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2004
Cyber addiction
Heebok Park
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Recommended Citation
Cyber Addiction
by
HeebokPark
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
MFA Imaging Arts/ Computer Animation
SCHOOL OF FILM AND ANIMATION
ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
September 2004
Stephanie Maxwell
Stephanie Maxwell, Chair
Associate Professor
School of Film and Animation
Malcolm Spaull
Malcolm Spaull
Professor
School of Film and Animation
Duane Palyka
Duane Palyka
Professor
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Title of thesis or dissertation:
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Name of author:
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I understand that I must submit a print copy of my thesis or dissertation to the RIT Archives, per current RIT guidelines for the completion of my degree. I hereby grant to the Rochester Institute of Technology and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media in perpetuity. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation.
Print Reproduction Permission Granted:
I,
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hereby grant permission to the Rochester Institute Technology to reproduce my print thesis or dissertation in whole or in part. Any reproduction will not be for commercial use or profit.Heebok Park
Signature of Author: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Date:
Vi
/o¥-Print Reproduction Permission Denied:
I, , hereby deny permission to the RIT Library of the Rochester Institute of Technology to reproduce my print thesis or dissertation in whole or in part.
Title of Thesis: Cyber Addiction
I, Heebok Park, hereby grant permission to the RIT Library of the Rochester
Institute of Technology to reproduce my thesis in whole or in part. Any reproduction will
not be for commercial use or profit.
Table ofContents
Acknowledgements 1
Pre-Production 2
The Concept 2
The
Story
IdeaandStaging
5Storyboarding
7Production 10
Character Design 10
Environments Design 11
The Animation 13
Post-Production 15
Sound Design 15
Editing
andCompositing
16Reflection 17
The
Screening
17Conclusion 17
Appendix A 18
AppendixB 23
Acknowledgements
Iwouldliketooffermysincerestthanks to:
My
supportivethesiscommitteeStephanieMaxwell, Chair
Malcolm Spaull
Duane Palyka
My
classmates andfriendsMyung-Chul
Jung
Kuem-Taek
Jung
MuhammadroziNor
My
composerChristopher D. Brakel
My
family
Eunjung
KimJonghyun Park
Parents,brothers
My
churchfellowswhohelpedmealotand extendedtheircordiality.-Pre-Production
The Concept
For mythesis movie, I firstneeded to
develop
a unique story that was suitablefor making animation. However, this wasn't an easy process. After searching for what
seemed like a
long
time, I had alucky
brainstorm. When I first came to RJT to studycomputeranimation, Ihada roommate who was addictedto thecomputer. He did nothing
but sit in front of the computer. When he would leave his computer, he would feel
uncomfortable and get nervous. I decided to make a movie about this story of cyber
addiction,and alsotodemonstratethedamagethatusingthecomputertoomuch cancause,
especially to a young person. First ofall, for this movie I needed to research the side
effects of excessive access to Internet or cyber space. I found the
following
factsduring
myresearch.
According
tothe rapidlyincreasing
Internet communication network andnumberof users in recent years, people can take advantage of more information and any other
benefits of the Internet like chatting, Internet games, and home shopping. However,
Many
people situpat nightusingthe computer,andtheirconversationswithintheirimmediate families aregraduallydecreasing.
"Nearly
6% of 17,251 respondents in an online survey met the criteria forcompulsive Internet use and over 30% report using the net to escape from negative
feelings. The vast majority admitted to feelings oftime distortion, accelerated intimacy,
and
feeling
uninhibited whenon-line"
("What is Internet Addiction",
http://www.netaddiction.com/whatis.htm). The above statistics show that people have
emotionaltroubleowingtocomputer addiction.
There are three kinds of computer addiction. The first one is communication
addiction which makes people unstable in terms ofsocial, physical, and mental aspects.
For instance, a symptom of excessive communication causes a loss of self-control,
pursuing happiness through cyber communication, and disorders in relationships with
other people. Infact, someInternetaddictstend toconfusetheircyberlifewithreal life,so
theyeasily breakoff relationships with other peopleintheirreallives.
The second kind of addiction is game addiction. There are a lot of computer
people like playing computer games and constantly demand new ones. In
fact,
somepeople often sit up all night
doing
games when others normally are sleeping. Someteenagers play MUD (multi-user
dungeons)
which deals with their cyber-weapons.They
commit violence and homicide more often due to the excitement and empowerment of
cyber-weapons. "Theproblems of excessive game addiction areit is
easytobeexposedto
the violence ofthe game, and people couldbe confusing between virtual reality and real
life."
("What is Cyber Addiction,"
http://www.cyadic.or.kr/main e.asp) Computer users
seemto beat risk onmany levels
by
playing computer games toomuch intheir ordinarylives.
Cyber sexual addiction, also, is another problem. These days, many parents are
not proficient atthe computer, so theycannot control whattheirchildren are
doing
onthecomputer. Thisistrue of children who are curious about sex.
According
to "CaughtintheNet",
by
Kimberly
S. Young, as anassociating reactionafterwatching lewdthings, somejuveniles experience sexual impulses and distorted recognition about sex, and a few of
themhave imitated sexual crimes. These days, even though thegovernment in mynative
country Korea prohibited
juveniles'
access to adultsites, some ofthem have managedto
get accessto these sites andhave becomesocial problemsrelatedtosex.
-4-Unfortunately,
it istrue thatnot onlyare manypeople addictedtocomputers andthe
Internet,
but also they areincreasingly
harmedby
Internet addiction. So, I wantedtore-illuminate the side effects ofexcessive computer use or cyber addiction, and raisethe
awareness ofthe audience, especially teenagers, to the possible
jeopardy
of excessivecomputer use.
While
developing
my story, I graduallybecame interested inthemany details ofcyber addiction that might be included as I was
building
the scenes within the work.However, I couldn'tdepictall ofthe side effects which are sonumerous, soI hadtocreate
a focus. This work became the story of a
boy
who enjoys the cyber world but becomesconfused, distressedandterrifiedas hetries to distinguish betweenreallife andthevirtual
life.
The
Story
IdeaandStaging
I knew this story was relevant and topical in the world. I first focused on the
visual design which wouldbe unique to and made possible onlyin animation. The work
showsmany window screens that come out of a monitor andpop out ofthe cyber world
while the digits 0 and 1 flow out from the background. As they spin they create an
extraordinary cyber world which surrounds the
boy
thus transforming real world spaceinto a virtual "real" world. He even conducts their movements around him as ifhe is
conducting an orchestra. He thoroughly enjoys
being
within a totally self-contained andexcitingcyber world.
I alsotried to showhispsychological aspects.After thepowerin his house goes
out, he feels disappointed as his cyber world has been shut down. As time goes by, he
gradually experiences unpleasant feelings like anxiety, nervousness and impatience.
Finally, hebegins togo crazy andhas hallucinations while staring atthefullmoon inthe
nightsky outsidehisbedroomwindow. Generally, thefullmoonis knownto make people
mad orcrazy or "lunatics" because there is a certainpsychological power that the moon
hasonthethinkingandbehaviorofindividuals.
Whenthe
boy
stares atthefullmoonthrough the window,he hallucinatesthat thereal windowbeginsto squash and stretch. After a whilethewindowbecomesreplaced
by
a computer screen which detaches and moves away fromthe real window. The computer
screen then fixes on the boy's glasses to show that the visual point ofview shifts from
-6-objective to thatof a cyborg's.Withtheboy'snewvision,herecognizes allthings
by
dataand enjoyshis view as if he exists withinthecyber world. Forthis scene, I created more
than50files of cyber worldmoving
imagery
andhadtomovethemeachindividually. Andthen, I made a quick-time movie for overlappingthe illusion scene. I composed the data
vision and
Sexy
Girl scene together and made them synchronized (See Appendix C forCyber Addiction
Treatment.)
Itwasextremely importanttorevealtheinnerpsychological and emotional states
ofthe
boy during
hishallucinationepisode.When seeinghismom withhisspecial 'vision',he mistakes her forthe
Sexy
Girl. For this process, I put togetherreal scenes and specialvisions and showed them in order. To showthis effectively onthe embracing scene with
Mom, I showedthereal scenefirstandhada camera spin and white outtoputhis
feeling
sceneinmiddle of real scene.
Storyboarding
While I was working on my animation, I learned a precious lesson: the more
detailsputintoastoryboard, theeasieritwillbeto executethework. InthepastI likedto
work more
loosely
when creating animated works, but in this animation there was so-7-muchdetailand so manylevels ofactivitythatneed choreographing. IrealizedthatI had
to draw more details ofthe story because I sometimes felt stuck
during
the animationprocess and neededto change little bitsofmy story.As aresult,Iwasableto add several
scenesformore
depiction,
andtheentiretimelinewas extended.Before
drawing
the storyboard, I imagined the situation which had to bedevelopedandtookbriefnotes ontheorder of plot sequences.Then I drewout each scene
ofthe storyboard. Forthe
beginning
oftheanimationIfocusedon closeupdetails liketheboy's foot, hands and eyes because I wanted to show what he was
doing
for hours andhours at his computer staring at the monitor, his eyes gleaming with excitement. His
mouthslowlydevelops a smile ofeuphoric satisfaction.Iadded symbolsto thestoryboard
toindicate camera movements and cartoon style lines forrepresentingtheemotions ofthe
character, suchas surprise, sadness and craziness.
I had previously studied painting for several years, so I believed I had enough
skill to design the storyboard. Actually, I knew the basic elements for painting such as
goodcomposition, howto arrange colors, and so on. However, I partlydidnot understand
becausemovies are not stillimages likeapaintingwork. Forreference, Ilookedcloselyat
several movies and studiedthemintermsofthebalance oftempo,cameracuts, and so on.
I foundoutthat thereisthe rightvariation oftempo and camera movementtoconveythe
propertensionatanygiven movementinafilm.Ifelta needto
develop
filmicconceptsinthisworkthatwouldbecome important lessons for futureworks.
Production
CharacterDesign
I designed models that would be good for animating. I kept this in mind as I
sketched the characters: Mom,
Boy
andSexy
Girl.Boy
is a teenager, who wears black,thick-framedglasses,aT-shirtand short pants. Itried tomakehimateenagerwithalotof
computer savvy. He needed to be detailed on his
face, including
eyeballs, ears, hair formaking close-up shots. I spent muchlabor in
building
him, especiallythe structure ofhisbones and muscles ofhis face. The basic structure was important for creating a realistic
characterization andfortheanimation.
In
building Sexy
GirlIcollectedsexy girl pictures forreference and modeling. Itwas veryintricate to build her face because changing very tiny small parts affected alot
for her expression. To stress her
beauty
and sexuality, I elaborated herbody
line withtranslucentunderwear. AndthenI madeupher face with red cheeks, shadowline around
her eyes, violet
lipstick,
and so on. At this moment, Ijust imagined myselfbecoming
areal woman and
doing
make up. I researched a series of porn sites to understand"sexy
girl"
attributes, and Imade
Sexy
Girl have alluring breasts and other seductive physical10-features.
Sexy
Girl's success results mainly from her voluptuous facial expressions andgestures ratherthanoutward appearance ofthecharacter.
Contrasting Sexy Girl,
I exaggerated Mom's shape to be more rounded andmature, in her late 30s,
having
a permanenthair style. To model Mom in Maya, I copiedthe model ofthe
Sexy
Girl and draggedout almost all the vertices to make herplump. Irepeated modifying her shape and then createdher pajamas whichhad to betranslucent.
Later I made her pajamas opaque to reducing datarelated to her, so I could cut out the
hiddentorso and underwear. Later, I realizedmydecisionwas wise because itwasreally
hard to recognize her wearing transparent pajamas when it is dark in Boy's room.
Although it took so much time to model all the characters, I was able to understand the
most effective ways to build some objects, what was good modeling, and I learned a lot
about character setup thatwas reallyimportant and affectedthe lateranimation. Through
allmymistakes
during
modeling,Ilearnedvaluable skills andknowledge.EnvironmentsDesign
For
building
my environments, I made a conscious decision not to spend toomuchtime
designing
and creating them. On one ofmy previous works where I built an
-outdoor sceneIhadtodesigntoomanythingsabroad
ground, bunchesofgrasses,trees,
sky, animals and insects, and all ina cartoonystyle. For Cyber Addiction I really wanted
to concentrate onthe animation and
characters'
psychological changes. Forthese reasons,
Imade a room which was main stage formy movie andany other stufflikea computer,
monitor,
desk,
chair,bookcaseand closet. Itwas funtomodelthemasifIwerefurnishing
and arranging an actual room. The room needed plenty ofbooks in orderto look like a
student's room. For this, I scanned many ofmy ownbooks and mappedthe surfaces of
Polygon andNurbs objects. I also took pictures with a digital camera and mappedthem
fora pictureframe.
Everything
intheroomlookedreal.In
designing
the environments, themost difficultthing was constructingthepopup windows. I
frequently
noticed distinctkindsofglowing screensin some contemporaryscience fiction movies, so I thought maybe there were tutorials available to create these
screen effects at3D Mayaand Studio sites. Unfortunately, I didn't find any, so I triedto
figure out on my own howto generatethese effects. Iexperimented over and over again
and
finally
wasableto createthemusing 8layersof sphere. Eachlayer hadadifferentsizeand hadto be "glowed"
and spun separately. I mapped them with still images and movie
files.Initially, theresult was notsatisfyingbecausethemovingimages, especially,showed
-some noise. Ithenreplacedthemoviefileswithstill images.IsurfedInternetsources such
asebay,movie,porn, game and chatsites,and printedthescreensforthepopupwindows.
The next challenge was lighting. Ifthere is no light source in the world, we
cannot see anything.No matterhow
beautifully
we model an object, ifthelighting
is badthe object will look bad. In mymovie, Iusedmany
lighting
sourceslike directional, spot,point and area. Forexample,whenI lit foracharacter, firstIwouldcreate one ortwo spot
lights that were main
lighting
sources and then arrange more than four spot lights forindirect
lighting
withdifferentcolors.Another
lighting
conditionhadto be created whenthemoonlight is projected onthe main character. After the power outage, it was necessary that a moon light came
through the window, so I applied a spot light with fog. It was possible to make a beam
whichseemedtocomefromtheedge ofthewindow.
The Animation
Up
tomysecond movieproject,I had learned somanythings- howtobuildgood
models, character setup, rendering, etc. I felt that
doing
an animation movie was very13-tedious. It's really time-consuming. However, right after animating my characters and
others, Irealizedthat itsurely wasworththe intensive labor. I gave alife andpersonality
toeach characterthatseemedtobe"dead"
intheirmodeledforms. Therewereflaws inthe
movie. The majorflaw wasthat thewhole moviehad slowtempo, so Ivariedthemotion
speed. But, it was difficult to findthe rightvariations of motion. At that time, Professor
Stephanie Maxwell gave me tremendous advice such as varying the motion on the
timeline,creatingtensionswithinscenes,and propertransitions. That reallyworked.
Imyself acted outthemotions ofthe charactersin frontof alargemirror,using a
stopwatch tounderstandthe timing. While watching myselfinthe mirror, I oftenfeltthat
my actingwasreallyfunny. On workingoutthefacialexpressionsforeachcharacter, Ifelt
very
happy
to be able to feel their emotions. When I utilized blend shapes and severaldeformers inMaya, at first Iran into technical problems, but after spending a
long
timetryingto solvethemI
finally
wasabletocontroltheblendshapesfor facialexpressions.For moving cameras and
lighting
sources, and especially the spinning scene, Iexperimented a lot to find the easiest way to create the smooth movement around the
characters.
14-Post-Production
Sound Design
Cyber Addiction hadmanyaspects which were relatedtothecomputerintermsof
the computer
interface,
and I felt it would be appropriate to also have a special kind ofcomputer generated musical score, so I sought out a composer who could compose it.
Most ofmy friends from Eastman School ofMusic could compose traditional scores or
play their instruments very well, but the onlyproblem was they didn't know howto use
some sound edit programs. Luckily, I madethe acquaintanceofcomposer, Christopher D.
Brakel, whohasatalentforcomputer generatedsound,andhegladlyacceptedmyrequest.
I wasvery pleased to meethim because Ihad already heard some ofhisprevious music
and I was so impressed. After showing my storyboardto Chris, explaining the details of
the story, and
having
him listen to a sample of music for my storyboard which Idownloaded from the Internet and thought created the right ambience, Chris understood
whatIwanted.
A week later I dropped
by
Chris'
workplace to listen to and pick up the
soundtrack. Although
having
a horror sound which I had not originallyintended,
it wasperfect because it worked on an emotional level to create an experience ofthe negative
aspects of cyber addiction.
Editing
andCompositing
I spent an
incredibly
long
time rendering and re-rendering in Maya. I used twocomputers and had to sleep beside the computer with an alarm clock at night. From the
secondcomputer, I conveyed renderedfilestomycomputerinorderto edit and composite.
I sometimes re-touched still images for the backgrounds
by
using Photoshop, and Icompiled abunchoffootagetomake movie sequencesinAfterEffects. Ialso added some
effects inAfter Effects and made apreviewmoviewhichwas compressed with Sorenson
codec,whichmadetheimage alittle bit dark. After studyingthe movie,I foundtheflaws
and modifiedthem so manytimes,
including
varying the speedsfor some clips, the orderof shots, and cleaning up any clumsy areas. I spent a lot of time on
finalizing
andperfecting the movie. Then, I applied a non-compressed codec and imported it into
Premiere for compositing with the music and sound effects. I printed to video and then
recordedtominiDVtape.
Reflection
The
Screening
Cyber Addictionwas premiered on
May
18, 2004, in the Carlson Auditorium atRIT. Theauditoriumwas crowded andmymovie grippedtheaudience. Iwas pleased with
thereaction and appreciationIreceived.There weremanycomments, like "Thecolorsare
so beautiful,""Youachieved alotprogress in Cyber Addictioncomparedtoyour previous
movies,"
and"It'sso scary,butverygood."
Thepresentation was successful.
Conclusion
After
finishing
CyberAddiction, I wasveryproud. I hadnever expectedtomakethis kind of3D animation. There were so many new challenges and set backs. I made
many repeated mistakes, and the tedious processes seemed to be never-ending.
Nevertheless, I couldn't stop working on the movie. It was areally good opportunity to
push myselfinpursuitofsomething so challengingand meaningful.Now, I am so gladto
have pursued computer animation at RIT, and to know the SOFA faculty.
Especially
Stephanie Maxwell, Malcolm Spaull and Duane Palyka.
They
have been dedicatedteachers, advisors,mentors andfriends.
Appendix A- Thesis Proposal
THESIS PROPOSAL
Cyber Addiction
Written,
DirectedandAnimatedby
HeebokParkCommitteechair: StephanieMaxwell 5/9/2003
Committee: Malcolm Spaull
Committee: Duane Palyka
Working
Title: CyberAddictionProducer: Heebok Park
Actual Budget: $ 1,775
Start date: June2,2003
Enddate:
May
14,2004Running
time: 7minMasterformat: DVtape,DVD Release format: DV,DVD,VHS
Story
reality.
Excessive attachment to a computer blurs the line between reality and virtual
Synopsis
Ateenage male sits alone in front ofhis computer. As he stares at the screen
through thick framed glasses it becomes apparent he is
intently
concentrating on aninternetgame. Afterawhile, hesurfs other sites and several screens appear
dimly
aroundhismonitor.Aseries of windowspopinand out oftheforegroundonthemonitorscreen- a
chat window, a home shopping window, an explicit cyber sexwindow, and so on. These
windows emerge from the monitor slowly and surround him,
becoming
part ofhis ownworld. The windows begin to slowly spin and the man is sucked into each individual
screen, enjoyingeach windowinturn. Heenjoyseachexperienceimmensely,marvelingat
theabilitytoexperiencethe seeminglyimpossible.
Suddenly, allthe screens disappear aroundhim and there's only darkness. He is
back in his room, realizing there has been a power outage. As time goes
by
the manbecomes
increasingly
distraught with the realization he can no longer enjoy thecyber-worldshe hasbeen experiencing.Whenthefullmoonis appearing frombehindthe cloud,
he slowlystarts tolose his mind andhisvisionbeginsto distortwithpanic. Symptoms of
optical illusion ensue and when he stares at a window on a wall with dizziness, the
window turns to translucent green showing an odd screen that is similar to a cyborg's
view(similar to the robot's vision in the Terminator films). Whatever he sees, he can
recognize it
by
datawithhis specialvision. Thephonerings, and ashis attention shiftstothe phone, his eye screen begins to analyze it digitally,
displaying
items such as theloudnessofringing,distancebetweenthephone and
him,
calleridentification,etc.Amazed at his newfound ability, he scans the room with curiosity. His mom
knocks hardthedoor. Sheopensthedoorand pointstoherwatch whichindicates2:25 a.m.
However, as the
boy
watchesher,herimage isreplacedby
thatof asexy girltemptinghim.The voluptuous girl calls him with smile, andthe man approaches her. As he moves to
embrace the girl, her face metamorphoses into a
frightening
monster. The man is sosurprisedhe screams andtries to escape from her. His screaming shockshis motherwho,
simultaneousto theimage ofmonster, grabshimand pullshimclosetoher. Hisattempts
-tostruggle arefutileasthegirlholds him
firmly
atthewaist.While he struggles to get out ofgrasp ofthe monster, the electricity flickers on
and all the window screens reappear aroundhisroom. Eachwindowbeginstoretractinto
his monitor. Heresists
being
drawn, but hisbody
is disassembled intoparticles andhe issuckedintothemonitor. The
boy
begins topass outhis mother's arms. Whenthemonitorblinks
irregularly
as the power continues toflicker,
his face illuminates the screen,showinghimscreaming. Thepowergoes out againcompletelyandhe's gone.There's only
moonlight inthe room, andthe boy'smother places hertiredson onto his bed andcovers
himwithablanketashedrifts intosleep.
Approach
Thiswork willbecreatedin3D computer animationand2Dcomputer animation.
For editing and compositing, Adobe After Effects and Premiere will be used. Other
possible programs include
Photoshop
and Painter. The music will be an originalcomposition
by
acomposer,Christopher D. Brakel (Eastman).-22-Appendix B - Storyboard
Storyboard
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Appendix C - CyberAddiction Images
-28-1. Maincharacter atkeyboard.
2.Windowsemergefromthemonitorslowlyandsurroundhim.
3. Maincharacterconducts each site
4.Heenjoys a cyberworld.
5. The electricity has goneout, and maincharacterfeels disappointed.
6. Astheboywatcheshismom,her image isreplacedbythatofasexygirltemptinghim.
7. Withhisspecialvision,hemisunderstandsmomtosexygirl.
8. Whentheboyhugshismom,he justfeelslikehuggingthesexygirl.
9. The sexygirl'sfacemetamorphosesintoafrighteningmonster.
10.Theboyfeelslike sucking intothemonitor.
-1 -1. Screamingfromthemonitor.
12. Maincharacterfaints,andhismomholds him.