Monday, February 27, 2017

TERM PAPER: The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Kingdom Hearts is a crossover action role-playing video game created in 2002 with the collaboration of Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios. It is centered on a fourteen-year-old boy named Sora, who is chosen to be the Keyblade wielder and battles against the forces of darkness. In the search for his lost friends after his world is taken over by creatures called the Heartless, Sora is to seal each world he visits to keep the Heartless from returning. During his journey, he meets several Disney and Final Fantasy characters as he fights alongside them to defeat the Heartless. For players to proceed in Kingdom Hearts, not only will players notice the different art styles between the two, but they will find that there are many instances in which the law of physics is being broken.

One of the first things that players can notice about the law of physics being broken is how Sora never has any scratches or tears on his clothes. He wears a pair of yellow hefty shoes with a black and white jacket over his red jumpsuit. In addition to his outfit, he wears stylish gloves and a crown necklace for accessories. Since we see him wearing these clothes for the opening intro of the game, we can assume that this is his casual outfit he wears every day and that it doesn’t contain any special powers or isn’t some kind of superhero outfit.


However, when players advance and battle their opponents, we can see that Sora is getting hit by the opponent but his clothes can withstand a lot of damage. In our world when we watch people battle with weapons, having no armor or any protection on their bodies can cause severe injury to them and/or usually involves some rupture in the material of the clothing when being hit by the weapon of the opponent. In Kingdom Hearts, Sora's clothes not only resists the attacks of the opponents but is also able to handle fire from the opponent, where his clothes act like an armor. Furthermore, Sora magically turns into a merman in the underwater world Atlantica, but still is able to avoid any physical damage to himself when fighting underwater.



Another example that players can notice during a battle is how Sora handles his weapon—the Keyblade. The Keyblade is a giant key that is about the length from the ground to his waist and seems to be constructed of solid metal. Though it doesn't have an edge, the Keyblade acts like a sword, where Sora is able to swing it and defeat the Heartless. The Keyblade can also act like a boomerang. After completing so many levels, Sora learns the ability "strike raid," an attack where players can throw the Keyblade to strike their enemies and automatically coming back to Sora after it hits the opponent. This proves how the world in Kingdom Hearts is different to our world. The reason why the boomerang is able to return back to the person who threw it is due to its design of being flat and how it is thrown. The Keyblade is similar to looking like a steel pole, where it is obvious that a steel pole is not flat or light. If you throw a steel pole in our world, you will find that it will not return back to you because of its cylinder shape as well as the weight it carries.


Additionally, Sora is able to use magic elements with the Keyblade, casting fire, ice, and thunder towards enemies as well as controlling gravity by flattening them. Despite the fact of Atlantica being the underwater world, Sora is still able to use these magic abilities, which is an unusual sight for us as it is impossible to have fire or thunder underwater in our world. Sora can also summon certain characters to help him during a battle—yet it is a mystery where they come from. In the game, we see that Sora uses the Keyblade to summon them and they respond immediately, coming out of nowhere. This ability in terms to our world is illogical.




Our last observation will be about Sora jumping and falling. In the beginning of the game, Sora can jump as high as his height. Later on in the game, he learns the ability to "high jump," which allows him to defy gravity as he can jump twice his height by doing a somersault in midair. But this isn't the end of it—after players complete the levels in the world Neverland, Sora learns the ability "glide," meaning that can Sora can glide as he gains momentum and speed across the air as his altitude slowly lowers. Although Sora loses altitude at a certain point, it's very strange looking when he continues to glide without touching the ground. This happens for only a short period of time until he gets back on his feet. What's also strange is when Sora is gliding and an obstacle is in his way, where he doesn't stop gliding but hovers in place. In the world we live in, humans aren't made to fly or glide (although I wish we could). Flying squirrels can glide because of a membrane of skin between their front and back legs, spreading out its limbs in the air. With Sora being a human being with no special membrane from his arm to leg and can still glide is mind-boggling. Along with Sora's abilities to jump really high and glide wherever he's at, this causes no damage to himself when falling. In our world—depending on the height—when we fall, we reach a certain point of terminal velocity when our speed is constant and we stop accelerating, which can cause serious damage or death due to how fast we're falling. In the game, Sora doesn't have a normal terminal velocity when falling, which is why he can overcome any height and still land on his two feet.



Kingdom Hearts is a video game that purposely breaks the law of physics for the players to progress into the game. Even though there are many times that Sora's actions are improbable to our world, it does not distract the player from its entertainment in the fantasy world. Players learning how to wield the Keyblade, using different techniques of magic, and unlocking different abilities when advancing the game also helps them advance in the storyline. Due to this intention, it makes the game enjoyable and intriguing as it invites players to their world and traveling to other worlds that are outside of our universe. If there were no broken law of physics in Kingdom Hearts, it would change the story dramatically along with making the game boring and unamusing.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Outline of the First Term Paper

I.               Introduction
a.     Kingdom Hearts (2002)
b.     Thesis: For players to proceed in the video game Kingdom Hearts, we find that there are many instances in which the law of physics is broken.

II.             Body
a.     Strong cloth
                                               i.     Sora remains to wear his clothes throughout the game.
                                              ii.     The clothes they wear never has any damage.
1.     Clothes aren’t damaged in all of the battles.
2.     When a fireball hurls towards them, clothing doesn’t catch on fire.
3.     In the world Atlantica, Sora and his party transform into sea creatures but are somehow still not damaged by any of the effects during battle.
b.     Weapon usage
                                               i.     Sora carries a weapon called the keyblade that acts like a sword.
1.     The keyblade doesn’t have an edge, but still slices the opponents.
                                              ii.     Sora can throw his keyblade like a boomerang.
1.     Can throw it towards the opponent during a battle, and have it return to him like a boomerang.
                                            iii.     Sora has magic abilities
1.     Ability to cast fire, ice, and thunder—even under water.
2.     Ability to control gravity—even under water.
a.     Causes enemies to flatten like a pancake.
                                            iv.     Sora learns the ability to use his keyblade to summon certain characters during battle for help.
1.     They just come out of nowhere.
c.      Jumping and falling
                                               i.     Sora is able to jump as high as his height.
1.     As you progress in the game, Sora learns the ability to high jump, allowing him to jump a twice his height.
                                              ii.     Sora learns the ability to glide.
1.     He can glide in the air as his altitude slowly lowers—at a certain point, Sora loses altitude and continues to glide without touching the ground.
                                            iii.     Sora is able to fall without having any damage to himself.

III.           Conclusion
a.     The law of physics is purposely being broken for players to progress in the game.

b.     Due to this intention, it makes the game entertaining and enjoyable as it brings players to other worlds outside of ours.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Video Analysis of Path of Action

For my video analysis of the path of action, we had to take a video reference of us running jump into the air. Below are an image and video using Tracker to analyze the parabolic arcs.



Below is the original take of a video reference of me doing six takes. The running jump that I used for Tracker was the third take.


Monday, February 13, 2017

Tracker Video Analysis of Falling

For this assignment, we had to take a video of an object falling and track it as it falls. The software that we used to track it is called Tracker. For my object, I used my dog's ball.


Below is the video of me dropping the ball six times. For Tracker, the ball drop I used was the 5th take ... and please excuse me for my awkwardness.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Shooting Video Reference

For my shooting video reference, I have a clip of me throwing a soccer ball in the air.


In this assignment, we are testing the Fourth Down at Half Time rule, where the height length between the highest frame (the apex) and the middle frame is a fourth of the height length between the highest frame and bottom frame. From the clip, I thought it would be best to test it on my second throw. In the image below, the blue numbers indicate the number of the frame.


Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Mini-Portfolio

Hello! My name is Sarah Reblando, and it's my second semester at San Jose State University! So far, I'm enjoying SJSU a lot as I'm majoring in graphic design. Before SJSU, I was at Diablo Valley College where I took a lot of art and art digital media classes, such as drawing, figure drawing, digital illustration, traditional and 3D animation. As for science classes, I have taken Physical Geology, Sociology, and the Fundamentals of Biological Science at DVC. I hope to get into the BFA Graphic Design Program, and if it’s the Lord’s will that I get to graduate at SJSU with the BFA, I would like to work in a company as a graphic designer and serve my church as a graphic designer.

Last semester I took a Typography class, where one of the assignments was to choose a font and create a title as if there would be a lecture of that font on campus, then create a poster for it. The font I chose was Univers by Adrian Frutiger, creating the title "Parallel Connections." This was done in Adobe Illustrator.


For this second image, my instructor at DVC assigned a project where we had to create an analogous color collage from magazines as well as incorporating a drawing with it. My inspiration to fulfill those objectives was street art, having my sister be my model. I used charcoal, graphite, and paint markers.


The video below was done in my Cartoon Drawing for Digital Animation class, also at DVC. We were assigned to choose any movie trailer before 1960 and to create an animatic from it. I chose Heidi, the 1937 film. All the drawings were hand-drawn, some used in Adobe Illustrator, and created in Adobe Flash.