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.