Camera Height_Low Angle

A low-angle shot is any shot in which the camera is titled upward to view the subject.

Low angles should be used when desirable to inspire awe, or excitement; increase subject height or speed; separate players or objects; eliminate unwanted foreground; drop the horizon and eliminate the background; distort compositional lines and create a more forceful perspective; position players or objects against the sky; and intensify dramatic impact.

Low angle shots of religious objects or architecture, such as a crucifix or church interior, may inspire awe in the audience, because the viewer is placed in a lowly position from which he must look up to the symbol of the Almighty. The same effect is useful in filming important personages, such as a President, judge or company executive.

The picture is from The Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004. From the low angle, the audience could identify the robot's big size in relationship with surrounding buildings.

Low camera angles are also useful when one player should look up to another player who dominates the story at that point. The star, or dominant character in a scene, may stand out from a group if he is positioned slightly forward of the others and filmed from a low angle. This will cause him to tower over the players behind him. This simple trick will give a player prominence, and allow him to dominate the event.

The picture is from The Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004. Obviously the big guy in the middle of the image is the main character dominating the other people.

A low angle is excellent for cheating a cut-away reaction close-up against the sky, or other nondescript background. Dropping the horizon out of the frame removes all background identity  and permits filming such close-ups almost anywhere at any time.

The picture is from The Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004. A good example of close-up against the sky.

Reference:

Mascelli, J. V. (1965). The Five C's of  Cinematography. The United States: radstone publications.

All of three pictures are from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004.

Model_Cargo ship_Unfinished

This is the Cargo ship model unfinished. I will make more details on its weapon and mechanical arms. During the story there will be some transformation on them to improve its interesting.

Camera Height_High Angle

A high angle shot is any shot in which the camera is tilted downward to view the subject. Any downward angling of the camera should be considered a high angle shot, regardless of whether the camera is angled slightly to photograph the top of a package, or almost vertically downward to depict a mountain climber's point of view!

The picture is from The Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004.

A high angle shot may be chosen for esthetic, technical or psychological reasons. Placing the camera higher than the subject and looking down may result in a more artistic picture; make it easier to keep action occurring in depth in sharp focus; or influence audience reaction.

Subject matter laid out in a pattern upon the ground may look better from a high angle. High angle shots help acquaint the audience with the geography of the setting. Looking down provides a map like layout. For instance, looking at the picture below which is from Fallen Art made by Tomek Baginski in 2003.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46QaOikFYhM. This is a high angle shot, which could help us understand their position relationship.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46QaOikFYhM

Action occurring in depth, such as a football game, a military formation, a producion line or an animal migration, may be viewed in its entirety from a high angle. Raising the camera and shooting downward is also useful whenever reducing the lens depth of field aids in keeping sharp focus across the entire picture area. A high angle may cover the same front-to-back area with difference between near-and-far focus. Looking at another picture from Fallen Art, we can focus on the frame picture easily and understand the structure of the machine, as well as how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46QaOikFYhM

However high angle shots reduce the height of a player or object. A tall player would lookdown at a shorter person or a child in a point-of-view shot. The subjective camera may also place the audience higher, so that it may look down on a player to feel superior to him.

High angle shots are a welcome departure from eye-level shots and provide contrast, variety and dramatic impact even to commonplace scenes. High angles should be considered to establish the story, supply pictorial beauty, or influence audience reaction to the screen players.

Reference:

Mascelli, J. V. (1965). The Five C's of  Cinematography. The United States: radstone publications.

The first picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004.

The second and the third pictures are from Fallen Art made by Tomek Baginski in 2003.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46QaOikFYhM

Camera Height_Level Angle

While camera height is as important as camera distance and subject angle, It is often disregarded. Theatrical cameramen are very careful about lens height in relation to subject matter. Many non-theatrical cameramen completely overlook the subject's special requirements!

Artistic, dramatic and psychological overtones may be contributed to the story-telling by adjusting the height of the camera to the subject. Audience involvement and reaction to the event depicted may be influenced by whether the scene is viewed from eye-level, or above or below subject.

Level Angle

A level camera films from the eye-level of an observer of average height, or from the subject's eye-level. A level camera views a setting or an object so that vertical lines do not converge.

Shorts filmed with a level camera are generally less interesting than those filmed from an upward or downward angle. A level camera is required, however, whenever eye-level views are filmed, or vertical lines must remain vertical and parallel to each other. A level camera does not distort verticals, so walls and sides of buildings, or objects, will remain true.

Objective shots, which present the view as seen by an observer, should be filmed from the eye-level of an average person- about five and one-half feet high. It is important, however, that close-ups of a person be filmed from the subject's eye-level, whether standing or sitting, so that the audience sees the person on an eye-to-eye basis. It is necessary, therefore, when moving in from a long or medium shot to a close-up, to adjust the camera height to the particular subject being filmed.

The picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004

Point-of-view close-ups are filmed from the subject's eye-level when the players who are relating with each other are approximately the same height. They are filmed from the opposing player's height when a difference in height exists, or when one player is seated and the other standing, or when an adult relates with a child. Such angling need not be precisely from the opposing person's head position.

The picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004

Subjective close-ups, in which the subject looks directly into the lens, are always filmed from the eye-level of the person photographed. A higher or lower camera will cause the person to look up or down in order to look into the lens- and thus create an awkward relationship with the viewer. The person presented subjectively should always be seen on a level eye-to-eye basis.

The picture is from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004

Reference:

Mascelli, J. V. (1965). The Five C's of  Cinematography. The United States: radstone publications.

The pictures are from The.Incredibles made by Pixar in 2004.

Short Introduction of My Script

In 2084, Humans have been exploring the Milky Way outside. I am a captain of a cargo ship, which belongs to NO. 007 Earth Defending Army and my task is to recycle space junk over there. One day I found an UFO suddenly. I had never seen such a strange spacecraft and I thought the driver must be an alien from an advanced civilization race. After a series of bizarre absurd stories between us, I took it go back to the earth successfully. However he is the experimental product sent to the space by the Earth scientists, to be researched his physiological changes when he lived there. Unfortunately I broke it... ... This is an ironical story that the humans are teased by their science and technology development.

This is the main character

Motion Capture Class

This is the motion capture class. I am the model and there are 27 tracking points on my body as well as 12 cameras around me.

It is a kind of motion capture technique which could help us finish data collection, processing and management. It provides the interface to numerous Three-dimentional software and hardware system. 

Motion capture technology involved in size measurement, object orientation in physical space and position determination etc data which could be calculated by computer directly.

Setting tracker in key parts of the moving object, the system will capture tracker position, then after computer's translation, passing data to the users which could be recognized in animation. In the past people use 3D animation software(3ds max, Maya) to create the character and modulate role action(key frame animation) which will reduce its efficiency and easily make error. However, motion capture could make the action accurately and efficiently as It records the real motion. I will use such a technology for a character in my short film.

Reference：

http://baike.baidu.com/view/4505652.htm

Character_1

bones and controller