchise, a feature of the ship is warp drive, which is essentially a speed boost for our heroes to traverse the cosmos faster than the speed of light. Although it is a work of fiction, Star Trek is influenced actual scientific research on answering the question of whether or not this method of faster-than-light (FTL) travel is possible. Scientists like Miguel Alcubierre and Harold White have developed plausible theories for real warp drive. Although there are some logistical difficulties, warp drive is technically possible, which opens up the possibility of faster space travel and exploring new depths of space we could not reach before. What was once pure fiction is developing into nonfiction. Body Paragraphs: Miguel Alcubierre developed the idea of Alcubierre Drive in 1994, inspired by Star Trek’s warp drive. He proposed the warp drive was possible by creating a warp bubble around the ship, using energy to produce a wave that would contract the ...

Character Animation Stop Motion For this assignment, I felt like I improved from the falling stop motion assignment. I had a better idea of the process and I am happy with what I shot. I worked alone on this shoot. Most of the props and set went as planned, except for the clay model. I could not afford clay because money is tight right now, but I made do with a model made of paper clips. I used tape and kneaded eraser to pose the character and keep it in place. I used a DSLR camera to shoot and Adobe Premiere to edit. I used the straight-ahead animation method, "playing back" (i.e. scrolling through the pictures) every shot to make sure it flowed. I used tape and assorted boxes and books to prop the camera up and keep it still, however, there were some shakes, especially near the end.

Script: For the character animation assignment, I plan to shoot a character waking up from sleep. The setting will be a bedroom. The character will start laying down, under the covers of the bed, with its back to the camera. An alarm will go off, off-screen. The character will turn over and then push itself up to a sitting position. Then, it will throw its pillow to turn off the alarm. Then, it will stretch its arms above its head, let its arms drop, and push the covers away from its body. Finally, it will scratch/rub its back and its head will turn to the side. For props, I will make a small bed with a blanket and pillow and the character will be a clay figure. For the backdrop of the room, I will use the corner of a room and make a tiny poster to hang on the bedroom wall for scale. For shooting, I will use a DSLR camera and tripod that I check out from the school’s IRC. To record sound effects, I will use my phone. For editing, I will compile the shots in Adobe Premiere Pro. Bo...

Clip A Clip B Clip C Clip D

Eraser (1996) Commando (1985) John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Do you ever think about the magic behind movies? We go into the theater and are awed by the harrowing stunts, crazy explosions, and death-defying action. Behind the scenes of every movie, there is a team making sure things run smoothly, look consistent, and look at least somewhat believable. One of the keys to a believable movie is to make sure the physics of the movie are correct. However, nothing is ever perfect and movies are no exception. Many action movies have unrealistic physics when it comes to firing guns because there is often little or no recoil, which violates the action/reaction principle of physics. In this paper, I will analyze three movies that have incorrect physics when it comes to recoil: Commando , Eraser , and John Wick: Chapter 2 . I will also explain how recoil works. Lastly, I will go over why there is no recoil in some action movies. Although it is a small detail, more attention to recoil wo...

Intro/Thesis: Many action movies have unrealistic physics when it comes to firing guns because there is often little or no recoil, which violates the action/reaction principle of physics. Movies: Eraser (1996) John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Commando (1985) Body: Guns in real life, how they work Why they recoil/ every action must have an equal and opposite reaction In these scenes, the gun does not recoil, or does not recoil as much as it should for the devastating force it fires Describing why movie guns do not recoil (because often firing blanks, or using a prop gun and sound, flash, and sometimes shell casings are added in post-production) Conclusion: If the movies wanted to be more realistic, there would be recoil, but sometimes it's just cooler to have a tough guy unaffected by gun recoil.

Stop Motion of Falling I created this clip using a string to suspend my character. I used an iPhone camera and put it together in Adobe Premiere. I edited out the string in Adobe Photoshop. I encountered quite a bit of challenges shooting this animation. This is the first stop motion animation I have ever done and I do not have a lot of prior experience animating. Timing was hard for me, but I did it to the best of my ability and tried to follow the odd rule. It was also hard keeping the motion consistent and believable for the falling because I had the clay man suspended on a string. Next time, I would like to have better time management and work on the timing of the animation itself to help myself figure out how to best shoot it.

Script and Notes I plan to have a little clay man sitting in a tree and writing a letter. The letter slips out of his hand and starts falling. He reacts by lunging for the letter and he starts falling out of the tree. There will be a moment where the man and the letter will be falling and the letter will be falling at a slower speed than the man. The clay man will hit the ground first and the letter will land peacefully on his head. I plan to shoot with a DSLR camera. I will put together the shots in Adobe Premiere. I want to shoot inside and use either my mom's bonsai tree or buy/make a fake tree. I will need to take video reference of a paper falling and a heavier object falling.  Boards Reference

Tracker Video Frame Tracker Video

Video Reference - Orange Toss Frames - Fourth Down at Halftime

 Here are some examples of work from my classes: Sphere Render; Graphite Still Life with Eggplant, Tomato, and Lemon; Gouache https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irEBOfv4Ug4 I do not have any animation work, so here is a link to the musical number, "Almost There", from the Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog". A short bio about myself: My name is Michelle Vu and I am an Animation/Illustration major at SJSU. I’m in my second year, so I’ve taken most of the foundation ANI courses and PHYS 23 will be my first science class since high school chemistry. When I graduate, I want to find a storyboarding job, but knowing myself, I’ll probably do freelance art work for a while or work a small non-art job to save up some money.