How to draw Chinese animation
Time: 22:01:26 on August 22, 2023 Source: Liu Yuanlong, reporter from China Culture Daily
“Chinese Strange Story” official poster
“New God List: Yang Jian” and Dunhuang Museum linkage poster
“Liao Zhai · Bamboo Green” animation project sketch map
In the long history of Chinese animation for more than 100 years, traditional art has left a strong and colorful pen in it. The extensive use of artistic elements such as ink wash and woodcut creates strong Chinese artistic characteristics and opens a channel for Chinese animation to explore national styles. Today, Chinese animation has a new look. With the support of new technologies, traditional fine arts have richer presentation methods, creating a new aesthetic realm. At the beginning of this year, the animation short film collection “China Strange Story” jointly produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Bilibili Video Network became popular on the Internet. The film received a super high score of 8.8 on Douban, and won the Magnolia Best Animated Script Award at the 28th Shanghai TV Festival held this year.
In “China Strange Story”, “The Summer of Little Monsters” that resonates with “beating workers”, “Goose, Goose, Goose” that leaves blank space to make people think, and “The Country Bus Takes the King and Gods Away” reflect the customs of the country, etc. 8 independent stories rooted in traditional Chinese culture, using traditional Chinese painting styles such as ink wash, paper-cut, shadow puppets, etc., bring the original Chinese aesthetics and imagination back to the public’s vision. This is not only the inheritance of the Chinese animation school, but also opens up a new path for the development of Chinese animation.
Chinese aesthetics are returning to the mainstream
“We hope to reflect Chinese-style elements with Chinese cultural characteristics.” Chen Liaoyu, the chief director of “China Strange Story” and an associate professor at the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy, said bluntly, “We have indeed inherited the old-timers of Shanghai Fine Film Studio. The spirit and method of creation. It is a great honor that we have done something to pay tribute to the century of Chinese animation and the predecessors of Shanghai Meiying Studio.”
From the 1950s to the 1980s, “The Proud General”, “Little Tadpoles Looking for Mother”, “Havoc in Heaven”, “Nezha Troubling the Sea”, “Book of Heaven”… These artistic works of Shanghai Animation Film Studio not only won Many awards at home and abroad have also been widely recognized by countries around the world, giving Chinese animation a place in the world. Therefore, in the minds of “post-70s” and “post-80s”, Shanghai Meiying Factory is synonymous with Chinese animation.
“The puppet, paper-cut, ink wash, and origami animations that were born in the 1950s and 1960s are the products of combining diverse traditional art forms into the Chinese animation language.” Jia Xiuqing, a professor at Communication University of China, said that Chinese animation used to be The unique style has attracted the attention and appreciation of animation lovers all over the world, and this animation form with Chinese characteristics is called “Chinese animation school”.
However, in the process of transitioning from a planned economy to a market economy, these animation expressions, which are full of the painstaking efforts of Chinese art workers and traditional artistic characteristics, have changed from the mainstream of domestic animation because of the conflict between the energy and time spent on production and the commercial prospects of the market. Disappeared in the crafting system.
“Our animation creation has changed from creation-oriented to market-oriented.” Huang Liang, a student of Chen Liaoyu and director who participated in the creation of animated films such as “Kung Fu Panda” and “Deep Sea”, said bluntly. In the eyes of investors, works with a style of style are the safest, which has become an important reason for the interruption of the development of national style animation.
At the end of last year, Huang Liang brought his animated feature film “Liaozhai · Bamboo Green” to Hishorts! Xiamen Short Film Week when he participated in the venture capital investment, he was questioned by the judges because of the hand-painted ink painting style. Many investors thought that the market for ink-wash style animation Acceptance is not high. However, after “China Strange Tan” became popular, many investors and platforms began to pay attention to ethnic-style animation works this year. Huang Liang said that some platform companies that only invested in the production of three-dimensional animation projects for children have also begun to pay attention to two-dimensional animation projects this year. “Actually, the audience is ‘led’. Before “The Return of the Great Sage”, many people thought that there was no way out for the Monkey King, but we also saw it in the end.” Huang Liang said.
Excessive pursuit of commerciality will easily lead to follow-up and plagiarism, and innovation will become out of reach. Only by being creative-oriented can we encourage works of different styles to flourish. “Every director has his own different aesthetic style.” Zhang Shengyan, vice president of Bilibili Video Network and chief producer of “Chinese Strange Tan”, said that in the production of “Chinese Strange Tan”, the age of the diversity directors was selected. Between the ages of 30 and 40, taking into account the accumulation of creative skills and experience. “They are all at the time when their creative desires are at their peak. We hope to respect the creative style of each director to the greatest extent and let them develop to their heart’s content.” Zhang Shengyan said.
Traditional Art Style Animation Goes Modern
In fact, over-emphasizing artistry while ignoring the commercial attributes of cultural products will naturally not last long. Some scholars have pointed out that the “Chinese animation school” relies too much on the excavation of ethnic and traditional styles, which to a certain extent restricts the originality of Chinese animation, and excessive reference to the techniques and paradigms of traditional Chinese painting and opera is also Tightly binding the animation with the original work virtually hurts the inherent movie attributes of the animation.
In Huang Liang’s view, animations with a strong Chinese aesthetic, such as “Little Tadpole Looking for Mother” and “Landscape Love”, are more inclined to art films, while works such as “Calabash Baby” and “Black Cat Sheriff” take into account both artistry and commerciality. However, due to the lack of business management and operation, it failed to form due commercial returns. “Using Chinese culture as the source of creativity, using Chinese elements as the form of expression, taking Chinese character as the spiritual connotation, and a national style that can reflect the present and reflect the reality is the path we will continue to explore in the future.” Huang Liang said.
“The banner of ‘exploring the road of national style’ has been handed over to our generation.” Li Zao, deputy general manager of Shanghai Film Co., Ltd., also said that the pioneers have created “strange, interesting and beautiful” Chinese art films, which will also be opened to the public. Innovative thinking and the spirit of unremitting exploration are passed on to the latecomers.
What is gratifying is that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the aesthetic style of Chinese animation has been re-established as the cultural practice of cultivating cultural self-confidence, inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture, and upholding the subjectivity of Chinese culture continues to expand. Since 2015, many works embodying the national art style have emerged, such as “Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage”, “Big Fish and Begonia”, “Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World”, “Deep Sea”. Jia Xiuqing said that Chinese animation in the new era and new pattern is showing strong industrial development and distinctive artistic originality.
In the animated film “New God List: Yang Jian” released last year, the most praised is the three-dimensional ink Tai Chi battle. This transition from a three-dimensional scene to a two-dimensional ink style presents an amazing national style. The director of the film, Zhao Ji, said that the team overturned more than 20 versions of the design starting from the concept drawing in May 2020. In order to achieve the detail accuracy that cannot be achieved by computer procedural textures, 20% procedural textures and 80% pure hand-painted superimposition methods were finally adopted, and more than 30 kinds of projection brushes were collected to complete the transformation of mountains, rocks and trees into two-dimensional textures. dimension effect.
Realizing traditional Chinese ink painting with the most advanced technology to form a unique style of this era is also the core concept of the animated feature film “Deep Sea” released in January this year. Tian Xiaopeng, the director of the film, said that the elegant and flexible Chinese ink painting is the best choice to present the shape of the sea. However, there is a natural contradiction between the absolutely realistic three-dimensional technology and the irregular flow of Chinese ink. How to make the picture look smooth and not stiff as much as possible? The team finally decided to show it in the form of “particles”. Billions of three-dimensional particles of different shapes and colors are used to accumulate the elegant feeling and fascinating colors of ink and wash. This technology also provides a reference for the next animation creation .
“The integration of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ does not need to be deliberately done.” Chen Liaoyu is quite confident in the exploration of national styles in the future, “We are modern people, and we will naturally be able to use the current concepts, angles, techniques, Use traditional elements in context.” In addition, he also emphasized that “don’t let the high mountains of the predecessors become the ‘burden’ of the present”, not only to absorb the successful experience of the predecessors, but also to define ourselves from today’s perspective The style, using today’s technology, explore and make new things as much as possible.
The cultivation of animation talents should inherit the spirit of traditional aesthetics
“The realization of China’s ‘animation power’ depends on the application of high-tech in the field of animation films.” According to Hou Guangming, a professor of Beijing Film Academy, in order to firmly promote the innovation and development of animation film technology, we must pay attention to the cultivation of animation technology talents .
Integrating the concept of inheriting culture into animation education and teaching is an important way to build a new Chinese animation school and reshape Chinese native animation. In this regard, Pan Lusheng, the dean of Shandong Institute of Arts and Crafts, once said bluntly: “For a period of time, many animation creators have downplayed the study of traditional art, and rarely see animation images that the public likes to see. This makes us have to reflect on our traditional culture. Lack of education.” Pan Lusheng said that for a long time, students majoring in animation in colleges and universities mostly pay attention to artistic expression and the application of technology, and the courses of traditional Chinese art have not received due attention. Judging from the course setting, there is a lack of real traditional image courses.
“Now we have too few opportunities to come into contact with traditional Chinese art. From elementary school to university, we have learned very little about Chinese classical art and art history. Too many students are familiar with the schools and artists in Western art history. But he doesn’t know anything about the evolution of Chinese painting art.” Huang Liang has taught at the Beijing Film Academy for many years, and in the long-term communication with students, he clearly realized that if it is compulsory learning, the effect is often not good.
In 2008, Huang Liang, who was still a sophomore in college, joined the director team of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games for animation design. During his work, he was fortunate to see a large number of internal reference books of traditional art, “These are internal books that are not sold to the outside world. Many patterns and images of Chinese classical art have never been seen before, which gave me great inspiration. Shocking.” Huang Liang took his own experience as an example, “As long as a door is opened for students, they will naturally explore. After all, creators and their own cultural background are constantly separated, so schools should provide more understanding And the opportunities and conditions for learning traditional Chinese art.”
Hu Rui, the director of the second episode of “China Strange Tan” “Goose Goose Goose” and a teacher at the School of Journalism and Media of Shandong Normal University, also feels the same way. A solid foundation has been laid. “When we were young, teachers didn’t need to make money for Daoliang. My teacher would make a cup of tea in a leisurely way and start telling us children about the style of Jinnong’s paintings and the style of Qiu Ying. There are many stories mixed in when I tell it.” Hu Rui said, “It is these stories that nourish me and make it difficult for me not to express Chinese paintings in my creation.”
Hu Rui’s experience just shows that on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the aesthetic education of the whole people, and on the other hand, it is necessary to pay more attention to the inheritance of traditional cultural spirit in the cultivation of animation talents. Ink wash, paper-cut, shadow puppets… These are all forms. For the development of China’s animation industry and the cultivation of animation talents, we should not stay at the level of “art” of Chinese excellent traditional culture. We must not only pursue “similarity” but also obtain its Spirit. Gu Qunye, a professor at Shandong Institute of Arts and Crafts, said frankly: “It is far from enough to grasp and understand the ‘Chinese style’ from the perspective of cultural context and cultural symbols. It is necessary to be down-to-earth and conduct in-depth research on visual elements such as shape and color and traditional Chinese aesthetic thinking.”
(The pictures are all provided by the interviewees)
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