Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

     Every day our knowledge, curiosity, and theory about objects beyond our planet grows. To reach these new heights we develop technology to sustain being jettisoned out of the atmosphere and on to space. During the 20^th century space race, Werner von Braun once said, "Our two greatest problems are gravity and paper work. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming." In animation we deal with quite a bit of both. Gravity being an unseen force that every mass in existence displays towards one another, it’s no wonder artists love to play with the effect of something that is felt rather than explained. Re-imagined across multiple forms of media, gravity can be used to create a fantastic, satirical, and otherwise fun universe.

     Just being big enough is just what it means to gravitate items towards an object… right? Well that’s the idea in the Katamari Series. In this game you get a ball that is described as “sticky”, but acts more like a magnetic or gravitational object. As your character rolls the ball along, it picks-up items to add to its mass so long as they are small enough in mass relative to the current size of the Katamari. I say mass because long, thin objects can be picked-up just as easily as small, stumpy ones. Objects can also be released from the Katamari if they are on the surface-level of the ball as the ball hits or is hit by a much-too-big object. Another evidence of gravity-based Katamari physics is when using a power-up in Katamari Forever called “Robo-King’s Heart”, all items nearby that can be rolled-up are automatically gravitated toward the singularity that is the player’s ball.

     This is an impossible case of gravitational pull since the Katamari, though relatively larger than another object, is still too small in mass to attract other objects to it. The item in question this time is clearly fiction-based, so it is more possible that it is a super-dense ball, but only as possible as we allow ourselves to believe it. We assume that the character rolling the ball does not become stuck as he is the Prince of All Cosmos and probably has some fantastic power to defy the ball’s gravity (he is about 3 inches tall at all times). A caveat here, there is a particular level where the Prince is asked to roll-up the cosmos including planets, galaxies, and eventually the biggest star at the center of the universe. In this case the objects should be attracted to the Katamari even from far-away due to its incredible mass.

     Although often frowned upon, and perhaps even politically incorrect these days, the show Family Guy by Seth McFarlane often makes jabs at how obese Peter seems to be. This joke is taken especially far during season 4, episode 17 “The Fat Guy Strangler”. During the episode, Brian tries to convince Peter that he is fat so that he can avoid a serial killer targeting “fat guys”. Peter is offended and challenges Brian to prove his point. Brian then proceeds to gently toss an apple next to Peter. The apple bounces a couple of times—taking into consideration the Earth’s own gravity—without touching the ground and proceeds in orbit around Peter’s largest diameter. Brian proceeds to throw in a book, a glass full of ice-water, and an entire television (approximately 24” standard definition, optional viewing of Example 1 below).

     It is true that we, as humans with mass, have our own gravitational pull, but our escape velocity is ridiculously low—just like with the Katamari. Peter would have to be a super-dense clump of mass to display a gravitational field similar to that of a planet. Pluto, can support a moon that is almost 20% its own mass (similar to Peter and the Television), but that is due to the total gravity of the two objects on each other. This invisible tether is only possible because of their actual mass, and not relative mass.

     A point that has been mentioned, but not elaborated upon is the term “escape velocity”. We have stated that the previous examples are just far too small in mass to contain enough gravity to hold either orbit or gravitational-pull on the surface. That is to say, their escape velocity would be based on the gravity of Earth’s natural gravity pulling them away from the other object as well as other objects on Earth passively pulling on those masses as well. Let us then travel to space, and find an object that is large enough to be considered some kind of planetoid.

     The video game series Ratchet and Clank, when travelling through space, you can land on smaller planets, some not much bigger than your own ship, yet they display all the same gravitational properties as bigger planets. Planets so small that Ratchet can jog the circumference in under a minute. A planet of that size would have a notable gravitational pull, but its escape velocity would be so low there’s no way that Ratchet would be able to even walk without launching himself out into space. Some of the small planets are metal constructs that utilizes magnet boots Ratchet wears, which is a good idea, but his jumping and running animations remain unchanged. He jumps the exact same height on a planetoid than he does on a full planet (ranging from the size of Pluto to Jupiter) regardless of magnetic footwear.

Ratchet is jumping from pad-to-pad here, but as you can see the planet's curvature would make its gravity fairly weak. There are even smaller planets than the one above (and not all of them are molten on the surface).

     The physics in animation is often broken, and what better way to break it than with an invisible force of the known world? Games and movies may not always be accurate, but sometimes they are true to how we feel. When we jump it's usually not that high—average adult height is about 16 inches—but sometimes we feel as if we're flying 16 feet in the air. Just like how sometimes we really can feel so large that objects begin to gravitate towards us. In a fictional universe, it doesn't matter if the physics are real as long as we believe the story, because without an audience, media has no purpose. So we push that reality, we push that fantasy, we push that feeling to make the audience laugh, keep them immersed, and keep them entertained.

Example 1. Peter's Gravitational Pull

Example 2. Katamari (This playthrough is a bit lengthy, just skip to the middle if you want to see a bit of the gameplay.)

Sources: 

http://www.askamathematician.com/2010/04/q-how-big-does-an-object-have-to-be-to-gravitationally-attract-a-human-or-have-a-molten-core/

http://historicspacecraft.com/quotes.html

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/gravity-and-density.361570/

Outline of the Second Term Paper

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Introduction

• Gravity - "the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass. For most purposes Newton's laws of gravity apply, with minor modifications to take the general theory of relativity into account."
• 8 miles in diameter is roughly the smallest a planet would need to be to sustain a running human.
• Thesis: Gravity is often re-imagined in movies and video games to create a satirical or fantastic universe.

Body

1. Family Guy

• S4 E17 "The Fat Guy Strangler" - Brian throws an apple and a TV at Peter to show that he has his own gravitational field.
• Objects don't begin to display a gravitational field until 
• Escape velocity would be ridiculously low.
• Ridiculous, but funny.

2. Katamari

• A Katamari is described as a "sticky" ball, but displays properties that is more likely to be gravitational pull due to super-density. As the ball gets larger it can attract larger items, and sometimes items can be knocked off.
• The Prince and his Cousins are also inexplicably unaffected by the Katamari even though they are small and remain small.
• Escape Velocity would change depending on the size. 

3. Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

• Travelling through space, you can land on smaller planets, some not much bigger than your own ship sometimes, yet they display all the same gravitational properties as bigger planets.
• Jumping animations are the same when Ratchet should be able to push off from the planet more easily.
• The jumping and walking animations are also the same when Ratchet is using his magnetic boots, but it should be more difficult to lift his feet if it is truly supporting his weight
• Escape velocity of the smaller planets would be very low.

Conclusion

• The physics in animation is often broken, and what better way to break it than with an invisible force of the known world? Games and movies may not always be accurate, but sometimes they are accurate to how we feel. When we jump it's usually not that high-average adult height is about 16 inches-but sometimes we feel as if we're flying 16 feet in the air. Sometimes we really can feel so obese that objects begin to gravitate towards us.
• It doesn't matter if the physics are real as long as we believe the story, because without an audience, media has no purpose. So we push that reality, that fantasy, and that feeling to make the audience laugh, keep them immersed, keep them entertained.

Reference:

• http://www.askamathematician.com/2010/04/q-how-big-does-an-object-have-to-be-to-gravitationally-attract-a-human-or-have-a-molten-core/

Side Quest: Cal Academy of Sciences

Today I dragged my boyfriend along to the Cal Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It's a fantastic place where you can learn, admire, and even interact with various animals and minerals. Here's us in Golden Gate park on our way into the academy.

We went inside and got some tickets for a planetarium showing, then headed downstairs to the aquarium. This is the first time I've seen their albino alligator, Claude, out in the open! 

(Japanese Sea Nettle, Philippines coral reef, Spotted Jellies,
Cleopatra Beetles, Python Cuddle Puddle)

We saw "Habitat Earth" in the planetarium. It was an animated experience which spoke about the way organisms are connected, and our impact as humans on those ecosystems. Especially with the advent of technology, we are able to carry foreign species around the globe, creating extreme changes in earth's habitats.

I prefer their other show "Fragile Planet", but the planetarium is always a treat to be in anyway.

After the show, we were able to see a travelling exhibit from New Zealand about whales. Wyatt is standing next to them so we can see a bit of size comparison. They also had tools from the Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand). I was informed later... that photography is prohibited. Sorry.

Downstairs from the display,is the tropical vivarium where they let butterflies and Macaws fly free. They also display quite a few amphibians, reptiles, and arachnids (behind glass).

There was a final display called "Color of Life". A display of various animals' ability to camouflage. I wanted to see their Day Octopus very badly, but I think they took him out of the tank. :( 

Here's a small newt, though.

And that was our day. Here's a picture of a sick pressed penny I got. Also a sketch I did of a horny toad with a wristband and my ticket from the Academy.

Reverse Video Reference

Hoo boy this took a lot longer than I thought. ;; Out of context these look awkward and hilarious, but we were supposed to reproduce the reference that would be used for a provided animation. Thanks Michael and Jasmine for teaming-up to film!

(Now with bonus music)

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Hello there. This week we began learning about the trials and tribulations of stop-motion animation. In order to create the gravity test featured below I took some quick steps:

1. Create a plan! I had a different idea, where the bomb was going to roll down and bounce, but it was far too big and heavy for me to feasibly do that. So Octopus we went. After making ideas for the arcs, I marked the physical path with masking tape.

2. Action! Using the plan, I safety-pinned the Octopus's arms together to create the streamline shape that travels when it picks-up speed and shot all of those frames. Generally I just used masking tape to stick it to the wall (and to tilt the lamp). After shooting the frames of the arms together, I shot the frames with the arms jumbled about or in otherwise strange shapes. I had a tough time piecing together the turns, because the face would be in some arcs and not others. So that was a challenge I should have planned for better.

3. Edit! In a lot of the frames I accidentally left my phone and tape rolls lying about. I went in digitally to edit the pictures with clean frames, or at least less distracting pixels. I also bumped the tripod a few times trying to review footage unfortunately causing some of the frames jiggle. Once those were cleaned-up, it was simply a matter of putting them in a timeline and adjusting timing/cutting frames to create the illusion of bounce.

And here's the final short:

Thanks for reading!