Behind the Scenes
- More Than Meets the Eye
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
- Mysterious Makeup and Preposterous Props!
- High-Tech Reality
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
Too Good to Be True
In the making of The Lion King, creating a stampede was a challenge. If the wildebeests looked or moved too much alike we would guess they were made by computer. Careful observations reveal that animals in the same species, identical twins, and even the right and left side of a face are not exact copies. Though the computer allows the generation of perfect match images, they are indeed "too good to be true."
More Upper Elementary School Activities
Happy Trails to You, Mr. Circuit
Your circuit includes a battery, which gives it power; the wire through which the energy travels; and the bulb, which uses the energy to produce light. A circuit will work only when it is connected without any breaks. When you disconnect the wire from the battery, you're turning off the switch. Circuits are important for special effects, like explosions, that must be activated from a distance. Elaborate computer special effects are possible only because of circuits. Our increasing ability to make circuits smaller and smaller so that they can be used to transmit more and more information is why computers can now sit on your lap instead of filling a room.
More Upper Elementary School Activities
- More Than Meets the Eye
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
- Mysterious Makeup and Preposterous Props!
- High-Tech Reality
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
Sunrise, Sunset
A sunset looks orange because when the sun is low in the sky the light has to travel a longer distance to get to our eyes. As the light travels through the air it scatters, going all over the place instead of directly to our eyes. The milk in the water, like the air during a sunset, also causes scattering. That's why when you shine the flashlight through the glass, its beam on the other side looks orange. Since blue light scatters more than red light, by the time the light from a sunset gets to you, only red-orange light remains. This different-colored light makes the color of objects around us look more orange at this time of day. To create this effect in an animated film, the colors of the scene are adjusted to what we are used to seeing. Aladdin's purple vest is a variety of shades of purple depending on what time of day it is. It is only with today's modern computers that artists have the great range of colors necessary to create this level of realism without having to paint each frame.
More Upper Elementary School Activities
- More Than Meets the Eye
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
- Mysterious Makeup and Preposterous Props!
- High-Tech Reality
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
Got No Strings on Me
A digital interface device (DID) allows animators who are used to working with models to translate their skills onto the computer and save what they've done for future revisions. Although computers can do a lot for special effects, they can't replace the talents of people who know how a real animal moves, with all its unpredictability. Puppets and models are also more effective for scenes that require more interaction with people. Actors are convincingly scared when they can see that it's really a dinosaur coming at them!
More Upper Elementary School Activities
- More Than Meets the Eye
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!
- Mysterious Makeup and Preposterous Props!
- High-Tech Reality
- Monsters, Motion, and Mechanics!