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The Law of Falling Objects

Everything on earth is pulled down by gravity whether it is an animate or inanimate object. Therefore, naturally, any object that is thrown to the air will accelerate downward to the ground. When the action is vertical, the path of action will be a straight vertical line. However, when the object travels vertically as well as horizontally, the path of action will be in form of a perfect arc. How is this possible? Well, an object will always move with a constant speed horizontally, no matter what height it is at, but when an object is getting closer to the ground, it will accelerate because of the force of gravity applied on it. Therefore, instead of a diagonal path, an object will fall in a parabolic or an arc path. This sounds like a simple law, but it is often violated in animated series or movies with special effects, including Captain Tsubasa (1980s), Shaolin Soccer (2001), and Wanted (2008). Some of the scenes of falling objects in these movies do not look believable which can either distract the viewer from enjoying the plot, or create dramatic or comedic effects depends on how well it is animated and the mood of the story.

The Japanese animated series Captain Tsubasa has a lot of scenes with inconsistent path of action. In this ten minutes video from youtube, there are a lot of examples that can be used to illustrate how the law of falling is incorrectly used. For example, a few frames after the goalkeeper catches the ball on the top corner of the goal, he is on the ground, on a roughly same spot horizontally. This means that he falls vertically after jumping diagonally to catch the ball. In real life, the horizontal distance from where he starts jumping to the apex, and from the apex to where he lands should be approximately the same. Most people may not notice this because there are a few different frames in between his jump and landing, but when this scene is watched with a critical eye, this kind of mistakes can be easily caught. For instance, when I watched this series as a middle school student, I enjoyed it a lot. I watched it every day on television, curious of what would happen in the next episode. However, when I watched it again a couple of weeks ago, I found that the stiff movement and wrong physics distracted me from enjoying the story. What often happen in the series is that the ball will fall steeper compared to the angle it was kicked. In some other cases, the ball will fly straight horizontally, or worse, somehow fly higher after almost touching the ground. This case actually happens in the scene where the goalkeeper scores one point for the team. It looks like the ball is travelling in a double arcs path. Just like the first example, the viewer may not notice that the ball moves in an inconsistent path of action because the kicking and the landing are shot in different backgrounds. This kind of mistakes can distract the viewers from enjoying the film because they do not look like they are intentionally done for any specific purpose.

When reading the title Shaolin Soccer, I suspect that this film will be similar to Captain Tsubasa, with the exception of the characters playing soccer being monks instead. Turns out, this movie is mostly about people using kungfu in different activities, including soccer. Props and special effects are used to make dramatic events, but most of them are unrealistic. These unrealistic scenes can be caught more easily compared to the scenes from Captain Tsubasa because the camera is actually tracking the object’s movement, and the fact that this film is supposed to look like real life since the characters are real humans. People will have a more critical eye viewing something they encounter every day. For example, Mui, played by Vicki Zhao, throws bread dough in the air, and it stays in the air for a while. This scene may be believable to some people because she uses kungfu when throwing the dough to the air. However, a few scenes after that, the boy with no kungfu ability throws a cooking pot diagonally from a third or fourth floor apartment to Mui who is on the ground level. It is clear that a rope was used to move this object even though the rope is not visible in the scene. The reasons behind this statement are the energy that the boy applies to throw the object is not large enough for it to travel that far, and the fact that the object moves vertically constant which contradicts to the law a falling object accelerating the closer it is to the ground. In real life, the pot would move in an arc path. However, this scene may be animated that way to exaggerate the power of kungfu because if the cooking pot falls on the ground, kungfu will not look as impressive in this scene. However, the scene looks humorous instead because the trick is clearly visible. Another example from an earlier scene would be the scene where a monk is travelling horizontally in the air while neatly carving letters on a stone on top of a temple’s gate. The fact that this scene looks totally unrealistic makes this scene look comedic instead of impressive. Another example is when the main character, the Mighty Steel Leg, played by Stephen Chow, successfully kicks a heavy object to the top of other objects without making any dents on it. Just like a few examples from Captain Tsubasa, the action does not happen in a correct arc path; the object falls almost vertically straight from the apex. The good thing about these scenes is that they consistently look like they are made visible intentionally. The fact that the main character is funny, which can be seen from a lot of the scenes throughout the movie including the scene where he obnoxiously and badly sings in front of a crowd at the bread shop, helps convince the viewers that the physics of falling objects is violated on purpose for comedic effect.

Unlike Captain Tsubasa and Shaolin Soccer, the movie Wanted looks a lot more polished. I enjoyed watching Wanted on the big screen a few years ago; however, after learning the physics of animation, I am able to find a few scenes that are impossible to execute in real life. Scenes that are incorporated in this three minutes music video are pretty much where most of the fun actions are. However, it is really hard to make a scene looks dramatic while still following the law of physics. For instance, the path of action in a scene where Wesley, played by James McAvoy, jumps through a window and lands inside the room is not a perfect arc. In this scene, Wesley gathers his energy by running, jumping, falling vertically after he reaches the apex of his jump, then landing successfully. Even though he is a really good shooter, he is still a regular human being, so he should, realistically, land farther from the window, equal to the distance from where he started jumping to the apex of his jump, and slide forward as an impact of the energy he previously built up by running. However, the incorrectness helps dramatized the scene. If he does not stop abruptly, there will be a better chance for the villains to shoot him while he is trying to stop sliding, which will not look at all impressive. Being able to land in a steady posture after a powerful jump shows how exceptional he is. Also, the special effects such as the window breaking help distract the viewer from paying attention to the correctness of the movement. In a different scene near the end, the character Fox, played by Angelina Jolie, shoots a bullet, which curved in a circular path like a boomerang which killed everybody in the circle including herself. The bullet travels in a perfect circle horizontally in the air at the same height, which is unreal. However, somehow, it looks believable and impressive instead of comedic. The anticipation she takes before shooting the bullet and the fact that she is an exceptional shooter conveyed through the entire movie, help convince the viewer that she actually has the talent to make this kind of shot happen. Most adult viewers will notice that these scenes are unrealistic, but they will make an exception for these two main characters because of their exceptional shooting talents. Overall, these unrealistic scenes help build powerful characters who are impressive instead of humorous.

Violating the law of a falling object is used differently and for different purposes in Captain Tsubasa, Shaolin Soccer, and Wanted. These series and movies are so different, and they show that when used effectively, violating this law can create a comedic effect like applied in the movie Shaolin Soccer or impressive effect like applied in the movie Wanted. However, when it is violated ineffectively, it can distract the viewers, especially adults, from enjoying the story. The law that an object will follow a perfect arc path when moving horizontally and vertically is simple, but not everybody is aware of that. The law of physics makes sense to most people, but most people will not be aware of it unless they pay attention to it. I personally feel like I have a more critical eye when watching animated series and movies now because I have learned the fundamental physics laws. Knowing laws like this will help me create believable or at least effective animated films in the future.