Stereoscopic 3-D Image

Lighting A Scene Without Maya

Key light only


Key and Fill lights


Key, Fill, and Rim lights


The Setup:
This is an unused, plastic-wrapped canvas I had, placed against a blank wall, a headlamp, a small mirror, my initials cut from Balsa, and a 2-cell/D battery Maglite flashlight. I shot it using a tripod, my Nikon D60 DSLR, and a handy little wireless shutter release.




This was from the first batch of shots I took using the torchier lamp with an energy-saving, coiled florescent bulb as my fill. I felt it was too much, and I noticed that the head lamp serving as a rim light via the mirror also served as a fill light from the opposite side of the composition.
I liked that much better.

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

The Nature and Effects of Lightning

The lightning of legends has always been a mysterious and immensely powerful spiritual force, and is often associated with a spirit-being foremost in rank among other spirit-beings in power and authority. Greek mythology celebrates the mighty and far-seeing Zeus, Lord of Thunder and ruler over all the other gods. This was disseminated across much of Western Europe by the Roman Empire, and again centuries later through the celebration of works classical antiquity in the arts in Italy and France. Many tribes of Native Americans from North America believe in the Thunders or a thunderbird. From the Norse god of thunder and lightning, Thor, we have our fifth day in the seven-day week cycle, “Thor’s day.” With the coming of the Age of Enlightenment and the following advances in science and technology, people have sought to understand and to gain control over this elemental force of nature, which has resulted in a modern society and technologies based largely on the power of electricity. Interest in harnessing and controlling the raw power of lightning has continued to find its way into contemporary story-telling, in books and films, and has been imagined to reanimate the dead, enable time travel, or be used as a weapon by forces of both good and evil.

In the 2000 film X-Men, based on the Marvel comic book series, two mutants- humans endowed with supernatural abilities through genetic evolution- do battle. Toad, equipped with a tongue like a chameleon or “a toad,” seeks to destroy Storm, a young woman with the ability to control the weather. As Storm advances against Toad, she propels him backward by a strong wind, through the window of the building they are in, and over the guardrail of the balcony outside. Toad grabs the railing with his whip-like tongue in order to keep himself from falling to his death only to be electrocuted when Storm strikes him with lightning. This makes for a marvelous action sequence but is highly improbable if not impossible. From what we understand of lightning and electrical currents, it is simple put, an imbalance in electrical charge seeking to balance itself by the most economical means. Toad holds the railing with his tongue, which is covered with sticky mucus, and should make a fairly good conductor. However, the rest of him is suspended in mid air by Storms air currents. The lightning, in seeking to ground itself, would only travel through the part of Toad’s tongue between it and the ground. It would travel through the metal railing- a far better conductor- and through the building to reach the earth below. It would not likely travel the longer route along Toad’s tongue to his body, to finally be disbursed in the air beyond. Lightning seeks the shortest and easiest path to equilibrium.

- (For video clip see Blog post titled "X-Men - Storm vs. Toad")

Another film where lightning takes on unrealistic properties is in the 2010 film, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Percy Jackson is a modern-day demigod who has been charged (no pun intended) with recovering the famed Lightning Bolt of Zeus, which had been stolen by an unknown thief. The thief turns out to be one of Percy’s colleagues, a demigod named Luke. In the action sequence at the film’s climax Percy battles Luke for possession of the bolt. As Luke discharges this weapon of the gods at Percy, it recoils. This at first seems reasonable since the fantastic bolt causes whatever it hits to explode. However, real lightning is not a projectile but rather a current of electricity, rapidly passing through molecules of air. In a scene moments later in the film, Percy uses a magical sword to deflect a bolt of lightning sent his way. At the moment of deflection he is sliding down a steep glass roof on a thick film of rainwater. Because lightning is not a projectile with any substantial mass, it cannot be deflected, but only diverted. Not only should he have been unable to deflect the bolt, but he should also have been killed as the bolt passed through him into the building beneath him. As for explosions, they are only caused when the lightning ignites a combustible substance, or as with trees that are struck, when the moisture in an object makes an immediate and forceful exit from its confines as it is instantaneously converted to steam.

- (For video clip see October Blog post titled "Percy vs. Luke")

In some stories lightning or other arcing bolts of electricity are shown to pass through a person, and even be directed by the person. This concept is used with all silliness in the 1990 film starring Jim Varney, Ernest Goes to Jail. It has been used more recently and with greater plausibility in the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the natural rules of physics are merely bent to serve the rules of the story’s universe, and not disregarded entirely. In the case of Ernest, our loveable, dimwitted protagonist is mistakenly sent to the electric chair in the stead of a convicted criminal, the infamous “Mr. Nash.” Due to a supposed equipment malfunction, or perhaps Ernest’s cartoonish aura, the electricity turns him into “Electroman,” a human electro-magnet able to discharge bolts of electricity at will from his fingertips. The subsequent scene is entirely laughable. While the human body can hold a surplus static charge, electrical current and static charge are not the same thing. Static electricity is caused by the build up of electrical charges on the surface of objects, while current electricity is a phenomenon from the flow of electrons along a conductor.[i] So in the case of an electric execution chair, there is an electrical current which would pass through Ernest, and not simply build up an electric charge on his surface. This would cook his flesh through the heat energy generated by the current, but even before that happened, death would be caused by the disruption of brain or heart function.

- (For video clip see Blog post titled "Ernest Goes To Jail - Electroman.")

In The Last Airbender series, select individuals from each of the four nations- Earth Kingdom, Air Nomads, Water Tribes, and Fire Nation- have a special spiritual supernatural endowment which gives them the ability to manipulate the element of their particular culture because of the spiritual nature of energy. This is called “bending.” It’s kind of like “the Force” in George Lucas’s Star Wars universe. In Chapter Nine of Book 2: Earth, the episode titled, “Bitter Work,” we see this bending idea applied to lightning. Prince Zuko, the exiled prince of the Fire Nation receives instruction from his uncle Iroh on how to redirect lightning. Iroh explains how lightning is created by the fire bender. Later in the series Zuko uses this technique to defend himself against his evil father who tries to kill him. Uncle Iroh says,

“There is energy all around us. The energy is both Yin, and Yang; positive energy, and negative energy. Only a select few fire benders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance, and in the moment the positive and the negative energy come crashing back together, you provide release and guidance, creating lightning.” […] “Remember, once you separate the energy you do not command it. You are simply its humble guide.”

Uncle Iroh goes on to teach his nephew a special technique to defend himself against other fire benders who might use lightning against him. Iroh says,

“Water benders deal with the flow of energy. A water bender lets their defense become their offense, turning their opponent’s energy against them. I learned a way to do this with lightning.” […] “If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips, up your arm to your shoulder, then down into your stomach. The stomach is the source of energy in your body. It is called ‘the sea of Chi.’ Only in my case it is more like a vast ocean!” [Iroh laughs] “From the stomach, you direct it up again and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical. You must not let the lightning pass through your heart, where the damage can be deadly. You may wish to try a physical motion to get a feel for the energy’s flow– like this.” [Iroh demonstrates]

When, after practicing with his uncle the motion he described, Zuko says he is ready to try it with real lightning, his uncle responds, “What, are you CRAZY? Lightning is very dangerous!”

Zuko replies, “I thought that was the point- you teaching me how to protect myself from it!”

Iroh says, “Yeah, but I’m not going to shoot lightning at you! If you’re lucky you will never have to use this technique at all.”

- (For video clip see Blog post titled "Avatar Some Kinda Rush, Lightning Bending")

While in reality it people do not have the ability to “bend” lightning or any other elements by sheer force of will, or by mastery of their inner spiritual energy for that matter, the techniques used for lightning bending do remain consistent with the altered laws of the universe to which it belongs. The animators even remembered to include the sound of thunder caused by the discharge of the lightning. Given the ability to have control over the element of fire such that one might keep themselves from getting burned by it if exerting their will to channel its energy, it seems plausible that such a one might learn the ability to “bend” lightning also.

Whether lightning is portrayed as a weapon or as a potential power supply, it is always portrayed as a lethal force, and it is. This may be why the tribal people of long ago, and the polytheistic civilizations of past and present, consider lightning a symbol of the most potent power in the spiritual realms. Lightning can take life in an instant and cannot be predicted. It cannot be contained and is not easily or safely directed. It is still something of an enigma even to scientists of the present. It seems appropriate then that such a force be attributed to a being who has the power to give life or take it away at will. It also seems fitting that often enough in stories, people seek to wield such power for themselves, and so diminish the sense of helplessness or futility people may feel in life. (And here I reach my philosophical conclusion.) Whether the pursuit of harnessing power of this kind is scientific or otherwise, Uncle Iroh is right. Perhaps some things in life are not to be controlled but are better left respected and avoided.

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[i] http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-current-and-static-electricity/#ixzz15YpfSm1f

EMP - Ocean's Eleven

Here's this web-optimized-sized clip. I have a file that will play in a larger format, but it was too large to be uploaded. The resolution got compromised when I converted the file. Hopefully you can get your hands on a better clip or put one together yourself. I don't know how to do that yet.

Ernest goes to Jail - Electroman scene

Outline - Second Term Paper

The Nature and Effects of Lightning

Paragraph 1 - Introduction
Lightning has always been a mysterious and immensely powerful force in legends, folk tales, and mythical stories, and often very spiritual in its connotations.
- A brief description of how lightning works and occurs.
- An introduction of lightning in fims: X-Men, Percy Jackson, Star Wars, Stardust, Back to the Future...

Paragraph 2
- Lightning seeks the shortest and easiest path to equilibrium
- While Toad may have received severe burns on the end of his unnaturally long tongue (if at all), the electricity would not have traveled along the tongue to Toad's airborne body, but rather would have traveled through the metal railing and the rest of the building into the ground below.

P 3
- Lightning does not cause recoil, is not a projectile, cannot be deflected, must be rerouted or disbursed.
- Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief

P 4
- Lightning cannot be safely routed through the body, and cannot be directed contrary to its natural tendency to balance itself by being grounded, taking the shortest path
- Avatar: The Last Air Bender, "bending" lightning

P 5
Conclusion
Brief restating of how lightning does work and how it does not work, and closing remarks.


Other possible aspects- the speed of lightning, the direction of lightning, temperature difference needed, or just opposite charges?

More Lightning Special Effects_1 - Yoda vs Count Dooku Star Wars Episode II