How to do animation works? When students see the future trend of Chinese animation, they will think about the selection of their own animation collection style. It is not the so-called popular or popular is suitable, nor is it the high cost and large production can get the corresponding return. Today, the natural light will take you to know about the production of animation works. I hope that students can find inspiration for their own animation works, and win the heart of the admissions officer!
When we were just relieved for the rise of domestic animation because of several conscience productions such as "Nezha", the trailer of "Nezha vs Transformers" came out, like a basin of cold water, and poured the audience's warm blood aroused by the little ruffian Nezha again. This Sino US joint venture animated film has brought the pirated book brain holes on the roadside stalls in our generation's childhood memories onto the screen. Once we are sure of the sign of feeling, we will unite with the advanced technical team of the genuine American Transformers, and take the momentum of last year's animated film "Nezha" to create our own brand effect. It sounds like there is no big problem, but the audience does not seem to buy it, and the release of the trailer is also a lot of complaints.
Coincidentally, the trailer of the Sino French joint venture New Year animation Animal Secret Service has also been quietly launched these two days. Although it claims to have participated in the Annecy Goesto activity unit of Cannes Film Festival, compared with "The Transformers of Nezha", the latter at least has the heat of complaining, while the former even pays little attention.
From the publicity, we can see that Animal Secret Service is an animated film focusing on family fun. The highlight of the publicity lies in the excellent production technology, the delicacy of animal hair and the diversity of types. The sporadic comments on Douban can also be seen that this is just a modest young film, which is difficult to surprise the audience.
Douban netizen's film review of Animal Secret Service
These two films are both known as Sino foreign joint venture+high cost+top team, but the response is not satisfactory. On the other hand, several animations produced by independent domestic studios, Jiang Ziya and Mr. Miao, also released only trailers, but the audience's evaluation and expectations were very different from the Sino foreign joint venture animation mentioned above. And the so-called "gimmicks" or "feelings" of these two animations are almost zero.
Today, we are not trying to belittle a film or a certain style, but to analyze why the high cost, Sino foreign joint venture technology flow that should have been dominant would encounter such a failure by virtue of such a serious phenomenon of polarization between the two levels; And where is the way out for China's domestic animation to rise in the future?
How to do animation works?
Character setting
When we watch a film, one of the factors that most directly affect our perception of it must be the character setting of the film. Although these films are only trailers, they are enough for the audience to understand the general plot trend and the background stories of the characters.
Trailer of "Nezha Battle Transformers"
There is no problem with the integration of China and the West and cross-border creativity, but it really makes the audience accept that Nezha, who has his own weapons and magic skills, can become an autobot who uses machinery to carry out physical attacks.
Why did Mrs. Li give birth to a car after three years of pregnancy? Why are the talents and character settings in the Transformers universe grafted into the mythical characters in ancient China? These logical injuries have greatly affected the audience's first impression of the film.
In fact, the cross-border interaction between the two characters can take many forms. It does not necessarily require the characters of one side to be set to the other side, and the story can become more full-bodied and three-dimensional.
The characters in myths and legends are used as animation themes, which has long been a popular style of Chinese animation. However, when we review several excellent mythological adaptation animations in recent years, it seems that there is a common feature in character setting - minor changes without major changes.
Character Setting of "The Origin of White Snake"
In the same Sino US joint venture "The Origin of the White Snake", Bai Suzhen's image is slightly more vivid and flexible than the legend, but it is still a gentle beauty. In addition to the magic power of "water overflows the golden mountains", the weapon also has a jade hairpin surrounded by immortals, but it is also antique and suitable for human design. Xu Xian, the only person with a relatively large personality and life experience, was set as Xu Xian's previous life in order to avoid confusing the audience and promote the subsequent plot.
The same is true of "Nezha". Rebellion is just a reasonable artistic exaggeration under the premise of Nezha's original character of "cutting bones for his father, cutting meat for his mother". The two weapons of "Hun Tian Ling" and "Qian Kun Quan Quan" are arranged clearly, running through the film from beginning to end, and they dare not leave the film.
Therefore, the setting of mythical characters should be changed, but not greatly. How to grasp the delicate balance between traditional mythical stories and modern aesthetics, the major directors in the middle must spend much more time than they appear. Unfortunately, in the part of character setting, it is a foregone conclusion that Nezha, a hybrid of beautiful girl warrior style transformation combined with Autobot skills, will lose points.
What about Animal Secret Service? If the human setup of "Nezha War Transformers" was defeated by the radical, then the problem of "Animal Secret Service" is just the opposite. The problem lies in the mediocrity of the human setup.
Animal Secret Service Poster
The story is just like the title of the movie, which tells the story of a group of animal agents. The protagonist is a brave cat and a wretched mouse... The natural light has lost the desire to talk about it, because this person is really not attractive at all!
In order not to be biased, Natural Light went to the Internet to find the comments of the audience who had seen the film. This film should be similar to the "Crazy Animal City". It is also a city made up of animals. The animals in the city perform their own duties according to their characteristics. The flexible spiders in the hospital front desk and the wife of the rabbit father give birth to one rabbit after another..
However, we have to admit that all these settings or animal anthropomorphic play methods have been played to the extreme by Disney's "Crazy Animal City" four years ago. Even such a pair of friends who love and kiss each other is a clich é that can't be more vulgar. Although children and parents will still love to watch it, such a casual design, according to the current average level of domestic animation, cannot pass.
dramatized sequences
After talking about the shortcomings of character setting, let's take a look at the plot. According to the director of "Nezha vs Transformers", the story of this film is that the Transformers passed through Nezha's world, and Nezha helped Optimus Prime overcome evil and won his admiration.
From the story posters circulated on the Internet, we can also see that the division of the good and evil camps is very clear, and the color matching is also a rare unity and coordination. But is such a simple and direct story setting, which is black and white, really what the audience likes to see?
I believe the students know that the answer here is also negative. The monotonous plot of black or white can only attract children's interest, but the adult animation has become an inevitable trend as early as the 2010s. This is not to say that the plot of the armed struggle is not important, but for adult oriented animated films, the dramatic conflict between the plot and the role, and the deeper thinking of human nature have higher requirements.
Let's see the trailer of the Spring Festival film Jiang Ziya——
Ginger Teeth trailer
Here is the first reversal of the plot in the trailer, which was thrown directly at the beginning. When Daji was caught and the main character Jiang Ziya was about to be executed, the sleeping girl hiding in the fox tail threatened to "kill me, she will die". At this time, Jiang Ziya's enemy was Daji.
The second reversal occurred in the abandonment of the Kunlun where the protagonist was. At this time, Jiang Ziya became unbearable and fell into the negation and entanglement of himself. The little general in green said in chicken soup style, "If you can even release the fish, you can't let yourself go". Although it was only a second choice, it was just like the "My destiny depends on me" in Nezha, Make a sound in the situation. At this time, Jiang Ziya's enemy was himself.
Then the third reversal occurred after Master's order to Jiang Ziya to "kill the good". At this time, the drama conflict in the whole film reached a climax, and the opposite also expanded from a single individual to all the injustice in the world. The trailer has reversed many times from beginning to end, not to mention the difference between good and evil, and even the boundaries between the gods and demons have not been clearly defined. But this unexpected reversal of the plot, the protagonist's questioning of fate and spiritual upgrading made the audience feel enthusiastic after watching it.
The fierce fighting and war scenes are important, but they also need to be supported by full stories. The taste of the audience has become "tricky" year by year. It is difficult to attract the audience's attention and move the audience's heart again with the story story that does not wander.
Since the trailer of Jiang Ziya was released, the discussion about Daji and the fox girl has been hot all the time. What about "Nezha vs Transformers"? It seems that apart from complaining, it is difficult to see other topics.
In addition to dramatic conflicts, there is also an obvious plot trend of domestic animation, that is, on the basis of the aesthetic standards of scenes and people, the more pure and local, the more favored the audience.
From the annual domestic animation film transcript above, we can also see that, even excluding the super box office miracle "Nezha", there is only one animation in the top five that is not purely Chinese local elements.
When we analyze the reasons, we will find that science fiction and modern topics that are applicable in movies are not applicable to animation. On the contrary, when animation is rooted in China's local culture and has established a "heroic universe view" specifically belonging to China, it can cause more favorable comments. Just look at the high voice of the promotional video linking Nezha and The Return of the Great Sage, which can explain the problem.
If you think about the reason, the past animation market in China has long been monopolized by the two "animation overlords" of the United States and Japan. Whether it is science fiction hot blooded battle theme or cute and cute theme, it has been created to the extreme by Disney and Dreamworks, and the creation space left for Chinese local animation is also very small.
So for animation, it seems that Chinese local directors are more popular than those who want to imitate and surpass the traditional Chinese culture. This can also explain why the two Sino foreign joint venture animations "Nezha War Transformers" and "Animal Secret Service" suffered such a Waterloo. One of them is Chinese American mixed race, neither fish nor fowl; The other uses animal themes directly.
Animation Design Study Abroad sample reels
Sino foreign joint venture is an advantage, but it is by no means an excuse for the main creative team to design carelessly and not be distracted. Maybe students will think that "Nezha War Transformers" and "Animal Secret Service" have made great progress compared with the previous domestic animation. It is true that these two animations are not too hard hurt in the scene, technology and style, and both can be regarded as qualified commercial animation works. However, if Chinese animation wants to make a real change and make a new face to create a unique domestic advantage, it is not just "pass" enough. How to do animation works? If you want to know more about it, please come to Natural Light for free consultation.
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