First Term Paper - Repost with Stills

Physics of Toy Story (1995)

            Within a century, we are clearly understand that films and sciences are two different subjects. Films are shifting toward arts, and sciences are studying of reality. However, without applying science (particularly physics) in films, the pictures look wrong, and the actions are not believable. Filmmakers know these requirements, and throughout a century they tried to apply as much physics to their screens as possible, such as Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain (1952), and Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) and the General (1926). The actors were believable on their characters, and it was not only their acting skill, it was their knowledge of physics.

            Animation, similarly, also requires animators to have some knowledge of physics because it is easy to go wrong if animators do not understand physics. Thus, in the beginning of  Disney years (1930s), the studio has develop twelve principles of animation, which all apply to the laws of physics. In recent years, technologies were improving, and animations start to make  on computers' software instead of tradition hand drawing from many decays ago. Toy Story (1995), is one of the first animated feature, which animated fully by Pixar's software (RenderMan). The film is not only success on story, characters and designs, it applies physics correctly. However, in some particular scenes, the director or animators have to chose between great composition and physics, they bend the laws of physics to save a great dramatic movement.

            It is the skill levels that animators and directors must know; characters are not only moving and doing some actions, they are capability in acting. In Toy Story, each character has a different personality; their acting, talking, and moving are not the same. A toy is a none-moving object, but it becomes alive and acts like human. It becomes a character, and this character must have a unique personality. Buzz Light Year reacts as he is dying due to the lack of breathing air when Woody touches a button on his armor, which makes the protected glass disappear (23). In that movement, Buzz does not get  affecting with the air, but we do not know that Buzz is alright. He makes us to believe that he is a real "space ranger" who is lost on a our planet and cannot comfortable with our air (oxygen).  We know that the glass is protecting him in a different breathing environment. When the glass is no longer protect him, Buzz acts as he is in a terrible situation (in his imagination). He finally finds out that he is alright without the protecting glass.

            Facial expressions are important for characters to show their emotions--what they are thinking in that movement. Woody is worrying about appearance of Buzz because Buzz may take his first place in Andy's (owner) toys. He jealous about Buzz's gadgets and the amazed to Buzz from his friends. For all those worries and jealous, Woody turns himself to an evil; his eyes get narrower, his eye browns are straight up like a blade, and his mouth become smaller (27).  The evil-look on Woody's face tells everything that Woody is about to do; he plans to get rid of Buzz by making him fall on the floor (as an accident). It is all credit to the animators; they studies very careful on human face; wrinkles, eyes, and mouth. They apply those studies on Woody's face (to make him look evil).

              In addition, acting is a big issue in animation, which makes a scene or shot to feel dramatic. It likes acting on stage, the character shows his or her movement and expression to tell the audience what he or she is sad or happy. When Buzz finds out that he is a toy instead of a space hero (he always assumes he is), his reaction is very believable. He walks slow without energy; face turn down and does not event pay attention to any dangerous around him and Woody (48). Buzz does not care that he is live or not because the news is a dead sentence for him. Animators want to nail this dramatic scene down, they have to study real people acting and apply every single movement to the character.

            In addition, the most important technique in an action shot are timing and path of actions; animators calculate the movement correctly according to the affects of surrounding environments (physics). Toy Story is one of the great animated features that shows great deal of physics, but there are still some minor errors in the films.

            In the scene "to infinity and beyond" jump is very believable in the most parts that the animators applied all the possible physics to make the actions to feel realistic. However, there are some frames (or part of the actions) do not look right to the laws of physics. From the beginning of the jump, Buzz climbs up to the pole, and he squashes down to gain force before he jumps.  Up on the air, Buzz is slowing down when he gets close to his peak and starts falling down. Buzz hits the ball, and the ball bounces him back into the air. The ball is rubber and has air inside; when the ball has some impact, it bounces several time before it rests in place. While Buzz bounces back in the air, his path of action is very smooth (in a curve); his leg comes forward and lands on a (toy) car. In reality, Buzz would change his position as he bounce back to the air, even though he impact on the ball from the head. The reason that animators want to break this physics rule in this scene is that they want Buzz to land his foot on the car, as a set up for the next scene.

            Starting from the car, Buzz roles down in a rail, gain speed, ride around a circle, and shoot him in the air from a 45 degree angle cliff. The distance from the top of the rail is about seven feet and 60 degree angle which is enough speed to make Buzz roles upside down in the circle without falling off. When he rolls out from the end of the rail, both Buzz and the car shoot in the air; the car starts falling in a few frames, but Buzz continues to get higher until he hit he hanging plane. Both Buzz and the car get in the air with the same time and speed but the car fall back to ground first is not correct (according to the law of gravity). Buzz is heavier, and he supposes to fall faster than the car. In this case Buzz continues to get higher while the car is falling down.  

            When Buzz hits the hanging plane, it makes the plane to bounce round with the string and also makes the plane to turn in circle. However, there is no more force affect, the plane cannot gain speed and flying around the ceiling for five circles before release Buzz off. In addition, Buzz is showing his face as wind blowing effect while he is covering by a glass. Again, these action are not apply in physics, but it brings a dramatic to the scene.

            In some case, the set up for the first scene does not match to the second scene because directors or animators change the path of action to look more dramatic. In Toy Story (in the minutest of 27), the lamp knock Buzz out the window; the path of action suppose to be from left to right, but Buzz falls off from right to left. The reason that Buzz does not follow the path of action is that the next scene is the down shot that Woody watches Buzz falling off, and the best composition is that to view in the middle of the window.

            The timing for the jumps and other actions in Toy Story are very accurate, but there are still some incorrect timing that animators made in order to show the dramatic of the scene. Woody sees the lamp knocks Buzz out of the window, he runs toward Buzz or the window bar, the distance is about five feet, and it may take Woody up to a few seconds to get to the window bar. Nevertheless, when Woody get to the window, Buzz is starting to fall (in front of Woody's eyes). This timing is not correct, but it shows the a very tragic movement that Woody witness what he did that to Buzz.

            Similar to path of action, an animation do not look convincible if animators do not understand basic physics or observer actions in real life. Force and gravity are very common in animation when the characters are dealing with objects. When Woody gets in the back of a delivery pizza truck (34), he suddenly slam himself to the back when the truck is accelerating. The driver turns the wheel to the right, Woody slams to the left. In this scene, the animators applies very well on physics. Woody sits on the back without a seatbelt; when the truck starts accelerating, he slam himself to the back.

            It is difficult for animators to follow all the rules of physic while they are trying to compose a great shot. When there is no other choice, animators will break some physics rules in order to make the shot to look more dramatic, funny, or even ridiculous. The main point for making film is to tell the great story and entertainment audiences. Physics are the observations and knowledge from real life that animators apply in their animation to make it feels believable. Toy Story is one of the great animation ever made, but physics are not applied in all of the shots; to save a great composition, animators would bend or break some physics rules.