StuartCudlitz/AstroChart

1996 Explorations in Interactive Cinema San Francisco State University Professor Jane Veeder / Stuart Cudlitz Cinema Department Course 523 Lecture 1 by Stuart Cudlitz; Film and Animation Coventions Part of lecture 1 was the distribution of course notes for the semester. Below are some of the course notes handed out that night; along with others on the conventions of filmmaking, traditonal color theory, perceptual psychology and animation for referecnce during the semester. The following cartoon laws of physics is adapted from a common circulating agreement among animators and has unique application to the hybrid world of 3D animation, web and new media "film making" and the concept of interactive cinema.

Cartoon Laws of Physics 101 Prof. Trauts Ztilduc (Prerequisite for Cartoon Law of Physics Unbound) Course Synopsis: Cartoon Law 1 Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation. Daffy Duck steps on a cliff, expecting further pasture land. He loiters in midair, providing a ridiculus commnetary until he chances to look down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over. Cartoon Law 3 Any body in motion will lend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly. Whether shot from a cannon or in hot pursuit on foot, cartoon characters are so absolute in their momentum that only a telephone pole or an outsize boulder retards their forward motion absolutely. Sir Isaac Newton called this sudden termination of motion "the stooge's surcease". Cartoon Law 3 Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeler. Also called the silhouette of passage, this phenomenon is the specialty of victims of directed-pressure explosions and of reckless cowards who are so eager to escape that they exit directly through the wall of a house, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of skunks and/or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction. Cartoon Law 4 The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it on the ledge to spiral down twenty flighls to attempt to capture it unbroken. Such an object is inevitably priceless, the attempt to capture it inevitably unsuccessful. Cartoon Law 5 All principles of gravity are negated by fear. Psychic forces are sufficient in most bodies for a shock to propel them directly away from the earth's surface. A spooky noise or an adversary's signature sound will induce motion upward, usually to the cradle of a chandelier, a treetop, or the crest or a flagpole. The feel of a character who is running or the wheels of a speeding auto need never touch the ground, especially when in flight: Cartoon Law 6 As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once. This is particularly true of tooth-and-claw fights, In which a character's head may be glimpsed emerging from the cloud of altercation al several places simultaneously. This effect is common as well among bodies that are spinning or being throttled. A 'wacky' character has the option of self-replication only at manic high speeds and may ricochet off walls to achieve the velocity required. Cartoon Law 7 Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. This trompe l’oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall's surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him inlo this theoretical space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to follow into the painting. This is ultimately a problem of art, not of science. Cartoon Law 8 Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent. Cartoon cats possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives might comfortably afford. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed, accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self-pity, they re-inflate, elongate, snap back, or solidify. Corollary: A cat will assume the shape or its container. Cartoon Law 9 Everything falls faster than an anvil. Cartoon Law 10 For every vengeance there is an equal and opposite re-vengeance. This is the one law of animated cartoon motion that also applies to the physical world al large. For that reason, we need the relief of watching it happen to a duck instead. Please feel free to refer to Rorschach's experiments in "kinetic empathy" (the same guy famous for the ink blot test) for the theory behind law 10; to Contact Improvisation Dance for practical applications of laws 3 and 10 or to Motion Capture Performance Animation for practical applications of laws 1-10 and all amendments. Cartoon Law Amendment A A sharp object will always propel a character upward. When poked (usually in the buttocks) with a sharp object (usually a pin), a character will defy gravity by shooting straight up, with great velocity. Cartoon Law Amendment B The laws of object permanence are nullified for 'cool’ characters. Characters who are intended to be 'cool" can make previously nonexistent objects appear from behind their backs at will. For instance, the Road Runner can materialize signs to express himself without speaking. Cartoon Law Amendment C Explosive weapons cannot cause fatal Injuries. They merely turn characters temporarily black and smoky. Cartoon Law Amendment D Gravity is transmitted by slow-moving waves of large wavelengths. Their operation can be witnessed by observing the behavior of a canine suspended over a large vertical drop. Its feet will begin to fall first, causing its legs to stretch. As the wave reaches its torso, that part will begin to fail, causing the neck to stretch. As the head begins to fall, tension is released and the canine will resume its regular proportions until such time as it strikes the ground. Cartoon Law Amendment E Dynamite is spontaneously generated in 'C-spaces" (spaces in which cartoon laws hold). The process is analogous to steady-state theories of the universe that postulated that the tensions involved in maintaining a space would cause the creation of hydrogen from nothing. Dynamite quanta are quite large (stick sized) and unstable (lit). Such quanta are attracted to psychic forces generated by feelings of distress in 'cool’ characters (see Amendment B, which may be a special case of this law), who are able to use said quanta to their advantage. One may imagine C-spaces where all matter and energy result from primal masses of dynamite exploding. A big bang indeed.


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