Josh Santiago Learns the Physics of Animation

Here's the basic version of the scene I made in Maya! It's pretty simple and clean!

Computer Scientist Alan Kay once said “the best way to predict the future, is to invent it.” While we don’t particularly have a strong grip on the future of our future, one way to do so is to grab a hold onto human progression. And this is such a big reason as to why science and popular culture are intertwined in a rigorous feedback loop, infinitely influencing each other based off their innovations. This is the essence of human progression. Enter, Pokemon, the 90s sensation that enamored the world. Though the premise is simple enough, a world inhabited by various fantastic beasts that are trained by the humans around them, this franchise has taken the world by storm, becoming one of the most enduring series after more than 20 years. But what is more interesting about the world of Pokemon is its influence on the scientific world. Because while it’s not the most scientifically accurate franchise, the influence of Pokemon has shaped the world into becoming more open minded toward scien...

I: Intro: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it" -Alan Kay Science and popular culture are intertwined in a rigorous feedback loop, infinitely influencing each other, Pokemon: worldwide 90s phenomenon (explain) Thesis: While not the most scientifically accurate franchise, the influence of Pokemon has shaped the world into becoming more open minded toward science as a whole. II: Basic Science, and its application in the pokemon universe The concept of a common ancestor: Mew, the universal ancestor of all pokemon, portrays the theory that all lfe on earth can be traced ack to a common ancestor Not without its flaws: Pokemon is not scientifically accurate (ie evolution functioning completely differently than in the real world, unrealistic abilities etc) but is still influenced by real biology (ie animals and their abilities, albiet exaggerated, find their place in pokemon’s inspirations) The concept of a pokemon professor, nurses, and oth...

This was actually a little more difficult than I anticipated. The stop motion itself was pretty well planned out, but the execution was much more difficult than the falling one. I had to use a few cheap camera tricks to get it to work. These characters had a lot of moving parts, and keeping them all together was difficult. I still used flip book studio and my camera, but as such, the same problems I ran into last time were amplified here. Keeping track of the actual movement, rather than the falling motion, was rather hard, and since they were laying down, I had very little depth to work with. Also having to reshoot entire sequences because it was too difficult to get the exact pose back was tedious. Never the less, I think it went mostly okay! Lady Thor is a little too fast, but I think it works given the "plot" of the animation.

Here are the boards for my second stop motion adventure! I was heavily influenced by those splash animations that play between commercials for animated movies. Just a simple interaction between two characters that show off their dynamic. In this one, Thor will be trying to knock down a wall, and fail, possibly hurting himself. That's when Lady thor comes up, taps Thor on the shoulder and moves him aside. She would then throw what I assume to be a really strong punch, knocking down the wall, and astonishing Thor. Then she would do a cute pose, while thor stands agape. Similarly to last time, I have action figures that I own that can portray the characters. I had a lot of success with FlipBook studio, so it'll probably be done similarly to my last stop motion, with the figures laying down, possibly with a drawn background. And of course, my video reference, where I throw a lot of different punches and do a couple different end poses as lady thor. I'm l...