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The free gift
Chia-Chi Cho
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Recommended Citation
The Free Gift
Master Of Fine Arts Thesis Production
By
Chia-Chi Cho
MFA Imaging Arts / Computer Animation
SCHOOL OF FILM AND ANIMATION
ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
November 2006
Thesis Committee Members:
Professor Skip Battaglia ( Chair)
Skip Battaglia
Associate Professor Duane Palyka
Duane M. Palyka
VISiting Assistant Professor Aharon Charnov
ThesislDissertation Author Permission Statement
Title of thesis or dissertation: The Free Gift
Name of author: Chia-Chi Cho
Degree: MFA
Program: Film and Animation
College: Imaging Arts and Sciences
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 fOnDS of media in perpetuity. I retain all other ownership
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(such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation.
Print Reproduction Permission Granted:
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,
liI, -C
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0 , hereby grant permission to the Rochester Institute Technology to reproduce my print thesis or dissertation in whole or in part. Any reproduction willn~t
be for commercial use or profit.Chi -Chi C h
Signature of Author:
a
0
Date: f?(
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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_
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Table
ofContents
Acknowledgements
Page 5Concept
andStory
Idea Page 5Movie Title Page 6
Preproduction
Treatment Page 6
Character DesignandAesthetics Page 7
Storyboarding
Page 7Production
Modeling
Page8Texturing
Page 8Rigging
Page 9Animating
Page 9Lighting
&Rendering
Page 10SpecialEffects Page 10
Postproduction
SoundEffects Page 12
Music Page 12
Compositing
&Editing
Page 12Feedback Page 13
Conclusion Page 13
Appendix A
Original ThesisProposal Page 14
Appendix B
Complete Storyboard Page 21
AppendixC
Production Stills Page29
Appendix D
Character Design Drawings Page 33
Appendix E
Acknowledgement
Thepurpose ofthis paperistogivereaders a quick review ofmy thesismovie,
"The Free Gift". It includes the process of making my movie, the problems I
encountered, andhow Isolved themeventually. Iwas fortunate enoughtohavethe
opportunitytoundergointensivetrainingintheSchoolofFilmandAnimation
(SOFA)
atRochester instituteof
Technology
as a graduate student. I am verygratefulto allmy classmates in SOFA. With
Studying
with them, I learned not only animationknowledge and methods, but also wider view points and more international
experienceaboutfilmproduction.
First of all, I would like to thank my committee members. Thanks to my
committeechair,
Skip
Battaglia, aninternational awardwinningfilmmaker,
who gaveme great suggestions throughoutthe whole production of"TheFree Gift".
During
my time as a graduate student in Rochester Institute ofTechnology, Professor
Skip
Battagliawas a very influential teacher whotaught me avarietyoffilm production,
scriptwriting, and music editing skills for my class projects.
My
appreciation alsogoesto theprofessorDuanePalykaandAharonCharnov,who gavemethe
inspiration,
shared their knowledge and 3D skills with me, and
finally
helped me to finish mymovie.
They
played an important role in my extensive training and I amdeeply
thankfulto them.
Conceptand
Story
IdeaSeveral years ago I read an article which is about
discussing
the change ofhuman beings in today's modem society. In
big
cities, people seem to be closephysicallybutthedistance betweenpeopleisveryfarthatmostpeople are unaware of.
touch, asmile,akindword, a
listening
ear,anhonestcompliment, orthesmallestactofcaring,allofwhichhavethepotentialtoturnalifearound". Thesefewsentences
inspiredmeto create a movie whichcan
bring
peoplecloser, to collide, andtomakecontact. Inmymovie"The FreeGift",the
boy
expressedhis loveand feelingsto thegirl in a witty way.
Hopefully
people who watched my movie will like to furtherexpress their true feelings to all the people in their lives, not only to their family,
friends,
orthepersonstheylove.Movie Title
"The Free Gift"
is a story about love. The gift in this movie is a medium to
expresstheboy's feelingsto a girl.Inaddition, it isalsoagood startto tell thepeople who youlikethatyou are still concerned aboutthem.
Preproduction
Treatment
My
originalstoryisabouttheboy
whofalls in lovewitha girl at firstsight and tries to find a way to express his love to her. The biggest problem of my storystructureisthat the conflictsapparentlyaretooweakinthismovie. Itried tocreate another sidekick character to
bring
these conflicts up and eventually come to theconclusion. The problems thatneed to be faced and solved
by
theprotagonist are causedby
this sidekick character. Theinteresting
fact isthatthis sidekick characteris also the
key
who helped theboy
and the girl get together finally. This thirdCharacter DesignandAesthetics
Since the characters were set up as the employees who helped to promoteRed
Dragon's Cafe
by
delivery
theflyers,
I checkedmany Halloweencostumes online asreferences. As tothe design forthereddragonmask, I combined theimages from
theChinesedragonandthewestern
dragon,
andthenrecreatedatotallyuniquedragonimage
by
my imagination. The design for the girl is a challenge for me. I wasthinking about two types of clothing, modem and traditional ones when I was
designing
her. Ifinally
madehermoremodemin looktofit intheCafescene.Storyboarding
Thismovie includes over 50 shotsto cover thewhole storyline. Althoughthe
storylineisnotcomplicated, therearemanysmall eventsincluded inmymovie. The
camera positions I chose for the shots are mainly close shots. The reason is that
facial expressions ofthe characters here play a very important role and the more
audiences canseecharacters'
expressions,themore andeasiertheiremotionswillbe
involvedinthe story. Alsothetiming for shotsisvery dramatic. Thepace comes
in slow, and little
by
little it speedsup until the conflicts appear, and then it slowsProduction
Modeling
In "The FreeGift"
I mainlyusedtwopowerful modelingmethods: polygon and
sub-D to build most of my characters and background.
They
made it easier toachieve a greaterorganic realismfor mymodels.AnotherreasonthatI chose polygon
isthatitmademy lifemuch easier whenI appliedthe textures tomymodels. Istarted
theprocess ofmodeling the characters withtheNURBS Curve Tool. After
having
therough shape ofthe
body
partsbuilt,
I transferredthemfrom NURBS topolygons.Then I made minor adjustments to the shapes of characters and combined them as
well. After
having
mycharacter assembledinonepiece, I startedto focusmore onmusculature andbetter definitionofmy
characters'
body
parts. Itransferredpolygonpartstosub-Dtorefine and adddetails inthismode. Inthefinal modelingprocessI
transferredsub-Dbacktopolygons againtopreparefortexturing.
During
themodelingprocess I have learned many techniques inMaya, such asimage plane preparation, Append to Polygon Tool, SubDivisionHierarchy, Polygon
Proxy
Modeling,surfaceconversion, mirroring, attaching,and anumberof additionaltipsformodeling. 3D
Modeling
isaverytime-consumingprocessanditneedsalotof patience. However,Iwasveryenjoyable whenIwasmodeling mycharacters and
Iwasvery
happy
withthemwhentheyweredone.Texturing
Before I createdtextures for my characters, I spent quiteplenty oftime to edit
and cleanmy UVlayouts foreach model.AgoodUVlayoutalsohelpsalottodefine
and apply flawless textures to polygon models, resulting in phenomenal detail and
accuracy. Besides, it saves a lot of time throughout the workflow. As to the
textures,IusedPSDtexturesin Mayaandtheneditedit inPhotoshop. Ialso created
many
Bump
Maps and Specular Maps ontexturesto make them lookmore realisticandincrease morevisual details. The window glass texturein my Cafe shop wasa
challenge. Itried tomakeit looktransparentandclear,butontheother
hand,
Ineedthat my audiences notice it as well. Therefore, I added some bluish color to the
ambient color layer and added a glow on my glass texture.
By
this waythe glasswindowbecamemorevivid andnoticeable. The overall colorsIused inthis movie
arebrightandcheery,which gavethismovie morecartoonyand comediclook.
Rigging
I used the smooth bind to rig all my characters. It looked much more natural
when I animated them using the smooth bind than using the rigid bind. I simply
builtverybasic skeletonrigs forthembecause I will exportthemto MotionBuilder
fortheanimation part. Italso saved me a significant amount oftime onriggingand
setting up my characters. The other tools and techniques I used
during
riggingprocessin Mayaareclusters, BlendShapes,skin weights and customrigcontrols.
Animating
Facial expression played a very important role in my movie. Therefore I used
manyclose shots in here. AnotherthingthatIwanttomention here isthatI chose
MotionBuilder, a verypowerful animating program to do my animation instead of
animating in Maya. I exported models from Maya and imported them to
MotionBuilder, where them got rigged and animated. When the animations were
done inMotionBuilder, Iexportedthemfromthere andimported backintoMayaand
then rendered. The best feature I like in this software is its real time animation
performances,alleviatingtheneedtopreviewmyanimations frequently. Besides, it
also provided a very powerful full
body
FK/IK manipulation rig. I created mostmajor animations in MotionBuilder and then did some detail animations, such as
fingers,
facial animationsin Maya. I foundoutthis isthemost efficientwayformetoanimatemycharactersforthemovie.
Lighting
andRendering
I stared withthe most basic three-point lights:
Key
light, Fill light , and Backlight. For the inside scene,I used spotlight for floor lamps. Somehow I feltthat
theshadows ofthelightswere not so easytocontrol sinceI hadmanylightsandshots,
thenIdecidedto editthe shadoweffects inAfterEffects insteadofhere inMaya. I
used a newfeature inMaya-Render Layerssystemfor my final renderingprocess. I
rendered various parts ofmy scenes separately. It gave me more control over the
final images. AndIcan managemyscenes
by
adding detailsandmakingchangestoelements quickly and efficiently with Render Layers. When I needed to make a
change, I didn't need to re-render the whole image. Instead, I simply needed to
re-renderthepartofimagesthatIwantedtochange orjusteditit inAfterEffects.
SpecialEffects
For characters'
hair,
IusedPaintEffects in Maya. I found outthatthis systemwas very easyto use. WhatIneeded to dowas to make the objects paintable, and
then choose a brush from presets in the visor, and
finally
edit it in settings.Moreover,itlookedvivid and gavemycharactersmorepersonallook.
Another importantspecialeffectsthatIneededtodealwithin mymoviewasthe
scene of spilling coffee. I
finally
decided to create the fluid effectby
anothersimulation tool: RealFlow. RealFlow is a very good product and one that I found
quick to learn. It was very
interesting
here to explore and learn how to use thisprogram. Therewere manyvariables here toplay withto optimize my scenes and then Icangetthebestresults and realism. The speed of workflow comparedtojust
usingparticlesystems withinMayais prettygood andfast. The finalresult was also better and more realistic than Maya's particle system. I was very
happy
with thePostproduction
Sound Effects
I bought a royalty-free sound FX
Library
DVD from Digital Juice. I addedsome
Foley
effects andatmospheretoenhancemyscenes. For theCafeshotscene,Icreateda completeCafeenvironment, formglassestinklingand dinnerware clanking
tothegeneralhumofconversation,inordertoconvincetheaudiencesthat
they
areina
bustling
Cafe shop. Other sound effects, such ascharacters'
screaming,
expressionsofsurprise, papers,andfootstepswere usedfromthisDVDtoo.
Music
Musicalwaysinfluencesusthroughoutour
daily
life.Itisespeciallyimportant inmovies oranimations. Ibelievemusic canhave manyroles; itcan addto thedrama
andemotion,gluethingstogether,
help
thingsflow,etc.The music songs in mymovie were from the musical class of sound FXDVD
andStack Traxx High Impact Stacks DVD fromDigital Juice. Iused some musical
setsfromthem, edited theseinPremiere, andthenputthese songs in different scene
segments in order to make the translations sound smoother, natural and match the
mood well.
Compositing
andEditing
IusedAfterEffectstodomostcompostingandediting forthismovie. Sincemy
characters, background, and shadows were rendered separately, adjusting and
changing each element or even various scenes became very easy to apply. The
biggestchangesI made in AfterEffectsweretoadjustthecolor ofthe shadows andI
tried to make the color of each scene match well. The opening,
logos,
and thecreditswere alsoeditedin AfterEffects.
Feedback
I was glad that I got some positive praises and suggestions as well from the
audience
during
the screening. I was veryhappy
that most of teachers and myfriendstold methey liked my story, and thatthe characters andtexturing werevery
impressiv. Oneofmy friends told meshe felt really moved whenthemovie ended
and she watched it again and again. One professor in my screening thought my
editing was too fast in the
beginning
ofthe story and it might confuse people. Ithought it was a very good suggestion for me because it is very important to give
audiences averyclearintroductionofsetting and charactersinthevery
beginning
ofthestory.
Conclusion
Iwasreallyexcitedwhenmymovie was screenedin frontof audiences at school.
Finally
I finished my own complete 3D computer animation work after severalmonths'
hard work. I experienced all these steps, from the very
beginning
preproductionprocess:Scriptwriting,CharacterDesigning,
Drawing
the environments,Creating
Storyboards, to the production process: Modeling, Texturing, Lighting,Animating, Rendering, and
finally
tothefinalComposting
and Editing. Inordertofinish and enhance the quality ofmy movie, Ialso learned someprograms, such as
MotionBuilder, AfterEffects, RealFlow, and Premiere. I collected as many
learning
resources aspossible, from internettutorials,
books,
classes,to videotutorialsformeto learnthesenew programs
by
myself. Thelearning
process wasverydifficult,
butitwas
definitely
worththetime. Therefore I have learnedmany animationtheoriesAppendix A
The Free Gift
By Chia-Chi Cho
MFA imaging Arts & Computer Animation School of Film and Animation Rochester Institute of Technology
Running Time: 3 Minutes
the winter is cold, but something warm still exists somewhere (the cold, cruel world vs. the warm human heart)
Skip Battaglia
Part1: The first meet
On a snowy morning, a boy named Takeshi is standing in front of a Japanese-style
coffee shop. There is a very big and clear shop sign 'Java Dog's Cafe' in front.
Takeshi, who wears a dog costume, is handing out the shop advertising materials to
is
helping
him holdthebigpile ofadvertisementflyers. This littlecreature's nameisMaluco. Heworks withTakeshi in Java Dog'sCafe. Maluco keeps
looking
aroundandhiseyeballs
keep
turning. Hisbody
isstill,dueto thebigpile ofpapersthathecarries. Meanwhile agirl,Minami, passes
by
andthenenterstheJava Dog's Cafe.The
boy
Takeshi keepslooking
at the girl Minami through the clear cafe glasswindow. The creature Maluco puts his papers aside, and also looks through the
windowfromoutside. Hestickshis faceontheglass window and makes awry face.
Part2: Theconflict(Insidethecafe)
(The firsttime)
TheboyTakeshiwalks out ofthekitchen. Now he is wearingthewaiter's suit. He
holdsa plate with acupof coffee onit. Nearthe cornerofthe wall, thereis ahuge
shelf with severaldifferent kindsofdog-facemasksonit. Maluco is
dozing
off ontheshelf. When Takeshiwalks in frontofthe shelf, Malucomakesthesomniloquy and
incautiouslykicksoffadogmask. Thedogmaskfalls justright onTakeshi's head.
He tries to get rid ofthe mask but fails. At this moment Maluco wakes up and
realizes that he has brought Takeshi a big trouble. Maluco jumps on Takeshi's
shoulders andhelps himtogetridofthemaskwithhis all efforts. Afterthemaskis
loosened from Takeshi's head, it drops away. Later Takeshi and Maluco feel
something wrong and notice thatthe maskhas fallen on Minami's head thistime.
Theyfeelembarrassed andlookateachother.
(Later)
TheboyTakeshiwalksoutagain. He stillholdsa platewith a coffee onhis hand.
Whenhewalksin frontoftheshelf,he looks backaroundtomakes surethatMaluco
isnotthere. AtthismomentMalucois chasingaflyin front. Thenthe
fly
stops onTakeshi's onefoot. Maluco grabsthisgreat chance. He jumps high and treads on
Takeshi's foot. Takeshicriesloud,andmindlesslyspillsthecoffeeonMinami's face.
Shecries outlouderandleavesthecafeangrily. Takeshiisupset and watchesMinami
disappearing
inthefar.Part3: Aturningpoint
Inthenextmorningaroundthesametime,thegirlMinamiappearsinfrontofthe
cafe again. The
boy
Takeshi isstillhanding
outthe advertisingpapersforthecafeshopwithhis
dog
costume onthestreet. WhenthegirlMinamipassesby
Takeshi,hehurriedlyhandsa promo papertoher. However,Minamishakesherheadandrefuses
himwitha smile. AfterMinamiwalksaway, suddenly,thecreatureMalucograbsthe
promopaper from Takeshi's hand and runs to Minami. Minami stops her steps,
accepts thepaperfrom Maluco andtakesalookatthepaper. Onthepaperitshows
the Java Dog's Cafe. In the center there is abig hand
drawing
gift picture. Theinformationisprintedinredcoloronit. Itsays,"3/26/2005 8:00AM Place: In front
ofJava Dog's Cafe Free Mysteriousgift(Withbiggerwords)."
Part4:The Muse
(Thescene willcutbetween MinamiandTakeshi.)
Thegirl Minamiis sitting inside thecafe and
looking
atthepromo paper onherhand. Thenthe scene will cut toTakeshi, who is still
handing
outthe advertisingpapersoutsidethecafeinthe
heavy
winter snow. Thenthescene will cutbackto thePartS: The TVuth
(03/26/20058:00AM)
Minami,whois
bringing
theadvertisement paperwithher,appears in frontoftheJava Dog's Cafe. TakeshiandMaluco arealreadythere. TakeshigivesMinamia
littleelaborateheart-shapedgiftboxwhenshe approacheshim. Minamireceivesthe giftfromTakeshi,giveshima sweetsmile,takesalookatthe gift,andthen turnsto
leave. While Minami walks to the corner of the street, she notices3, 4pieces of
advertisingpapers,whichhave beenthrownawaybypeople,areontheground. She picks one ofthem and finds outthe differencebetween this advertising paperand
hers. Onthisabandonedpaper, thereisnotanyred colored'free
gift'
word onit. She muses awhile andthenturnsbacktolookatTakeshi. MeanwhileTakeshi hasalready
takenoffhis dog'smask. Minamilooksathimandsmiles pleasantly. Maluco,whose
lowerbodyiscoveredbysnowflakes,isalsosmilingatthishappymoment.
Thesis Timeline by
Chia-Chi ChoSpring2004
Weekl Concept-Treatment
Week2 Concept-Treatment
Week3 Concept-TreatmentFinish
Week4 Refine-Treatment
Week5 Refine-Treatment
Week6 Class Feedback
Weekl Final Script
WeekS ThesisProposal
Week9 Refine-Treatment
WeeklO ThesisProposal;Storyboard & Design
Summer 2004
Weekll CharacterDesign(1)
Weekl2 CharacterDesign(2)
WeekU CharacterDesign
(3)
Weekl4 Character Design(4)
WeeklS Character
Modeling
(1)Weekl6 Character
Modeling
(2)Weekl 7 Character
Modeling
(3)WeekU Character
Modeling (4)
Weekl9 Character
Modeling
(5)Week20 CharacterRigging (1)
Fall2004
Week21 Character
Rigging
(2)Week22 CharacterRigging
(3)
Week23 Texture(1);
Early
Sound(Clicktrack,etc.)(1)
Week24 Texture(2);EarlySound(Clicktrack,etc.)
(2)
WeeklS Texture(3)
Week26 Texture
(4)
Week2 7 Environment Set(1
)
Week28 EnvironmentSet
(2)
WeekiO
Lighting
&Texturing (
1)
Winter 2004
WeekU
Lighting
&Texturing (2)
Week32
Lighting
&Texturing (3)
Week33 CharacterAnimation
(
1)
- PartiWeek34 Character Animation
(2)
- PartiWeek35 Character Animation
(3)
- Part2Week36 Character Animation
(4)
- Part2Week37 Character Animation
(5)
- Part3Week38 Character Animation
(6)
- Part4Week39 Character Animation(7)- Part4
Week40 Character Animation
(8)
- Part4Sonne 2005
Week41 Render(1)
Week42 Render
(2)
Week43 Render
(3)
Week44 Particle
(1)
Week4S Particle
(2)
Week46 Composition&Edit
Week47 Music&Soundtracks
(1)
Week48 Music & Soundtracks
(2)
Week49 Rerender
WeekSO TransfertoTapes,DVDs
Thesis
Budget
by
chta-cht choDescription
Per UnitCost(S)
Amount Estimate
Expense
Actual
Expense
Research 300 300
Storyboard 1000 50
ArtSupplies 400 400
Paper 40 5reams 200 200
Layout 1000 100
Character
Design
70 3 210 20
3DCharacter
Modeling
500 3 1500 30
3D Character
Animation
6000 80
Texturing
500 3003D Background 2000 20
Sound Track 500 0
Composition 300 30
Software 9000 0
Digital Camera 550 1 550 550
DVDs 1 20 20 20
RemovableHD 250 1 250 250
Workstation 2500 1 2500 0
DVCam Tapes 10 4 40 40
Appendix B
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Chia-Chi Cho
Appendix
C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Produced
by
Chia-Chi ChoMusic
by
Digital JuiceSound Effects
by
Digital JuiceFaculty
Advisors:Skip
BattagliaDuane Palyka
Aharon Charnov