Dencity

Tea Terms

Oolong Tea Types 烏龍茶分為：

white oolong: 白茶烏龍
twisted oolong: 條形烏龍
pelleted oolong: 球形烏龍
roasted oolong: 熟火烏龍
white tipped oolong: 白毫烏龍

Tea Ware 茶具:

tea cart 茶車
water heater煮水器
water kettle 水壺
tea basin 水盂
tea caddy (canister) 茶罐

tea boat 茶船
teapot 茶壺
cover bowl 蓋碗
tea pad 壺墊
tea pitcher茶盅
lid saucer蓋置

towel tray茶巾盤
tea towel 茶巾
tea holder茶荷
tea brush 茶拂
timer 定時器
tea spoon 茶匙

serving tray奉茶盤
teacup 茶杯
cup saucer杯托

seat cushion座墊
cup cover 杯套
packing wrap包壺巾
tea ware bag 茶具袋
ground pad 地衣
strainer cup 同心杯
personal tea set 個人品茗組（茶具）
brewing vessel 沖泡盅
tea ware 茶器
thermos 熱水瓶
tea urn / jar 茶甕
tea table 茶桌
side table側櫃
tea bowl 茶碗
spout bowl 有流茶碗
heating base煮水器底坐

http://teaarts.blogspot.com/2010/06/tea-terms-2010.html

Thesis Synopsis

The Sixth Leaf

Abstract

The Sixth Leaf is a three minute 3D animated short about meditation and relaxation in our daily lives. In the modern world where every thing is getting faster and faster, I believe we have to really slow things down in order to enjoy our life. By using the theme of the traditional Asian tea ritual, I intend to bring out the beauty of the culture and how one can achieve a mental state of relaxation through the process of tea preparation.

Influences

My influence of doing this topic involves a lot of my personal experience. For example, when I was back in Taiwan, my girlfriend and me had a trip to a traditional ceramics town, there we hand made a teacup for each other. Now that I’m in New York, when I use this cup to drink tea, I started to realize every little detail on the cup and the warmth of the tea within relaxes me. I’m influenced by Taiwanese pottery artist Heinrich Wang, his tea ware embody the concept of slowness and meditation. I find the same inspiration in the simplicity of work by architect Shigeru Ban.

Process

The animation will be created in Maya. For the fluid simulation, I will be using RealFlow to create the tea and waterfall in the animation. I will also create different scripts and tools along the way to help the workflow. For example, a random vertex move tool, which will move all the vertices of the model a slight amount to make the model look more natural and less computer generated. Further more. I will focus on texturing and lighting to bring out the detail and the tactile qualities of the tea ware and the environment. For instance, I will be using my paintings as textures for the pottery to add another level of aesthetics to the animation.

Concept Art In Progress - Final Scene

Concept Art In Progress - Character

Cafe Lumiere & What Time Is It There?

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTI4NTc0MTI=.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bo6asxGjWo

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Afu6ZqZlyWc/

Painting as Texture Tests

Perfume

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqk9MTP9tMU

SHIGERU BAN ARCHITECTS 坂茂建築設計

Drawing Restraint 9 - Matthew Barney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxsXLMbQA5Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYj1vpeGbDE

Alberto Giacometti

search for perfection.

slender figure.

Tea related time based works

a cup of tea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WlCChaQmIM

Flying Lotus "Tealeaf dancers"
http://www.vimeo.com/10630349

pandaran tea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zclkg-pgsbI&feature=related

a cup of tea - making of
http://www.vimeo.com/5304656

tea
http://www.vimeo.com/10461713

when I drink a cup of tea.....
http://www.vimeo.com/12687264

tea
http://www.vimeo.com/10988238

green tea
http://www.vimeo.com/4288726

Daruma and the Birth of Tea
http://www.vimeo.com/4867914

the brain tea
http://www.mightynice.com.au/works/10/tea-brain-trailer

Tea preperation

Here is a quick guide of how to prepare Oolong tea:

1. Bring water to boil and keep it boiling. Bottled spring water is much preferred than tap water.
2. Use a small teapot (we use a 200 ml or 7 oz teapot as a reference here).
3. Apply hot water inside and over the teapot to warm it up. Discard all water. This is to bring up the temperature of the teapot. So, the heat of the brewing hot water is for brew.
4. Put 1/2 oz or so (about 3 teaspoon) of Oolong into the teapot (how much Oolong to use is based on personal preference). It could take approximately vary from 10% to 20% of space in the teapot. The more tea leaves used the more flavors the tea has and its required brewing time for each infusion is less. However, too much tea leaves used could increase the bitter taste and the teapot would not have enough room for the tea leaves to fully expand themselves.)
5. Add boiling water and discard this pre-brew water right-a-way. This is to wash away the fine tealeaves hairs and bring the tealeaves to brewing temperature.
6. Top off the teapot with hot water to brew. First brew should be about 50 seconds. Pour brewed tea to a water pitcher or something similar for transfer to tea cups for drinking. First brew is the best for you to experience the aroma.
7. Enjoy the tea while it is hot smell the aroma of the cover. Observe the color of the liquor and then sip.

The best tea is from second and third brews. Second brew should be 60 seconds. Third brew should be about 75 seconds. The brewing time should gradually increase by 15 second interval to 120 seconds for the sixth brew. Much longer brewing time is required for the 7th and 8th (3 minutes) brew, if the 7th or 8th brews are not too light to drink.


links:
http://www.istea.com.tw/new/tea/skill/tea_index2.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMnhhD76QDU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvKoqEr7tog&feature=related

Realflow test

Technical-wise, there is no way I can get away with liquid simulation in 3D since it's so important to my story. I gave the demo version of Realflow a try and I think the result was acceptable, I'm planning to use this package to do the fluid simulations in my animation (tea, waterfall, water-drop...etc).

Here is the result of the test:

http://vimeo.com/13205919

Tea pot quick sketchs

NewChi

The tea pot and tea cup will be the most important asset in the animation, not only it's where the tea is being made and drunk, but also it's where all the beautiful visual detail will happen (close up shots, water pouring, subtle character animation...etc.). In order to came up with a good design, I found some references, and the best one was a taiwanese brand called NewChi.

http://www.new-chi.com/

I love the modern and elegant quality of all the designs, this is definitely the quality I want for my animation.

"Treasures of Taiwan" - Tea

The first thing that inspired me into making an animation about tea was a series of documentary films made by Discovery channel called "Treasures of Taiwan". This series of documentary contains five different topics, and one of them is about tea.

A particular part I found interesting in the film was it mentioned taiwan tea was exported to New York by british people in 1986 and very well received. Even though that was a long time ago and is no longer the truth, however, this fact made me felt a great connection with this topic.

Different kinds of teas are prepared in different ways, since the film mention Oolong was the kind of tea that taiwan is know for, I decided to choose Oolong Tea as the tea I will be showing in my animation, and the focus of my future research.

full video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbXKV_ZKrGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdHly3INvg&feature

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVwhco0peLM&feature