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