Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

My first two term paper scores were both above 80; I will not be writing a third term paper.

Outline of the Third Term Paper

 For this paper, I will be comparing the visual and special effects of giant and small beings in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.

Introduction
    A. Special and visual effects are used in Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
    B. Thesis - This paper discusses the process of making normal-sized actors appear larger or smaller relative to the other characters using digital or practical effects.

Body
Lord of the Rings
    A. The film uses forced perspective to make the hobbits appear smaller than they truly are
    B. Uses highly specialized set design and camera movements to maintain the illusion
    C. Most of the time, not digitally altered or green-screened
    D. No placeholders needed most of the time
    E. Hobbits do not look like the camera is out of focus

Game of Thrones
    A. The show uses green screens as well as extreme camera angles to make the mythical creatures, such as Dire wolves and Giants, appear larger than the actors that play them
    B. Uses green screens to digitally enlarge the size of the wolves against real actors
    C. Also combines two different camera angles to make Giants appear larger
    D. Uses placeholders for green-screen creatures
    E. Wolves and Giants that are just digitally enlarged or blown up appear blurrier than the non-altered actors

Conclusion
    Both Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones have characters who appear realistic despite their size disparities with other characters. Lord of the Rings mostly avoided digital effects while filming the Hobbits while Game of Thrones almost exclusively used digital effects in one way or another. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages but the effects were incredible either way.

Stop-Motion Character Animation

For my stop motion, I filmed a scene using a video camera. I decided to use block figures for readability and their ability to pose. Unfortunately, the figures are terribly balanced without a block to stand on and they kept falling/ sliding. I planned the scenes and then set up the figures in a way to force perspective. I animated the scenes straight ahead and then imported/timed the frames in Flash.

(above) true size comparison of the figures