Li Bai was drunk, splashing wine into water, and cranes appeared in the water.
Soaring on a giant crane with Gao Shi, Du Fu, Cenfuzi and Dan Qiusheng, "I’m going to drink, and the cup will not stop", which is extremely wild and romantic … … The animated film Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an, which is being shown, has aroused the audience’s resonance with the poetry of Chinese cultural genes. Up to now, the box office of the film has exceeded 1.7 billion yuan.
China’s animation shows a gratifying trend. In recent years, excellent animated films such as The Return of the Great Sage on the Journey to the West, The White Snake: The Origin, and Ne Zha’s Deep Sea have appeared one after another. Their creative vitality is surging and their box office reputation is good, which sends a clear signal that the animation market in China is booming and has great potential.
Rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese excellent traditional culture, domestic animation is taking a creative transformation and innovative development road with extraordinary imagination and steady steps, which shows China characteristics, China style and China style.
Chinoiserie
Exploring the road of national style and expressing Chinese cultural genes
[Lens] From the prosperous and inclusive Chang ‘an, to the south of the Yangtze River with flowing bridges, and then to the lonely desert of Saibei, it is concentrated in 48 Tang poems in 168 minutes. The audience in the cinema couldn’t help reading aloud, and comments such as "China culture is the greatest strength of the film" and "Poetry gene surging in the blood" were highly praised … … This is a vivid epitome of the surge of traditional culture in recent years.
Since the first advertising animation Shu Zhendong’s Chinese Typewriter was released in 1922, China animation has gone through a hundred years. In the ups and downs, the course remains the same, that is, along the background of Chinese excellent traditional culture, "exploring the road of national style."
Make a scene in heaven, tadpoles looking for their mothers … … Su Da, director of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, recalled, "Among the brilliant group images of China Animation School’s works, there is traditional culture — — Literature, drama, architecture and music have artistic forms with rich national style — — Ink painting, Dunhuang frescoes and New Year pictures have the spiritual connotation of the Chinese nation — — Kindness, tenacity, diligence, courage, etc. "
Throughout the animated films that have been released in recent years, "national style" and "national tide" are still the key words. Ne Zha endowed the traditional characters with new connotations and created an image of Nezha, who is "my life depends on me". Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an cultivated the feelings of home and country with poetry, and conveyed the cultural core of the Chinese nation such as self-improvement and tolerance. "Big Fish Begonia" beautifully shows the world cultural heritage of Fujian Tulou … …
"Traditional culture is a magnificent treasure house of China’s animation film creation. The core of China Animation School is nationalization, which is used to show our own literary and artistic image and create a set of expressions based on traditional culture to express Chinese cultural genes." Ma Hua, a professor at the Animation Institute of Beijing Film Academy, concluded this.
Creating animations with traditional cultural themes is both a leverage and a challenge. Well-known historical figures and stories lower the threshold for the audience to enter the cinema, but test the basic skills of the creators.
For this reason, the creative team of "Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an" has traveled a lot to collect ideas. "We walked into Shaanxi History Museum to study the layout of Chang ‘an, stood on the ancient wall of Tongguan and felt the tragic mood of Ge Shuhan, and wandered through Songpan ancient city to find the inspiration for designing Yunshan City and Lushuiguan & HELIP; …” Xie Junwei, director of "Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an", introduced that every shot went to the screen wall outside the county magistrate’s house, the wine-raising game played by the literati, and the poem board in the posthouse temple, referring to nearly 100 documents and many unearthed cultural relics. Annotation on the Chronology of Li Bai’s Complete Works and Annotation on Gao Shijia’s Collection are "reference books kept by the team at hand".
Some directors described animation as "dreaming in a wild way". Free and unrestrained artistic expression is combined with traditional cultural stories, and The Return of the Great Sage of Journey to the West, released in 2015, has become a phenomenal work of domestic animated films. The great potential of mythical themes has been discovered.
In recent years, the diversification trend of domestic animation themes is remarkable, and realistic animated films have great market potential. For example, the recently released Tea No.2 Middle School is an animated comedy with a campus theme, while the previously released Deep Sea focuses on the exploration of the inner world.
"The way generations accept knowledge is changing. After 95 s and 00 s, I am used to touching new things through video. I want to attract more people to contact and understand in the form of literature and art that young people like to see, and then love traditional culture more. " Yu Zhou, producer of Chang ‘an Three Wan Li and president of light-chasing animation, said, "Young people’s recognition of China culture makes us believe that the rise of domestic animated films is not only a slogan, but also the present and the future."
It is also what MCA hopes to broaden the animation creation space and give more animators the opportunity to create diverse works. "There are many dimensions to evaluate an animation work, which can be artistic level or commercial success, but more importantly, it meets the audience’s call and expectation." He hopes that the development of animated films will have more "spirit of doing experiments", keep an open theme, let young practitioners innovate more boldly and consciously, explore the boundaries in different directions, and let more good works be seen by everyone.
Sense of science and technology
With the improvement of personnel training, the bottleneck of animation film production capacity is constantly being broken.
[Lens] "10 years, 7.5 billion frames" — — On the day when Chang ‘an Three Wan Li was finalized, Wei Wang, the founder of light-chasing animation, sent such a Weibo. It is not surprising in the world of animation that the number of "100 million" is often on the order of magnitude. Take Penglai Wonderland, the splendid opening of "The New God List: Yang Jian", as an example. In just a few seconds, the number of single-lens models is 14 billion, the file size is 5TB (terabytes), and the total rendering time of the whole film is 410 million nuclear hours (CPU consumption, measured by nuclear multiplication hours), which requires thousands of servers to work continuously for 24 hours.
The multiplication of a string of numbers seems a bit "sci-fi", which is behind the inevitable logic of the development of science and technology hard core in the film industry.
"history of animation, to some extent, is the history of people’s exploration of light and shadow, and the history of the integration of technology and art." Ma Li, president of the Chinese Animation Society, said. As a blend of virtual and reality, with the new generation of network transmission, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, motion capture and other key technologies infiltrating into all levels and links of animation creation, production, communication and consumption, fully integrating with the imagination of creators and empowering each other, animated films bring viewers a higher level of audio-visual enjoyment.
Compared with the production cycle of a live-action movie for one or two years, an animated movie takes three to five years or even longer, and the project is more complicated. In Ne Zha, for example, special effects shots account for nearly 80%, and more than 60 teams and more than 1,600 producers all over the world have worked intensively for five years, which finally lifted the box office miracle of over 5 billion yuan.
In fact, complicated production is also a challenge for the whole process coordination, and this challenge needs to return to industrialization itself. According to insiders, the high degree of dispersion in production stage, uneven outsourcing quality and lack of uniform special effects standards once hampered the industrialization level of animation in China.
With the gradual maturity of industrialization process and the improvement of personnel training in all aspects, the bottleneck of animation film production capacity is constantly being broken. According to industry reports, in 2017, there were no more than 30 enterprises that could fully produce China animation. Today, there are nearly 1,000 upstream and downstream animation enterprises in China, of which 120 can produce high-quality animation. It is worth mentioning that industry observers pointed out that China’s position in the global animation industry chain has obviously improved, from the OEM position at the bottom of the industry "smile curve" to the two ends of the curve with higher yield, and the content production has gradually appeared the trend of "reverse outsourcing".
Huge groups are exploring in different ways, and they have gathered great synergy to improve the level of domestic animation.
Walking in the office building of light-chasing animation, you can see the orderly distribution and synchronous operation of the teams corresponding to each link. Pre-design, storyboard, 3D modeling, materials, binding, animation, role special effects, scene special effects, digital painting, lighting synthesis, post-editing, technology, production … … Assemble into a complete chain of animation creation.
"Almost 100% of the creation of an animated film can be born from this building." Yu Zhou introduced that among the more than 300 people in the team, producers account for about 90%. "We have established three series: new legends, new gods and new cultures. Since its inception, we have set up a creative process of rolling forward three works. The time consumption of each work is stable in three years, and one work is continuously iterated and cycled, driving an industrial system production line."
How to balance the pursuit of speed in industrialized production and quality in aesthetic expression? On the one hand, stable quality depends on the accumulation of "internal strength". "For example, the liquid and hair problems that were overcome in the production of Cat and Peach Blossom Garden can be directly applied to Shen Gongbao’s mount in The New God List: Yang Jian, and the technology is like ‘ Snowball ’ Accumulate the same. " Yu Zhou said that on the other hand, it is to optimize the process. "There is a working tradition of chasing light. After each film project is completed, all links will hold a project summary meeting to summarize the achievements and put forward the goals for future promotion and development. Every movie that chases light is based on the experience of the last one. "
Original and subversive innovation not only depends on the improvement of "tools", but also tests the determination of "people". Director Tian Xiaopeng spent seven years in Deep Sea, brewing an experiment on visual effect innovation: the original "particle ink painting" style, combining blank freehand brushwork ink painting with concrete realistic three-dimensional innovation, blending traditional colors of Chinese painting with western impressionist art, and creating a dreamy deep sea world.
"In the process of creation, in order to restore the elegance and graininess of ink painting, we mixed detergent, propylene, food coloring, milk, etc., and repeated it over and over again for more than 100 times." Tian Xiaopeng said that all technological innovations are for content service, and the "sea-splitting" lens in the film is dismantled. The single lens has more than 100 layers of particle special effects, and the number of particles is as high as several billion, which creates a subtle and extremely real scene texture.
How to find the unique 3D animation style of China? In Tian Xiaopeng’s mind, the combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional and the exploration of their boundaries may be one of the breakthroughs. "Two-dimensional animation is inherently subjective, but in terms of immersion, lens and light and shadow, three-dimensional animation is more mature, and China animation provides a unique possibility by organically combining their respective advantages." This idea germinated when making the title of The Return of the Great Sage on the Journey to the West, and accumulated more mature processes and methods in Deep Sea. "Innovation is the driving force behind my animation." Tian Xiaopeng said.
influence
Create more cultural IP carriers and let the story of China go to the international stage.
[Lens] Back in 1964, Shanghai Meiying Factory assembled the "strongest lineup" to create the first color animated feature film "Make a scene in Heaven". The film has been exported, distributed and screened to 44 countries and regions, and has participated in more than 10 international film festivals and won many awards, ranking first in the world in terms of aesthetic expression and technical level. After a lapse of nearly 60 years, Shanghai Meiying Factory led the creation and jointly produced the animated short film collection "China Qitan" with bilibili. The Chinese national spirit and oriental aesthetic style returned with the attitude of "new generation" to tell the world the story of China.
How can the splendid Chinese excellent traditional culture IP "go out" and further live and fire? "Don’t imitate others, don’t repeat yourself" is the consistent creative concept of Shanghai Meiying Factory, and it is also the key for domestic animation to go out.
"In the past, Hollywood, Disney and Pixar were the templates for our creation, but the market response was not satisfactory and the audience did not buy it." Ma Hua said that from imitation to partial originality and then to pure originality, it is the only way for China animation to grow, "‘ Copy ’ You can learn skills and experience, but the direction of the topic, the aesthetic system and the spiritual core conveyed by the story are all misplaced. "
In this regard, Tian Xiaopeng also has personal pain: "When I was doing The Return of the Great Sage on the Journey to the West, I was often asked a question, what is our own oriental performance?" After many years, the creator slowly found his own context. "The story, art and performance are all oriental, and the national style naturally flows in the blood of domestic animation."
Under the gaze of the world, exploring the road of national style has become the trend of China School, and the animation works bearing the genes of Chinese excellent traditional culture have once again attracted attention. Behind it, there are unique Chinese visual arts, constantly improving animation production technology, and ambitious faces like young Li Bai and Gao Shi.
With the "14th Five-Year Plan for China Film Development" clearly pointing out to support animated films that highlight the spirit of the Chinese nation and the oriental aesthetic style, the Chinese Writers Association has helped China to create original animation, and a series of measures have stimulated more and more creative vitality. The recently concluded China Animation Week attracted 71 social organizations and industry companies to participate, displaying more than 500 IP projects and reaching 83 cooperation intention projects on the spot; In the 19th China International Cartoon & Animation Festival held in June, 567 Chinese and foreign enterprises and institutions, 2,305 exhibitors, merchants and professionals from 67 countries and regions participated in the exhibition, and the intended signing amount reached 1.485 billion yuan, which played a positive role in promoting international exchange of animation and promoting domestic excellent animation to go abroad.
Opening a vast "chapter" of animation, people deeply witness the exploration and progress, trend and ambition of China’s animation.
Today’s animation is not only a literary style, but also a comprehensive tide play, game e-sports, digital entertainment, immersive experience theme park and peripheral products, which gives creators a broader space. The data shows that the total output value of animation industry in China has exceeded 220 billion yuan, and animation has become one of the mainstream content categories. Animation+tourism, animation+performing arts, animation+design, animation+games, animation+parenting education, etc., further stimulate the industrial potential of animation art.
"The vitality of Chinese culture not only depends on the work itself to carry forward and inherit, but also comes from the operation of IP." According to Suda, Shanghai Meiying Factory has continuously strengthened the management of copyright and trademarks in recent years, and registered more than 1,500 trademarks around 40 categories such as clothing, food and toys, building a new ecology of IP transformation.
Looking forward to the future, Ma Li believes that the two-way empowerment of new technologies, new applications and the operation of the whole industry chain will become an important way for China animation to develop by leaps and bounds. "Standing at a new historical starting point, the animation industry in China should strive to anchor the three goals of improving the originality of fine products, industrial competitiveness and international influence, show a new atmosphere in promoting the high-quality development of China animation, and provide a strong boost for enhancing the cultural confidence of the Chinese nation."
"Do China animation with ideals and quality, China animation with cohesion, and China animation that can be handed down from generation to generation." Ma Li’s appeal is also the voice of many animators. With fine works, we can create a long history and write a chapter of the era. Dapeng holds high and crosses the sky of China, bringing enough wind to stir and continue.
— — "As long as the poem is there and the book is there, Chang ‘an will be there."