Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

Term Paper #3 Outline

Introduction

A.     Methods used to create the water effect.

B.     Believability of the effects.

Body Paragraph

A.     In, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

- Planning of the visualization of the ocean surface, referencing from other films, live videos as well as personal ones.

- A program that simulates ocean waves was used called the Houdini Ocean Toolkit.

- The department that was responsible for these effects took into consideration the law of physics and the possibility of the audience getting “sea-sick/motion sickness.”

- Believability of the special effect was executed incredibly well.

B.     Evan Almighty

- 3 stages to create a believable journey: 1). Shooting the background plate and recreating movement on the computer. 2). Fluid simulation. 3). Rendering stage.

- Although if we weren’t the one with higher power, a 50 feet or so wave would never just appear out of nowhere in the middle of the city.

- Highly entertaining and comical but not as believable as the other movie mentioned before.

Conclusion

- Depending on the type of movie it is (serious, funny, or scary) there are limits on how believable the special effects can get.

- Special effects can be very realistic but if the story requires a being to magically conjure a giant wave, in Evan Almighty, the effects seem to elude the believability of it.